Why did Krishna not inform Karna initially that he was Kunti’s son?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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Why did Krishna not tell Karna in the beginning itself that he is the son of Kunti? Answer, Krishna in general when he performs Leela in this world, he does not constantly reveal his God. That means what makes Krishna Leela special is that there is Krishna who sometimes acts like an ordinary person and sometimes acts like an extraordinary person.
So, same Krishna is running in fear of mother Eshoda and same Krishna when mother Eshoda ties him, his waist seems to become so big that no amount of ropes can tie him. So, Krishna sometimes exhibits his omnipotence, his position, his Godhood and sometimes conceals that Godhood and this is done primarily for the purpose of further advancing the pastime. So, now in the case of Karna, we see that Karna, the first appearance of Karna in the Mahabharata after Kunti has a child and Kunti puts the child in the water, in a boat like carrier and then he directly appears in the martial exhibition and there Duryodhana expertly seizes that opportunity and by giving him the kingdom, actually Duryodhana, it appears he is very kind in giving the kingdom.
But actually if you look at the history, the kingdom of Anga which Duryodhana gave, was it real Duryodhana’s to give? Because Pandu had inherited, so Pandu’s sons would have inherited. So, whether it belonged to him to give also that was an issue. But the Pandavas did not object over there because it’s a member of their family, it’s all one family together.
So, it would be a disgrace if some charity is given and then taken back. So, the point is that that time itself, Karna committed himself to Duryodhana. Duryodhana helped him in the time of need and Karna said, what can I do for you in return? And Duryodhana said, I don’t want anything except your friendship.
That you will have throughout my life. So, now before this, Karna was basically, basically he was learning martial skills and he went to different teachers. So, see from this point itself, Karna committed himself to Duryodhana.
So, if Krishna anytime before the war, anytime I had told him, it is unlikely that Karna would have changed his mind. Because in fact if you see, at this point Karna does not, Karna there are two forces within him. One is his faithfulness to Duryodhana, which he makes the defining director of his life.
I have to be faithful to Duryodhana no matter what happens. And the other is his own conscience. So, it is just because of the desire to please Duryodhana that he says that in the gambling match, he says, bring Durapati and disrobe her now.
And later he tells Krishna, he tells Bhishma also that I regret those words that I spoke. So, I spoke them simply in the passion of the moment. I spoke them to please Duryodhana.
So, the thing is, there are two forces within him. One is his own conscience and the other is his misdirected loyalty. His loyalty to please Duryodhana.
Now, if we see, initially even if Krishna had, if we see the reasoning that Krishna gives or that Karna gives for not accepting Krishna’s proposal, Krishna tells him that you are a Pandava. Come on the side of Pandavas and you can be the king. So, he says, no, Duryodhana has helped me in the time of need.
Duryodhana has committed to this war based on his confidence in my abilities. I cannot let him down now. And further he says that my whole life is here.
So, the point is, at this time at least, we see these two forces, his conscience and his loyalty to Duryodhana. Now, by this point, he himself admits that Duryodhana is evil. He has seen it and he says Duryodhana is adharmic.
And in fact, just during that meeting, Karna says that I saw a dream recently and I saw that Yudhishthira was in a chariot drawn by horses dressed in white and he was rising upwards. And Duryodhana was in a chariot, was in a carriage drawn by donkeys and he was dressed in black and he was going downwards. So, this basically indicates auspiciousness for Yudhishthira and inauspiciousness for Duryodhana.
So, he himself says in that conversation that I know that the dice we threw at the Pandavas, the Shakuni threw towards the Pandavas, they are going to come back to us as the arrows of Arjuna’s Gandiva and everybody will be killed. So, he loses. See, at this point, he has abundant reason to abandon Duryodhana.
First of all, he has seen Duryodhana’s evil nature, he has seen his particular prophecy, particular prophetic dream and he has already seen that how in the association of Duryodhana, he himself does bad things. Now, even at that time, he did not accept Krishna’s proposal. So, now before that, would he have accepted? It’s extremely unlikely because if you see Karna’s character, it goes down.
Initially, when they are plotting to send the Pandavas to Varanavarth and trying to get them burnt. So, Karna says why do you do all these things? We will just fight them and we will. So, there we see he is repeatedly opposes these sort of things but eventually, he starts going along with them.
So, he can see both Duryodhana’s evil nature and his own decline in character happening by Duryodhana’s association. See, at that time, his conscience wasn’t awakened and why would it have awakened earlier? So, from that point of view, Krishna’s telling earlier would not have helped much. Some people say Krishna told at this particular time just to… why did Krishna have to tell at any time at all? So, he could just have not told it, told it all.
So, the point there was Krishna now, he had come for a peace mission and that peace mission had failed. Duryodhana had been adamant and now, if war cannot be avoided, the next best thing to do is minimize the casualties. Try to fight the war in such a way that least number of people are killed.
So, now if we see among the Kaurava side, the elder generals, Bhishma, Drona, Kripa, Shalya, none of them had any animosity towards the Pandavas. So, they were not going to fight out of anger or hatred or revenge. So, the bitterness in the war had come primarily from the Kauravas, Duryodhana and his brothers.
So, Krishna felt that if Karna, on whom Duryodhana depended a lot, if Karna could be made to give up Duryodhana’s side, then the bitterness in the war would decrease and then the bloodshed could decrease by that. So, Krishna’s attempt was… at that time he told because all the efforts to avoid war had failed. So, then if we can’t avoid war, then minimize the bloodshed.
So, minimize the bitterness that will increase the bloodshed in the war. That’s why he told at that time. So, Krishna, if you see in the Ramayana, in the Mahabharata, the whole point is that if Krishna is God, how could his peace mission have failed? How could he not convince Duryodhana? The point is that the whole Mahabharata depicts a God who respects human freedom.
So, in one sense, I’m going to give a class now and elsewhere that when God fails, they say God can never fail, but actually when Krishna went to a Shanti booth, he failed. How can God fail? That God’s failure represents his respect for the living entity’s free will. So, just as he respects Duryodhana’s free will and tries to persuade him, tries very hard to persuade him, but when he doesn’t listen, he leaves it at that.
Similarly, Karna also he tries to be resourceful, intelligent, but one among the many warriors and sometimes he manifests his omnipotence and even by manifesting his omnipotence, he may perform some pastimes, but he does not change people’s will by that. People have to change their own will if they want to. If they don’t want to, then they will not.
Duryodhana saw Vishwadeshwaroopa and still his desire did not change. Whereas Krishna is doing some magic. So, that Krishna’s godhood is there, that is not really relevant.
That we could say what is relevant is Krishna knew that Karna is son of Kunti, why did he not tell? So, then he did not tell because that would not have made any change in Karna earlier. Just before the war, there was maximum likelihood that Karna could change because he had seen Duryodhana’s evil nature and he could also see his own impending destruction and at that time, if Karna would change, then Vraja could have decreased. That’s what Krishna told at that