Whenever
I read of Karna, I'm overwhelmed - a whirlpool of emotions crop up. I get
angered at his choice of sides, I'm filled with sympathy for his birth, I'm
awed at his extraordinary valour and charity but I'm also puzzled at the fact
that the dharma which so famously protects those who protect it is also at
crossroads when it came to Karna. Why should a man of his calibre suffer such
indignation and loss? Why should someone like Krishna
play a role in his perishing? Why should a man who is capable of so much good
face such dilemma? I doubt if the why has an answer. It is difficult to come to
terms with history/epic when someone who is worth such admiration, someone who
is brutally honest about his choices is put through such a treatment for just
being him. I'm confident that even if Karna had known the truth about his birth
earlier than he did, he would have still chosen to embrace Duryodhana's
friendship, also was Duryodhana just being an opportunist in having embraced him
at the right moment knowing he alone could offer hope against the mighty
Arjuna? Wouldn’t you and I gladly trade our brawn and brain to a person who
stands up for us in a crowd that humiliates and belittles? He was just being
human, yet he suffers through out his life… is it fair?
Is
there a retelling of Karna's story that answers these questions? I don’t know, even
if there is a retelling can oral renditions, history, myth or divine law
deliver him from the fate he suffered? Somehow a clichéd 'its his Karma' logic
does not suffice and his eternal tryst remains a bag of unanswered questions to
me.
