EK CUP CHAI

I wanted to write about Lord Sri Krishna. Especially about the complaint people have against him for having asked Arjuna to kill Karna!

Karna fights valiantly against Arjuna, who is guided by Krishna. But when his Chariot wheel is stuck in the earth, he points war rules to Arjuna and asks him to wait for a minute so that he may pull his chariot out.

But Krishna doesn’t really care about it and asks Karna how suddenly he talks of rules when he had flayed them all his life. (more details here)

And then Arjuna rains arrows on Karna, finally killing him!

So for quite a few people – Krishna (a metaphor for God) broke some rules! But if Krishna is seen as God, then Arjuna is the true follower of God and Karna…what does Karna stand for?

Karna, is a bastard(no offense meant) son of Sun and Kunti (also mother of Arjuna)! He is set afloat in river by his mother as a baby, and later is brought up as a son of a charioteer! After various difficulties to learn the art of war, Karna has to bear the curses of a few Godly people.

But, Karna grows into an able warrior and an eternal giver, who would fulfil everyone’s wishes at any cost! Duryodhana, the enemy of the Pandavas, sees Karna as capable of fighting the Pandavas and makes him his friend. Never having seen such a great favor by anyone, Karna pledges his eternal support to Duryodhana, no matter what he does!

And just when Karna was about fight the Pandavas, his original mom, Kunti tells him who his actual mother is and begs him not to kill pandavas! But Karna, tells her that he is his friend’s friend for eternity, and yet promises to kill only Arjuna (the third of Pandavas) and not the remaining Pandavas!

When at war, Karna has the chance to kill the other four Pandavas, he lets them go, even though he feels guilty of not keeping his promise of support to his friend!

Krishna (the God!) understand Karna’s problems. And that is what exactly he points out to Karna, before asking Arjuna to kill him. Karna’s character in the great Mahabharata stands as a metaphor for the Great Conflict inside a man.

Conflict causes guilt, guilt kills talent and causes more conflict. This eternal vicious circle if not controlled results in the death of your own people! And that is what Mahabharata says!

Even Arjuna is conflicted before the war. But then when in conflict (either by his innocence or arrogance) he simply denies any sort of action! Karna doesn’t stop his actions, and so dies!
I’m not sure if this is the real intention of the great Vyaasa or Krishna (if he really existed), but I know that conflicted action kills! And the fact that many people sympathize with Karna, and oppose Krishna (God!) shows how much we enjoy our conflicts and how much we don’t want to resolve them!

Someday, I hope, Krishna gives us the power to end our conficts!