There is no other religious text that I have read about more than Mahabharata. In my view, it is an indelible spiritual gift from India to the world. I still vividly remember the profound book, “The Essence of Bhagavad Gita“, written by Swami Kriyananda, which I bought and read in the year 2008. Beyond just making an earnest effort to comprehend the intricacies of this “longest epic poem in the world” encompassing life’s infinite depth in the written textual form, I have watched adaptations of Mahabharata in its visual form as well. From watching B.R Chopra’s masterpiece umpteen number of times, to watching the captivating episodes on this subject as depicted in “Bharat Ek Khoj”, I have had the opportunity to approach this eternal work on human life and behavior as a sincere student.
As with any other subject or aspect in life, if one continually inquires about it, he starts to formulate an opinion about it. So is my case with Mahabharata. I have always been intrigued by its characters and how they relate to us in the contemporary times. Of all the characters in this intense and soul touching literary work , one that has ignited my thoughts the most is the mystical yet dramatic character of Karna. Here are some of my perspectives:
The greatest “Warrior” of his time: Around the final stages of the eighteen day war, when Duryodhana, exhausted and in sorrow, entered the “Dwaipayana Lake”, Yudhishthira ridicules him and challenges him to come out of the lake and face his fate. At the very moment, Krishna discourses with the Pandavas that had Indra not taken Karna’s impenetrable armor and his earrings (in my view , this was an act of deceit), his death was impossible. Legend says that no weapon could pierce Karna’s armor (Kavacha) and even a “Divyastra” would bow to it and return back. It is also believed that his earring’s (Kundalas) made him invincible.
Now it is generally argued that Arjuna was the greatest archer of his time. I find a lot of merit in the argument that Arjuna was indeed the man of focus and among the greatest warriors in Mahabharata. But was he better than Karna? I doubt. People sometimes cite “Virata war” where Arjuna injured Karna from the arrows of his divine “Gandiva” bow. However, it is a fact that Karna (and it is believed that at the time of this conflict, he did not had his celestial “Vijaya” bow given to him by his guru, Parshurama)also pierced the chest of Arjuna with his thirteen arrows.
The last argument to build my first point of view is the conversation between Krishna and Arjuna just before the beginning of the war. When Krishna returns to Pandavas camp after deciding the “rules of engagement” and Arjuna asks him what took him so long, Krishna answers that he met with the people he likes and that included Karna. Arjuna, on hearing this, bursts in anger (and aguish) and asks back “why did you had to go to that son of a charioteer?”. Hearing this, Krishna silences Arjuna by pointing out that Karna is the only warrior who has an arrow in his quiver which makes him worried for Arjuna’s safety.
Based on this, I opine that even the “Lord” himself knew that even Arjuna could not defeat Karna, especially in a fair one to one duel. No wonder, both Krishna and Kunti made several attempts to “buy” out this first Pandavas and to break up with Duryodhana.
An eternal optimist: There is a famous incident from the war when Shalya becomes the charioteer of Karna. He constantly aims to peel off courage from Karna mindset like someone slowly and effectively peels off the skin of an onion. Whether it be Bhishma Pitamah, Guru Dronacharya, Parshuram, Draupadi or the Pandavas, there is not even a single “great soul” who does not flings insults on Karna and attempts to bring down his morale. Even after all these slights and multiple curses on him, he never looses faith in his ability and skill. In the entire treatise of Mahabharata, if there is one personality that does not knows the meaning of dejection and pessimism, even though being target of incessant affronts, it is Karna.
Moral grounding: Last year, I wrote an article titled “How righteous was karna“. In that article I argued that when it comes to morality and depravity, Karna was as righteous and as villainous as the Pandavas. If he hurled insults on Draupadi during the game of dice, she was also the one who rejected Karna during the “swayamvar” (Bride- choosing ceremony) just on the basis that he was not a “Kshatriya” (of warrior class). Is it not tantamount to practicing inequality and discrimination? Well, it may be argued that it was Krishna himself who signaled Draupadi to reject Karna, but there are other cases where arrogance of Draupadi have been documented in the epic. And what about Yudhishthira who gambled away his wife? Yes, the Pandavas did pay the price for that, but so did Karna for his acts of vices.
My stance here is that Karna was as moral and as immoral as any other character in the scripture. Even during the war, besides Bhishma Pitamah, there was no other chief military commander whose conduct was as ethical as Karna. His pulling back his arrow to his quiver (which could have otherwise killed Arjuna) after the sunset is another example in this context.
There is a famous saying from Rishi Vyasa about Karna when he meets him during Rajasuya Yagna of King Yudhishthira. The prime sage adorns Karna with respect by saying that there is no one in all the three “lokas” (world’s) who does not knows this great warrior.
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