One of the most asked questions
is, ‘who is greater amongst Karna and Arjuna?’
One may answer according to one's own sentiments
and feel very strongly about it.
But if we try to learn through the pages of
Mahabharata, one thing becomes very clear to us that life is not about proving
ourselves, but living for certain core principles. Life is not a running race competition.
The difference between Karna and Arjuna is their
belief system. Karna thought that injustice was being done towards him and
unfortunately he never came out of that conception. In fact, since it was his
habit of blaming others for certain events in his life, eventually when his
wheel got stuck and he was not able to recollect the mantra for his special
weapons and was facing cruel death, he accused dharma itself to be acting
against him, just like a small child may accuse the fire for his burnt finger.
Karna always wanted to prove something, like his
own excellence of archery skill over others. He especially wanted to become
superior to Arjuna.
On the other hand, Arjuna wanted to perform his
actions in a way which was meaningful and Dharmik, instead of trying to prove
something.
Therefore, it is not fair to compare Arjuna and
Karna. They had a different attitude, approach and goal of life, even though
their profession must have been the same.
Karna wanted to be a superior archer. Arjuna
wanted to utilize his profession for the cause of dharma.
Karna wanted to be known as the greatest archer,
but Dronacharya wanted Arjuna to be greatest archer.
Arjuna was willing to abide by the direction of
his friend and Lord, Krishna, to facilitate the upkeep of governance. It was a
big task for Arjuna to kill Karna, not because of Karna’s greatness but because
he had to do it in a way that will be questioned by many of Karna's followers…
by killing him unfairly. He did not want to do it. But Krishna's logic
was that Karna did not deserve a Dharmik and fair fight, he deserved the death
which is given to a criminal. It was difficult for Arjuna. He might go down in
history for shooting the wrong shot but he did choose to shoot the wrong shot
for the right cause!
On the other hand, Karna was not even willing to
abide by his friend Duryodhana for whose sake he had earlier rejected all good
advice given by his father Surya himself, mother Kunti and Bhisma. He chose not to fight till Bhisma lived, because he
felt Bhisma insulted him and caused great inconvenience to his friend. He
independently decided not to kill the other Pandavas. He took all these
decisions, even though his friend Duryodhana wanted otherwise.
To conclude, Karna was fighting for his own self,
to prove he was better than everyone else, choosing to follow his own wayward mind
and cloudy intelligence.
On the other hand, Arjuna was fighting for
dharma and part of that was to fight his own challenging mind. When he was not
able to ascertain, he was honest to approach Krishna and have a dialogue with
Him and follow his good counsel.
Thus, when we compare, let us compare the right
kind of people for the right reason rather than comparing the wrong kind of
people for the wrong reason.
No comments:
Post a Comment