In the previous episode, we had witnessed Karna losing his last lethal weapon, the “Naaga-Asthram” to Bhagawan Krishna’s divine “Leela”. With this, Karna has lost all his important weapons that he possessed for killing Arjuna. Now Bhagawan Krishna orders Arjuna to “go for the kill” against Karna. As Bhagawan orders Arjuna, He does so in a way of meekly criticising Arjuna for his relatively “slow” response towards Karna’s aggression on the battlefield. Bhagwan Krishna makes fun of Arjuna’s “Gaandeepa” saying that it is a waste of effort in holding such a high-profile weapon if it is not being employed properly. Bhagawan Krishna wantedly does this to increase Arjuna’s fury and to boost his ego to go after Karna more aggressively.
Even though Bhagawan Krishna is scathing in his remarks, Arjuna starts laughing at one point of time. He replies to Bhagawan Krishna thus, “Oh Bhagawan! It is you who have been driving me away from Karna all these days and how can you expect me to win over him within just a few hours?” For this, Bhagawan Krishna explains the reason behind His move of driving Arjuna away everytime when Karna comes forward for a fight. Bhagawan explains how He has performed His duty of protecting Arjuna to perfection and now it is Arjuna’s duty to do the rest. Hearing this from Bhagawan Krishna, Arjuna now takes a lethal sharp arrow and aims at Karna’s chariot. The arrow pierces through the chariot’s wheels and with this, Karna’s chariot breaks down then and there! The horses that are driving the chariot fall dead on the ground. Karna rolls on to the ground from the chariot with all his remaining weapons. Now, as Karna is standing up on his feet yet again, he still has the zeal to fight. He aims ten arrows back-to-back towards Arjuna and employs them one after the other. This extremely powerful valor of Karna impresses Bhagawan Krishna to a great extent. As Karna exhibits this “never-give-up” attitude, Arjuna also is getting motivated to fight more intensely. He employs ten equally powerful arrows to neutralize Karna’s!
Subsequently, Karna is trying to search for a few more “Asthrams” that he can employ to kill Arjuna. As this happens on one hand, Karna knows that he is on the ground currently and he requires his chariot to be on level with Arjuna. Hence, he looks towards King Shalya, his charioteer to help him out in this situation. However, King Shalya is fed up with Karna now. He has not paid heed to even a single word that King Shalya has said and as a result, King Shalya says thus, “Oh Karna! I do not want to be your charioteer anymore! I’m leaving this battlefield with immediate effect! Till now I’ve told you many things, and you’ve just ignored my words every time. If my words are not recognized in the proper manner, what is the point of me staying here?” Saying thus, King Shalya quickly jumps out of the broken chariot and quietly walks away from that place!
This leaves Karna all alone to defend himself! Nobody is there near him now! Karna is shocked! However, on the other hand, Arjuna is still calling him for another round of intense battle. What does Karna do now? He quickly concludes that normal arrows are not going to be sufficient to neutralize Arjuna. Only “Asthrams” can! Hence, Karna tries to recollect a few “Mantras” for the corresponding “Asthrams”, however, he is just unable to recollect anything! He has forgotten the key “Mantras” for the key “Asthrams” at a critical juncture! This reminds Karna of Sage Parasurama’s curse – To forget key “Asthrams” at a critical point! This pains Karna extremely, as all the curses that he had received earlier are coming true one by one at Kurukshetra! He’s just standing helplessly against a raging Arjuna!
So for today, let us understand up to this point and we shall continue this discussion forward in the next episode as well! Stay tuned!
The Indian Dharma 