Saturday, May 28, 2011

Inferences from Radheya - Ranjit Desai

Sorry for this post in English. But just because I felt like it, here goes. 
I wanted to summarize some of the nice situations in Karna's life describing some of his characteristic qualities.

1. Patience: The book shows that Karna has tremendous patience.  When Bheem is attacking Champanagari, Karna's kingdom during the time when the Pandava's are conducing the rajasuya yagna, he fights for the first day, but on the next day, he agrees to a compromise with bheem because hastinapur has informed him to do the same.

2. Love: It is clear that Karna is sincerely in love with his wife Vrushali, whom he refers lovingly as Vrushali. This true love is evident from the times when he declines initially to go to draupadi's swayamwar. When he says that he was about to be killed by the gandharvas in the war, Vrushali was the only person he remembered.

3. Does not stoop to the other person's level: When draupadi calls him a sutputra and declines to wed him, he does not cause any problems in the marriage. He says that considering the kind of lady she is she is not even eligible to become his dasi (slave). That shows that he did not do a tit - for - tat, but was able to think independently.

4. Loyalty: Despite knowing on innumerable occasions that Duryodhan is wrong, just out of friendship Karna sides with him. In some cases even when realizing that the same quality is going to result in his end. One occasion is when he goes at war with all the nearby kingdoms for making Duryodhan a powerful emperor, even at the cost of his own life. When he gives Kunti the promise (wachan) that he will not kill any of the pandavas, before the war, and only try to kill Arjun, because he had taken such a promise earlier. And he fullfills that promise even though he knows that he can get killed because of Parshurama's curse.

Where Krishna tells Karna that he is the eldest Kaunteya, and promises him to make him the emperor. He also mentions that life will be very different, he will be a proper Kshatriya, have five brothers who will worship him, and also have draupadi as his wife. He declines all of this, all for one reason,  his loyalty to Duryodhana, even though he is not the best of people in the world, it shows his quality of accepting someone as our one, even though there might be flaws in them.

5. Generousness: This one incident is a big indicator of Karna's generousness, and devotion. The time when Indra comes and takes the kawach kundal as a beggar. He happily removes them, even though he is forewarned by the Sun god that Indra will come to ask for them so that Arjun could possibly defeat him in the war. Kawach and kundal are the only things that Karna is born with that grant him divine power, and even those are given away.


6. Positivity: Even when his Kawach and kundal are taken away, Karna beautifully explains to his beloved wife Vrushali, why it is good that they are gone. The author has portrayed this very nicely.




Other instances:

+ Realizes the fall of pride: Where Karna's father Adhirath dies  - he gives a nice analogy of how life is like the charriot on the road. Even though his father tested the chariot by removing the linchpins, and the chariot is perfect, there are no guarantees of the road. He says that the test of the chariot test by removing the pins was like taking some small decision very proudly, which can result in very bad things in the end.


If you have read the book, or read other books like Mrutyunjay, please comment and feel free to add other qualities which you think showed Karna to be the great human being he was. Of course, considering that he was human he also made some errors in judgment by siding with Duryodhan. This discussion can include both.
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