In the previous episode, we had continued witnessing the “Shalya Saarathyam”, wherein we’ve seen how King Shalya constantly keeps “demotivating” Karna whenever he makes a statement exuding confidence of winning the war single-handedly. Even though we see this outwardly as a sign of demotivation and discouragement from King Shalya, there is an in-depth meaning to it. King Shalya has a very good opinion on Karna internally and he knows who Karna really is. King Shalya somehow wants Karna to stop this disaster from happening and this is good for his future as well. However, Karna is not in a mood to listen to King Shalya’s words. This is happening even as King Shalya is trying to mock Karna of his gross “incapabilities”. If King Shalya would have directly told Karna to refrain from this war, he would not have listened to King Shalya’s words. Thus, King Shalya takes this route wherein he mocks Karna, in a bid to make him understand the reality. However, this also ends up in failure, as Karna gets ready to face the battle with Arjuna head-on!
As Karna gets ready on Day Seventeen and as this conversation continues further, Karna laments about his weakness and the two curses that he had obtained earlier during his life. As Karna justifies his decision to support Duryodhana in this pursuit, he laments thus, “Oh King Shalya! I had done all my education under the great Parasurama. One day, Parasurama was sleeping on my lap. He was sleeping for hours together and I was not moving here or there all the time. At this point, Indra wanted to test my resilience. He took the form of a long worm and started to come closer to me. Parasurama was still fast asleep. The worm moved over my lap and started to sting me. Blood started to flow from my thighs but I still was sitting without any movement, so that Parasurama’s sleep was not disturbed. As a few drops of blood spilled over Parasurama’s face, he woke up suddenly and turned towards me. Upon looking at my face, Parasurama said thus, “Oh Karna! It seems that you’ve disguised yourself as a “Brahmana” and come to me for your lessons. A “Brahmana” will never have the strength and the resolve to resist so much blood flow and pain. You should be a “Kshatrya” and you’ve cheated me. You know very well that I’m against Kshatryas and I’ve killed thousands of them within a fraction of a second and have drunk all their blood! After this incident, I’ve taken a resolve not to teach anything for “Kshatryas”. My teaching is only for Brahmanas. Now that you’ve cheated me, I’m hereby cursing you – At a crucial time when you will need to remember certain important lessons that I’ve taught, you will tend to forget them!”
This is the first curse that Karna had obtained in his life! We can see here that even though Karna has an enormous expertise with several warfare techniques and “Asthras”, he would not be able to employ them when it matters the most! We’re going to witness how this curse is going to come true during Day Seventeen of the war at Kurukshetra! This is just one side of the story. Earlier we’ve seen that Karna has not one, but two curses. We’ve seen one, but what is the second one and where did he get it from? Karna narrates further thus, “Oh King Shalya! There was once a Brahmana Rishi doing deep penance. He had a holy cow with him. I was passing through that area as part of my usual hunting spree. I had aimed an arrow at some other animal, but unfortunately it hit this holy cow and it died on the spot! Upon sensing his cow falling on the ground, the Brahmana Rishi gets disturbed! As he looked at what had happened, he saw me and quickly understood that I’m the reason for his cow’s demise. I apologised to him several times and even offered to donate a thousand cows to him. He was not convinced with all my apologies and offers. Finally the Brahmana Rishi cursed me that at a crucial time of war, my chariot’s wheels will get stuck up beneath the ground. At this point, nobody will come to help me. Moreover, even if I try to help myself out of this situation, I will fail because the Rishi further cursed me that I wouldn’t remember anything that I learnt!”
Thus, Karna laments about these two curses that he’s possessing and he knows very well that these curses are going to come true very soon. However, apart from this, Karna says that he is confident that all other things will fall in place during the war in his favour. With this, the battlefield at Kurukshetra is all set for Day Seventeen proceedings to commence, and for today, let us understand up to this point. We shall wait till the next episode to commence the Day Seventeen proceedings! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 