In the previous episode, we had witnessed a very important and a strange strategy adopted by Bhagawan Krishna and Guru Dhronachaarya, as the war extends into the night of the fourteenth day at Kurukshetra. As Guru Dhronachaarya strategies the war to proceed even at night without a break, Bhagawan Krishna decides to send Ghatodgaja to fight the Kaurava camp. Of course, the outward strategy would appear as if Ghatodgaja being a “Raakshasa”, has more strength during the night than the day, and hence, he is the right person to represent the Paandava camp. However, there is an in-depth strategy here – Bhagawan Krishna wants Arjuna to be saved from the “Indra-Asthram” of Karna. When Ghatodgaja is going to fight at his peak level, Karna will be the only one who can kill Ghatodgaja and for that, he too will struggle for options! Finally he will be forced to employ the “Indra-Asthram” on Ghatodgaja to kill him. Even Ghatodgaja cannot escape the wrath of the “Indra-Asthram” and is going to die of it. However, Arjuna would be saved from Karna, which is more important for Bhagawan Krishna at this point. Thus, we can see here that the ploy of sending Ghatodgaja to fight during this night is to indirectly neutralize the threat that Karna possesses.
Moving on thus, we shall now enter into the proceedings that happened during the night of the fourteenth day. As the entire Kurukshetra battlefield is completely dark without even a single iota of light anywhere, there is an agreement between the two sides that for every chariot there should be five lamps hanging above and for warriors who are fighting from the top of animals like elephants, horses, etc. they should hang three lamps. Thus with this arrangement, the entire Kurukshetra battlefield is glittering with lights from all directions! The fierce battle continues into the night and Guru Dhronachaarya is relentless in his attack! Even though the others are getting tired of fighting (as all of them have been fighting for the whole day earlier as well), Guru Dhronchaarya is in no mood to relent! The fight continues on and on and several warriors lose their lives in this pursuit.
Meanwhile, a rift starts brewing amidst the Kaurava camp – As the battle continues, there is a verbal spat between Sage Kripachaarya and Karna. As the argument continues, it takes a nasty turn and at one stage, Karna abuses Sage Kripachaarya very badly. Ashwatthaama is seeing this entire argument happening live in front of him and he is extremely disappointed with the way Karna is approaching Sage Kripachaarya! It should be remembered that Sage Kripachaarya’s sister Kripi is the wife of Guru Dhronachaarya (Mother of Ashwatthaama) and Sage Kripachaarya is the uncle of Ashwatthama (Ashwatthaama is the son of Kripi and Guru Dhronachaarya). Hence, as his uncle is getting publicly insulted by Karna, Ashwatthama couldn’t stand it anymore. At one stage, Ashwatthama decides to wage a battle against Karna and kill him! However, Guru Dhronachaarya stops Ashwatthama from advancing further towards Karna. This happens during the night of the fourteenth day. An angry Karna continues further with his words thus, “Oh Duryodhana! Look at how Arjuna and Ghatodgaja are destroying our army leaps and bounds! Upon seeing this chaos being created, neither Guru Dhronachaarya nor Sage Kripachaarya nor any other important warrior from our side is giving a firm retaliation. Now look at my war capability tonight. I shall single-handedly go forward and win the war for you tonight!”
Now this is one of the greatest weaknesses that Karna had. He was a great warrior and there’s no question about that! However, he had a problem of underestimating the enemy! He always had a superiority complex within himself that he is the one who knows several aspects of warfare and the opponents (Yudishtra, Arjuna, etc.) do not know anything! It is this underestimation that brought about the downfall of Karna towards the end! Thus, it is important for us to understand here that if we’ve to be a great leader, we should first acknowledge the strengths of our opponents / competitors! This is an extremely important concept that is being talked about widely even in modern-day management / leadership as well. Thus, it can be clearly inferred from this incident between Karna and Ashwatthama that Karna’s downfall has begun from this point onwards. This is because he is losing support from within the Kaurava camp itself and is becoming infamous amongst his peers.
So for today, let us understand this point clearly and we shall wait till the next episode to continue this discussion further! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 