When Karna was born, he carried
on his body his father Sun god’s blessings in the form of armour and a pair of
earrings. They protected him from harm. No arrow could break the armour and
pierce into his body. No sword or mace could do so either. Not just ordinary
arrows and weapons, the divine ones as well. He was safe. Everyone knew this. His
enemies knew it very well that he had to be dispossessed of his divine
protection if he had to be killed. But then this obviously could never be done
by force. It could be done only by his consent. But why would he consent to
lose his protection?
May be obtaining his consent was
beyond the ability of the mortals, but perhaps gods might succeed where mortal fail.
Arjuna must have thought so when he sought god Indra’s help. The king of gods was
his biological father – this he knew as did everyone else in the celebrated
narrative. Thus when he was leaving the abode of the gods to return to the
mortal world to join his brothers and Draupadi, who were serving their term of
exile in the forest, Indra wanted him to ask him for a boon. All he wanted as
boon, said Arjuna, was for Karna to be dispossessed of his divine protection.
While Arjuna knew that this was necessary for Karna to be killed, he also knew,
as did everyone else in Sarala
Mahabharata, namely that he, not Yudhisthira, was his eldest brother. But
what meaning can relationships have for those who seek victory and glory?
Soon after Arjuna’s return, one
day Krishna visited them all. Arjuna told Krishna about his time in gods’ loka, about Urvashi’s curse and her
assurance that at the right time it would prove to be a blessing for him and then
about what he had sought from Indra. Who all were there at that time, asked
Krishna. All the gods were there, he told him; it was in an assembly of gods
where it happened. He had committed a grave error, the avatara said; god Surya,
who was present there, would surely inform his son about what had transpired
between Indra and him and ask him never to part with his divine protection.
Therefore the boon of the king of gods would not come about.
Yudhisthira did not think so.
Karna was a virtuous person, a great dani
(a giver of ritual gifts) and would not disappoint any supplicant, no matter
what he asked as dana (ritual gift). Krishna
said he would like to test him. He would ask for his son’s life as dana, and if Karna gave him the dana, then he would feel certain that he
would not deny Indra his armour and earrings.
In the form of a brahmin he went
to Karna. The dana time was over and
Karna was left with nothing. With utmost reverence he appealed to him to stay
with him for that day. On the following morning he would get many mounds of
gold from goddess Earth and then he would be in a position to offer him a dana. Kanheia Panda, as the brahmin introduced
himself to his royal host, agreed. Karna made arrangements for his food. He
knew that his guest, being a brahmin, would not eat the food cooked by him, a
non-brahmin. He gave him rice, vegetables, fruit, etc., but the guest said that
he had no need for vegetarian food and wanted meat. Aghast, Karna asked him
where he came from and what was his lineage. He had never heard of meat-eating brahmins,
he told him. Kahneia Panda said that he
belonged to a community of brahmins who consumed meat. Karna asked his son, Bishwakasena,
to hunt a deer in the nearby forest. That he did but the guest was not pleased.
He wanted human meat. Karna was shocked. How could he kill a human for food,
Karna asked him. This would be a grievous sin, he told his guest. The guest
said he was aware of that, so he wouldn’t ask him to kill just anyone. He
wanted him to kill his son Bishwakasena and offer him his meat. Karna was dumbfounded.
He decided that he was not going to satisfy his guest. He could rather live
with his curse. His guest did not say anything and was leaving. Bishwakasena
prostrated himself at his feet and clutching his feet in tearful eyes appealed
to him not to leave. As the brahmin consented to stay for the meal, he went to
his father and pleaded with him not to break his promise and deviate from
dharma. Moha (attachment) must not
come in the way of dharma, he told his father. As the father was killing his
dear son, the Witness was telling Himself that for Karna, Vaikuntha was the
only fit place.
The father chopped the meat for
the brahmin’s meal, but the brahmin would not take the trouble of cooking his
food. His community had no compunctions about eating cooked food from
non-brahmins, he told Karna. His wife should cook the meat for him, he said.
Karna was wondering what a terribly cruel person his guest was. But his dharma
would not allow him to utter a word to express the agony he was going through.
So the mother cooked her dear
son’s meat. When the dishes arrived and Karna invited his guest to have his
meal, the guest said that he would not eat alone. His wife and he must join him
– how could he be sure that they hadn’t poisoned his food? With tears flowing
down her cheeks, his wife sat down to eat, as her husband did. But the guest would
not accept the food. Not you, but your wife had cheated, he told Karna. She
didn’t cook the whole body. She didn’t cook the head, the best part of the
body. She had hidden it. Now Kanhei Panda wanted her to cook the head but he
demanded that they break it and grind it in his presence. He would not trust
them to do it out of his sight. So the parents ground the head and prepared
dishes out of it.
Now the guest was prepared to
eat. Queen Suktatamaschala, Karna’s wife, was wondering whether their guest was
really that demonic or was some divine in disguise who had come to test them.
She had heard about how in another yuga
(aeon) Narayana had come as a dwarf to king Bali for dana. She told her husband to remain calm.
The guest laid four leaves on the
floor. Who was the fourth leave for, asked Karna. It is for Bishwakasena, said
the brahmin. How could I eat without him, asked the guest. Thoroughly nonplussed,
Karna
asked him how he could join them when they were going to eat his meat. Why was
he pretending ignorance, he asked his guest. But the brahmin would not have
food without Bishwakasena. He asked Karna’s wife to go out and call her son. When
she did, her son came running to her. He was playing with his friends, he told
her, and when he heard her calling out his name, he left his play and came
rushing to her.
As the mother and the son
entered, Karna could not believe his eyes. Bishwakasena’s meat was in front of
him and so was Bishwakasena. What was real and what was illusion? He fell at
the brahmin’s feet. Who was you, he asked him. The illusion disappeared and the
truth was manifest; the brahmin had disappeared and in his place was Narayana
Himself. Karna was overwhelmed and prayed to Him. I do not know in which birth
I had served you, told Karna to the Supreme god, but in this birth I have done
nothing for you. Why then did you give me so much pain, he asked Him. I go for dana to the virtuous among the virtuous
alone, said Narayana. And this child of yours is mine from now, Narayana told
Karna as He left.
Surely many must have heard about
this dana of danas, but no one talked about it. Only Duryodhana did. Sitting by
the dead body of Karna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, he was weeping for his
friend and he was recounting his numerous heroic and virtuous deeds. He
recounted how his virtuous friend had pleased Krishna – you could never please
Narayana with dana or bhakti, no matter how much, Sakuni had
warned him once - with his dana and
how Krishna had brought his son back to life and had called him the greatest of
danis (the givers of dana).
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