In the previous episode, we had witnessed the culmination of the brutal battle between Bheemasena and Ducchaasana, wherein the latter was mutilated in front of Duryodhana and Co. In retaliation to this, Duryodhana sends ten of his brothers to take on Bheemasena, however, with the mood of intense aggression in which Bheemasena is in, he’s not going to spare anybody who comes in front of him on the seventeenth day at Kurukshetra. All the ten brothers are single-handedly killed by Bheemasena within minutes, as none of them are able to match the brute muscle power of Bheemasena in the battlefield. With this, ninety-nine brothers of Duryodhana are killed and Duryodhana is now left all alone to defend himself. On the other end, we’re witnessing the Karna-Arjuna battle side-by-side wherein Karna is trying his best to contain Arjuna. However, with so many things happening on the other side, Karna’s attention gets diverted and he appoints Virochana to continue the fight with Arjuna.
Moving on further thus, Virochana continues the battle with Arjuna and we’ve seen that Arjuna kills Virochana very easily! Virochana is no match to Arjuna’s expertise in archery and with this, Karna too has lost his son. Of course we’ve seen this during our earlier episodes as well, but it is worth mentioning here because all these battles on the seventeenth day are happening simultaneously. Now we shall see this trail of events in a bit more detail. As Karna turns his attention towards bringing back the Kaurava army which is under immense panic, Arjuna and Virochana engage themselves in a brief battle and Arjuna straightaway kills Virochana with his sharp arrows! This happens within just a few minutes after Karna leaves that spot. Listening to the loud cry of Virochana, Karna is in a huge spot of bother. On one hand, he has the duty to bring back the army to its original shape, whereas on the other hand, his son is in danger! What does Karna do here? He quickly goes back to see what happened to his son, however, by the time he reaches the spot, Virochana breathes his last!
As Karna sees this happen in front of his two eyes, he bursts into unconsolable tears! This is a very sad moment as Karna loses his son right in front of his eyes. As Karna laments his son’s death, Arjuna gives him a befitting reply thus, “Oh Karna! What are you crying for now? This is the same kind of cry I had when my son Abhimanyu was killed by all of you! Atleast, I killed Virochana as per the “Yuddha-Dharma”, but what did you people do to my son Abhimanyu? You had killed him with a vicious plan. Guru Dhronachaarya ordered everyone to hit Abhimanyu from his back. Is this the way an “Aachaarya” should behave? The moment he did this to Abhimanyu, Dhronachaarya lost the position of being an “Aachaarya” then and there! One of you destroyed Abhimanyu’s bow. One of you destroyed his sword. One of you broke down his protective shield. All of you teamed up to brutally murder Abhimanyu when he was completely weaponless and when he had fallen on the ground, didn’t you? Oh Karna! You were rejoicing on that fateful day when my darling son was killed, weren’t you? Now it is your turn to cry!”
As Arjuna says thus, the sadness in Karna turns into immense fury. He gets up on his feet quickly and replies to Arjuna thus, “Oh Arjuna! If you’re really a fighter, you should have fought with me straight and won over me. Rather, you decided to do a cowardly act of showing your prowess to an innocent small boy. This doesn’t prove that you are a great warrior. If you really have the guts, come for a one-on-one fight with me and prove yourself to the world. By the end of this fight, either you or me will be alive in this world!” Saying thus, Karna dares Arjuna for a “Dvandha-Yuddham” (Physical fight). As this happens, Arjuna too takes up the challenge immediately, as he was also waiting for this moment. Now Karna and Arjuna come face to face for the grand finale! As both of them approach each other’s vicinity, all the Devas queue up across the skies to witness this marquee battle between the two extremely powerful warriors. On one side, Arjuna’s supporters including Bhagawan Krishna are motivating him to “go for the kill” against Karna. On the other side, Karna should have also received the same motivation, isn’t it? Everyone in the Kaurava army did motivate Karna, except one person! This person is none other than King Shalya! As usual, King Shalya started his demotivating accord.
Now the marquee battle begins and this Arjuna-Karna fight is happening at a different level altogether! On one hand, Karna is playing and toying with several “Asthrams” effortlessly, even as Arjuna is strong enough to neutralize all of them. In turn, Arjuna also employs several “Asthrams” on Karna, only to be neutralized by the latter easily! This is a great battle that is going on with each other, which even stuns Bhagawan Krishna! He perhaps had underestimated Karna’s exceptional brilliance on the battlefield till this moment. As the battle gets more and more intense between the duo, Bhagawan Krishna, in a bid to motivate Arjuna further, drives the chariot forward, thus reducing the distance between the two of them. Both of them are in s savage resolution to kill each other on the seventeenth day and for today, let us understand up to this point. We shall continue this marquee battle into the next episode as well! Stay tuned!
The Indian Dharma 