Karna, the Fallen Great

The Master had just finished reading the Karna Parva (the book of Karna}. The story always carried a touch of sadness at the fall of a hero, an apparent inglorious death, in ways not befitting a hero. After all he was the eldest Pandava, who knew not his identity until the beginning of the war. He was trained by no less a warrior than Parashuram and, most of all, he was guarded by none other than the Sun-God whose child he was. Generous to a default, Karna’s only fault seems to have been standing by Duryodhana’s side and, thereby, helping the forces of adharma. But was it not in deference to his friendship and his promise to always be by the side of his friend Duryodhana? So, what was the reason for this strange fate that had punished virtue with a life of such ignominy? Though Bhisma too met an inglorious death and one that entailed great suffering, both physical and psychological, yet his fall was justified as if there ever was one person who could have stopped this war it was Bhisma. Instead, he chose to stand by his promise given to the throne of Hastinapur even if the dynasty was involved in adharma. The result was a bed of arrows at the hands of his most loved grandchild, who was aided by Shikhandi, the transwoman warrior. But Karna was simply following the law of friendship. Why should he have met such a death? The modern question was swirling in the heads of the disciples. For the men in the ancient times it was evident that the fate of a man standing by the side of adharma was a long-foregone conclusion. Even if he won for the moment as Shakuni and his scheming nephews did, eventually it was Truth that had the last stroke, satyameva jayate nanrtam, it is truth that wins and not falsehood. And Karna was surely standing on the wrong side of history. He stood with his shining armour to defend the indefensible and paid the price with his death. For the ancient mind this was clear. But the disciples were modern minded and demanded equal rights for everybody. They felt that destiny and God were unfair towards Karna.

The Master had seen this question brewing up in their mind. As was his way to address things often from examples of nature he pointed his fingers towards a storm that was brewing up in the far end of the sky.

“Look, how the storm is covering the sky and dimming the sun.”

The disciples nodded at the very evident phenomenon which they had often witnessed during this part of the year. But herein lay the difference between them and the Master. The Master saw in it a lesson of life that the wisdom hidden within Nature tries to reveal to us. But the average person saw only a natural phenomenon that can be explained by the laws of physics.

“Do you see how the sandstorm overpowers the mighty sun, even if temporarily? Of course, the sun remains untouched by it but its rays are unable to reach the earth in their fullness.”

The disciples had begun to notice the drift.

“So too”, the Master continued, “even the strong and the wise may be clouded by the storms of passion and ambition, lust and greed which may take block their intelligence and prevent it from making the right choice.”

The disciples were all ears. The Master continued, “This is what happened to Karna. Though high of birth and mighty in deeds, his stainless soul was clouded by his strong ambition to prove himself to the world that he is the greatest by defeating Arjuna. The chariot of his life began to be driven by ambition and had to meet its nemesis one day. He swerved away from Dharma as invariably ambition leads one away from the straight path of the soul. The result was that his journey ended abruptly, crashed as it were in the quagmire of ambition. Arjuna’s last blow, the fatal arrow only completed the work, hastening him back to his beautiful soul, in a way putting him on the right track preventing him from bearing the burden of adharma even more. In fact, Bhisma stopping him from the battle, Sri Krishna’s offer to him to switch over to the Pandava side was not only a ploy to ensure the safety of Arjuna who was an instrument of God in the battlefield of Kurukshetra, but also to prevent Karna from bearing the tremendous burden of defending the champions of evil and thereby himself becoming a party to it.”

Then pausing for a moment in deep reflection, the Master added, “Karna was saved by his own death. He was destined to die because of his choice. Yet had he died normally it would have been a miserable death, a humiliating defeat. He had to die because he was standing between the Lord’s Will and haughty, ambition-driven, lust-laden Kuru clan typified in the likes of Duryodhana. By dying the way he did, at least his name was saved. It was an act of Compassion of Vasudeva, the indwelling Universal Divine, the lover of all mankind and the friend of all creatures.”

“But still wasn’t his choice based on his feeling of gratitude towards his friend Duryodhana?” asked one.

The Master gently smiled and looking towards the sky where the storm had begun to clear up, he asked the disciple if he really thought so? The disciple stood perplexed as the Master answered.

“Would it not have been a better expression of gratitude if he abstained from the unjust war and thereby, possibly prevented it? Should he have not counseled his friend that this war would not only do no good for him but bring ignominy and gloom? He did not, even though being the child of the sun-god he well understood which side stands for the truth and the right. He did not because he saw in the war his one chance of proving himself in a mortal combat with Arjuna that he is the greatest between the two. If he was feeling gratitude for having been given a kingdom by Duryodhana to satisfy his ambition, an even better choice would have been to return back the kingdom and unburden himself rather than take his side in an unjust war. Have you not heard the story of Esau and Jacob wherein Esau loses his birthright bartering it for a pot of porridge to appease his hunger? It is just the same story wherein one loses one’s soul, the birthright, for the sake of satisfying one’s ambition by joining the forces of evil.”

“But was not life unfair to him, his being cast away by his mother at the very moment of his birth?” One in the group observed in a half-hearted voice knowing that this had little to do with Karna’s eventual fate.

“Yes indeed, if you look at life from a human perspective of fair dealings, life was surely unfair to Karna. But was it not unfair to the Pandava brothers even more? And what did the prince Duryodhana do with whom life was more than fair? So you see, the game of life is not fair and unfair but about the challenges through which we grow by making our choices. The greater the possibility, the more challenging is the dice. The greater grow wiser and stronger by the stroke. The weak succumb to their desires and choose unwisely. That in short sums up the story of Karna.”
The Master paused and the storm had begun to calm and the sun was shown more clearly in the eastern sky. The rays had begun to dance again upon earth and one looking at the rays imagined Karna’s soul uplifted towards the sun through his death shedding his burdened cloak upon earth.

Alok Pandey