When I hear the Mahabharata, I identify much more with Karna than Arjuna. What should I do?

Transcript

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Thank you Hare Krishna Question I identify with Karna much more than with Arjuna or other characters in Mahabharata although I know that Karna sided on the side of Adharma still I feel that Arjuna was brilliant always immensely gifted whereas Karna had to struggle through so many difficulties so that’s why I feel I can identify much more with Karna than with Arjuna what should I do Answer depending on our past experiences background, nature circumstances we may identify with different characters in the epics that is something which will just happen naturally and we don’t have to suppress that but we also have to understand that our default identification may not always be the best guide for determining the right course of action so we may identify with Karna’s circumstances but if we think deeply we will not so readily identify with his choices so when we study the scriptures we have to look at both what circumstances the person was in and what choices that person made so if we identify with Karna’s circumstances and based on them we recognize what are the potential wrong choices that we may make and then we make the correct choices accordingly that kind of identification with Karna is not wrong and to some extent it is easy to sympathize with Karna because he was in the Mahabharata discriminated against and he had to face adverse destiny on many occasions but then if we look at it even the Pandavas had to suffer adverse destiny so if we have some tendency to identify with the underdog and actually for most of the Mahabharata it is the Pandavas who are the underdogs although they have Krishna with him and that’s because they are always the favorites but if we look at the story from the point of view of material strength if we look at it from a devotional strength then we would not be able to identify with somebody who chooses to oppose Krishna and even reject Krishna’s offer outright and that’s what Karna did but even from the material point of view the Pandavas the Kauravas had such formidable warriors on their side so it is easy to identify with the Pandavas including Arjuna also so we can look at Arjuna’s ability to be dedicated to a cause we can look at not just his expertise in terms of his dazzling archery but also his diligence, his virtue in making in sticking to his duty to Yudhishthira although he knew that he was much more talented than Yudhishthira as far as archery was concerned and although he knew that even from the point of view of devotion his devotion was more dear to Krishna than Yudhishthira although of course Krishna respected Yudhishthira so whichever way we look at it we can always find the good in the characters that we study so it’s not that when we study the Mahabharata we have to dislike Karna entirely, first of all we cannot just artificially like or dislike someone likes and dislikes will to some extent emerge according to our nature but then Krishna also tells in the Bhagavad Gita that Indriya-singhya-sarthe raag-dvesha-vyavasthitau tayor-navasyamagacchetau yasyat-paripantinam he says in the senses and objects there are natural attachments and aversions which are there but don’t come under their control so feeling the like or dislike is one thing but acting on that like or dislike is something else and that action should be done based not just on our feelings but also on our intelligence so we study scripture, understand scripture and then we make decisions so even if we identify with Karna in terms of his circumstances but if we can avoid the wrong choices that he made then we will also learn from the Mahabharata and that is not something which we should fear thank you