Karna

[Sādhaka]

Namaste all,

I find the character of Karna fascinating - and what baffles me is that what did Karna do wrong to deserve the death? He was righteous, and he was unlucky to end up on the wrong side. What do you think?

Om

[smaranam]

Namaste

I think it is about going beyond the four purushArtha of this world.

KarNa stuck to dharma-logic (of the purushArtha - dharma-artha-kAma-moksha), when BhagvAn Shri KrushNa was asking Him to do something. He was not surrendered to KrushNa,

Arjun was surrendered to KrushNa and working in synch with His Will. He went beyond logic of dharma-artha-kAma-moksha that he was initially propounding in chapter 1 of Gita, where KrushNa laughs off his ideas as "empty pAnditya."

Moral of the story:

1. Surrender to Shri KrushNa - BG 18.66 sarva dharma parityajya MAmekam sharaNam vraja , Aham tvam sarvapApebhyo mokshyAsmi ma sucha

2. Love of God goes way beyond the four purushArtha of the material world - Shri Chaitanya MahAprabhu's message during conversation with RAmAnand RAy (Chaitanya CharitrAmRt - Madhya lila).

Shri KrushNa Govind Hare MurAre
he nAth nArAyaN vAsudeva ~

[charitra]

Namaste all,

I find the character of Karna fascinating - and what baffles me is that what did Karna do wrong to deserve the death? He was righteous, and he was unlucky to end up on the wrong side. What do you think?

Om

AGREE.

[yajvan]

hariḥ oṁ
~~~~~~

namasté

Each name given in the mahābhārata is quite purposeful, telling. The names are not random. Yet for me, when I see a name it may take a day, a month or sometimes years for me to come to the in-depth meaning of the name perscribed by vyāsa-ji(kṛṣṇa dvaipāyana).
I have yet to discover the brilliance of karṇa's name.

We know who karṇa is no doubt... being the son of sūrya by pṛthā or kuntī¹ , before her marriage with pāṇḍu. His name karṇa means furnished with ears or long ears. Now some think this word means 'cropped or defective on the ears'.

Perhaps this aligns to what smaranam says...

when BhagvAn Shri KrushNa was asking Him to do something. He was not surrendered to KrushNa

Karṇa did not 'listen' to kṛṣṇa-jī , and hence karṇa is the one with ~defective hearing~ - not being obedient.

Yet another definition for karṇa is the helm or rudder of a ship. This aligns nicely to the role karṇa plays as the general of the army.

I still think there is a deeper meaning to his name. I think it resides in ka, karṇayati - to pierce , bore , ṇa , etc.
But more on this at a later date.

praṇām

words
kuntī left the child to the river . Karṇa was found by a charioteer named adhiratha and nurtured by his wife rādhā ; hence karṇa is sometimes called sūtaputra or sūta-ja , sometimes rādheya , though named by his foster-parents vasuṣeṇa.

[Sādhaka]

Namaste,
Good answers. But somehow I find it unfair that how Bheema insulted him several times, but yeah anyways no one is perfect except the Purushottama himself

Also maybe because Karna attacked Abhimanyu from behind which was against the rules of war.

[anirvan]

@yajvan ji, one more reason of name Karna is that he was born through ears of kunti after Sun god blessed her the son.

@Sadhak, i wouldn"t agree with you.its not that he ends on wrong side,but he did it even after realized what is dharma and what is adharma. same mistake was also done by Piatamah-Bhaisma.

even this concepts is very well answered by Bidur ji and its also seen in B.R chopra"s serial of Mahabharat.

Its their Ego. its ego of Righteousness.its ego of there knower and follower of Dharma. both had these false ego.

Dharma is dynamic and our steps should be dynamic and not be strictly according to scriptures. Dharma is where Krishna is.

When SriKrishna is there,then the dharma"s definition has to be changed. It was dharma of Bhisma to keep his oath of protect Hastina crown.it was dharma of Karna to fulfill the virtues of friendship.

But Apart from our own individual dharma, there is highest dharma.dharma of divine.so when Krishna is doing something,then anything not going according to his wish becomes ADHARMA.

See,the very Dharma"s definition changes with situation. one dharma at a point may be adharma at other situation.

So both Bhishma and Karna got punished in the eye of History for their adharma,but still rewarded Bhagabat-lok as they died seeing Madhusudan for their single pointed belief of dharma.

its a teaching to mankind by Madhusudan that ......

sarva-dharman parityajya
mam ekam saranam vraja
aham tvam sarva-papebhyo
moksayisyami ma sucah

[yajvan]

hariḥ oṁ
~~~~~~

namasté anirvan

@yajvan ji, one more reason of name Karna is that he was born through ears of kunti after Sun god blessed her the son.

Thank you for this idea. I have looked in the mahābhārata and referred to karṇa's birth. We find this in the ādi parvan ,
the sambhava¹ parvan sub-section.
Here we find kuntī¹ practicing the mantra that summons sūrya to her. Karṇa is born , yet I find that no mention
of him being born via the ear. Perhaps you may be suggesting that since kuntī learned of the mantras ( via the ear)
from the ṛṣi durvāsacārya we can infer karṇa was born via the ear. As this word is rooted in (√) gam , to come
to one's ear , become known.

Now that said, we also note in the sambhava parvan sub-section that karṇa was born with natural armor and a
face that was brightened by ear-rings. We note that the word kārṇa means earing. From this it is easy to see karṇa's name.

This word as mentioned before means furnished with ears or long ears. Yet there is more to this name.
We can also say ápi kárṇe meaning behind the ear or back , from behind. We are told that karṇa used to adore
the sun ( his father sūrya ) for hours , until his back was heated up by his rays. This is saying from dawn to mid-day.

Now if we go one step more, the translator of the mahābhārata says that since karṇa cut off his own natural armor
( this was given to indra as a gift ) he came to be known as karṇa.

Yet I end-up in the same place, as I look to karṇa I cannot trace it back to cutting off unless finding a way to
a root of kṛ. This then will assist me getting to an action that is taken ( cutting/doing/giving construct one thing
from another, etc). Yet I am not there yet and continue to look.

praṇām

words

• kuntī is mother of karṇa - this is previous to her her marriage with pāṇḍu.
• sambhava - being or coming together , meeting , union , sexual congress , cohabitation,

[Ganeshprasad]

Pranam

Another trait of Karna was his giving charity, Danveer Karan.

one off his fault was calling Draupadi a whore

Jai Shree Krishna