Learnings from Mahabharath - 3 : Karna

Jai Guru Deva,

Today I am going to write about another great warrior of this spectacular epic:Karna. Being the eldest son of kunti he has every right to feel that he had been wronged but that is no reason for his hatred towards Arjuna. Because of this, hatred becomes the soul of Karna's character and probably because of that reason he always faces troubles and became synonymous with trouble. He identifies himself as the slave of Duryodhan and repeatedly argues that he is indebted to Duryodhan. However, he is not indebted to Duryodhan but to the throne of Hastinapur. Grandsire Bhishma and Guru Drona realized this but Karna could not realize this and in a false sense of indebted supported Duryodhan in all the conspiracies hatched against the pandavas.


At the starting of the war when Krishna asks Karna to fight from Pandava's side as Grandsire Bhishma didnt approve him into his army, Karna blatantly rejects the proposal saying he cannot do anything against the interests of Duryodhan. This blind commitment is what caused Karna to miss the glory which perhaps he deserved. Not only this, at every stage of his life Karna exhibits human qualities that are virtues of a weaker personality. He lies to Guru Parasurama about this caste and birth, he declares that his only ambition of life is to kill Arjuna and to top everything, he calls Draupadi as a "whore". Because of all these things he loses the eligibility to be on the winning side of the great battle. 

The biggest lesson i would learn from Karna is the importance of getting rid of hatred. There is no bigger weapon to destroy a person than the seed of hatred in his heart. Irrespective of the recipient of hatred it only brings to destruction to the self and sometimes to many people surrounding. This is precisely the reason why I give so much importance to my spiritual practices. I appreciate the fact that nobody on this good earth guaranteed me a fair treatment but by virtue of being a human I am also prone to instincts like hatred and anger. So my spiritual practices are the only way to cleanse all these negative emotions. I am not a hypocrite and I understand the genesis of a particular thought process in my mind. More often than not, it helps to understand whether I am thinking constructively or not. One of the things I always pray the Almighty is to ensure that I am always in a constructive thought process.

As far as the serial is concerned, Pankaj Dheer did the role of Karna and he played it to perfection. He is one of the most fascinating characters in this story and when talks about the life of a warrior he is a treat to watch. More importantly the conversations between Karna and Shakuni depicts the difference between the politics and the warrior class. 

Sarvejana Sukhinobhavantu,
-Karthik

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