Karna kneeled in front of Arjuna, begging him for mercy.
Everything was going against Karna on that battlefield. First, his
chariot's wheel got stuck in the mud and now he was unable to remember the
mantra needed to use the Brahmastra weapon against Arjuna. Karna wept
and said to Arjuna and Krishna, "Please forgive me. I have been a fool to
pick a battle against you. You are the almighty and I will owe my life to you
if you allow me to live."
Krishna, talking to Arjuna, said, "Don't listen to Karna.
These problems have come to him due to the curse place on him by his guru,
Parasurama." Krishna began to tell Arjuna the story:
One day his guru had fallen asleep in Karna's lap. He was
fast asleep and had warned Karna to not awaken him for any
unnecessary reasons. It was a beautiful day so Karna sat on the
park bench with his guru in his lap, just enjoying the view of the birds and
other beautiful creatures. While this was going on, he realized there was
something crawling on him. If he were to move, it would wake his guru up and
anger him. So, he sat there as still as possible, looking at the creature. It was a centipede. When he focused more on it, it was a demonic
centipede that had pincers. As soon as the centipede found a good spot on
Karna’s leg, it used those pincers to draw blood and create a meal out of it.
The blood just kept oozing out and eventually created a big enough puddle that
Parasurama was lying in it. Parasurama, feeling the blood, woke up.
At first not realizing what had happened, Parasurama asked Karna, “ What is going on?
Where is all this blood coming from?”
Karna explained himself, “This demonic centipede bit me and I didn’t want to wake you, so I let it.”
Parasurama relied, “ How were you able to bear all this pain? You had told me you were a Brahmin. There is no way you are a Brahmin. A Brahmin wouldn’t be able to bear such a pain. You have lied to me and deceived me. Tell me who you are at once.”
Karna, seeing Parasurama in anger, replied, “Okay, I might have told one small little lie to benefit from your teachings. I am the son of Surya, the sun god, and I am no Brahmin. I was told that you only taught to Brahmins and therefore, I portrayed myself as a Brahmin. I was in a real need of the Brahmastra to defeat Arjuna and that is why I did all of this.”
Parasurama, angrily, replied, “You have deceived me for this weapon and for this you will forget it when in the need of it the most.”
After finishing the story, Krishna looked up at Arjuna and said, “ This is just Karna’s karma, coming back to him. He deceived his guru and that is why he is paying for it now. Do not feel sympathy for Karna. These are just the causes of his own actions.”
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| Karna asking for Arjuna's mercy. Source: Wikimedia Commons. |
Narayan, R. K. (1978). The Mahabharata.
Author's Note
Hey Neeral, I think you did a great job with this story! I agree with you about the moral and overall message you tried to present through this story. I like how to described the details about Karna and the whole concept of Karma coming back to him. I think Karma does exist and it works wonders when you barely expect it. Great job!
ReplyDeleteHi Neelu! I really enjoyed reading you story it was great machodi. I also have to agree with you on what you had to say in the author’s note. People do end up getting what is coming to them, and Karma did just that to Kama. I had fun reading your story and hope to be reading more in the future.
ReplyDeleteHey Neeral, I think you did a good job of retelling this story. One of the aspects I really enjoy, was while reading this for class I always felt like much of these battles and death could have been avoided had Krishna not been there. It just seemed like he was instigating most of the battles between the two groups. So the fact that you used to Krishna to explain why Karna did not deserve mercy kept with the spirit of the story we read. Another thing that I liked that you did in your story book was being about to present the battle scene and still give the back story of Karna. I would never have thought to present it in this manner. This showed quite a bit of creativity on your part. I will continue to stop by to read more of your stories.
ReplyDeleteThis is a good retelling of the story. It is a simple and concise summary of what happens in the Mahabharata, but you do a good job of focusing the story to convey your message. I like the focus on karma. There are many stories in this and in the Ramayana, explaining why someone must have something happen to him (usually death) in terms of their past actions. This is an effective story for relaying that message that karma comes back to bite you. And, the way this story is told, it is simple and clear so the message isn't bogged down in literariness. It reads a lot like a children's fable, an Aesop, etc. Nice job.
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