Hindu warriors can save Hindus
only
Karna
Karna was a great warrior, in many ways
greater than Arjuna. They may have been equal as archers, but physically, Karna
was by far the stronger of the two. And even in sticking to one’s principles,
Karna appeared more steadfast compared with Arjuna. But in Karna’s life there
was one fatal flaw. He made his friendship and loyalty to Duryodhan higher than
anything else, even higher than right and wrong, and even higher than God.
While loyalty is a great value, in such cases when it overrides one’s sense of
dharma and even the direct calling of the Divine in the form of Shri Krishna,
such loyalty leads one to a tragic end.
Karna used all his strength to serve his
friend Duryodhan, without even one selfish thought for himself. However, his
loyalty was so blind that he would even follow his friend when he was doing
something totally wrong, selfish and harmful to others. Karna knew what he was
doing was wrong and paid the price for it.
Bhishma
Bhishma was another person who never
performed a selfish action in his whole life. He was mighty, learned and
respected. But he too ended up fighting on the side of adharma, and came to a
tragic end. He was actually an impediment to the establishment of a righteous
kingdom. Why? Because he put his personal oath on a pedestal and made it the
focus and obsession of his life.
That oath was that he would unquestioningly
follow and do the bidding of whoever was the king of Hastinapur (Delhi). This
vow, he would never break as long as he lived, even when it involved fighting
his own beloved nephews who he knew had done nothing wrong.
Sticking to a vow is important, especially
today when people make promises and break them the very next day. But the
Mahabharata demonstrates that if attachment to a personal vow becomes an
insurmountable impediment that prevents one from doing what is clearly the
right, and ends up making a person serve evil, such a vow should be discarded
and set aside.
Bhishma put his personal vow above anything else, even when that vow became an
instrument of evil. He disregarded Krishna’s advice, which was that to drop the
vow for the greater good.
Drona
Drona was an employee of the king of
Hastinapur, who happened to be Dhitirashtra, the father of Duryodhana. He was
employed to teach all the princes of that kingdom in the art of warfare and
statecraft, and was considered the very greatest teacher of the era. For his
services, he was remunerated handsomely. Before he got this job, he was very
poor and therefore was very grateful to the King for employing him.
When Duryodhan was doing wrong, Drona was
fully aware of it. On some occasions he even tried to stop Duryodhan, at which
Duryodhan would say: “Do not bite the hand that feeds you.”
When the battle finally dawned, Drona fought
on Duryodhan’s behalf and was eventually slain in a scheme engineered by
Krishna. Drona, despite being an outstanding warrior, and well versed in
morality, put his loyalty towards his employer before the more important and
fundamental question of dharma.
Arjuna
Arjuna was a great man. Yet he had weaknesses
that were actually absent in Karna, Bhishma and Drona. He was in some ways
foolhardy, saying and doing several stupid things that could have landed his
brothers and himself in serious trouble.
For example, at one point, Arjuna had made a vow that he would take the life of
anybody who insulted his ‘Gandiva bow’, which he was exceedingly proud of. During
the Mahabharata war, it happened to be Arjuna’s eldest brother and leader,
Yuddhistir, who dealt the fatal insult.
Arjuna drew his sword and was about to kill
his own brother, and was restrained only by Krishna’s presence. Instead of
killing Yuddhistir, Arjuna instead insulted him in public. But then, Arjuna
felt bad for insulting such a virtuous person as Yuddhistir, and said that he
would commit suicide as there was no point even being alive after doing
something so vile as insulting his own brother in public! Once again, it was
only Krishna’s presence which restrained Arjuna. Krishna eventually talked
Arjuna out of suicide, but Arjuna was sad that he had not kept his own word,and
felt very bad. Krishna gave Arjuna a loophole. According to dharma, praising
yourself in public is a sin that is as bad as one’s own death. So Krishna said
to Arjuna that just praise yourself in public, and your vow will be fulfilled.
And thus were the lives of both Arjuna and Yuddhistir saved!
Yet despite this foolhardy streak in his
character, Arjuna is the one who is etched upon the heart of humanity as the
ideal to which to aspire.
This story illustrates that while Arjuna was
far from perfect, he had one overriding quality which sets him above and apart
from the others. To Arjuna, it was Krishna’s words that were absolute. He would
follow Krishna’s words even at the expense of other principles or promises that
he held dear. Therefore he had the grace and favour of Krishna’s guidance
throughout his life.
Therefore, Arjuna’s fate was to be the hero
of the era, and the instrument of God in being the restorer of dharma to
society, rather than a tragic figure who ended up wasting their huge life
potential in fighting on behalf of a fake cause. Arjuna put Krishna as his
highest guide and ideal, and despite his faults, stands out as the most
successful and glorious of the four.
Sources:
Excerpts from
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