Kunti Visits Karna
In Vidura’s house no one talked about anything else. For hours, the mahatma had been talking to Kunti, expressing the immense pain that the situation caused him.
“At night, I can no longer sleep thinking about what will happen in a few days. The terrible massacre that I had foreseen at the birth of Duryodhana is about to come true, and Vyasa’s words are also becoming reality. In a very short time in the world there will be no person who does not have dead people to mourn,” he said.
Kunti also kept thinking about that terrible situation. She knew well her son’s power, how skilled Arjuna was, how strong Bhima was and how brave the other three were. Even though she knew that they were personally protected by Krishna, she was also aware of the strength of the Kurava army and of the fact that heroes who had never suffered defeat fought for Duryodhana.
But the main cause of her worries was Karna, her secret son, who was as strong as a Deva and hated his brothers. Thus, not being aware of the dialogue that took place between Krishna and Karna, she strengthened herself and made the difficult decision to go and talk to him to tell him everything, to let him know that she was his mother.
She knew that Karna often went to meditate on Vivasvan in a sacred place on the banks of the Ganges, where he performed severe austerities and recited prayers constantly. From a distance she saw him, immersed in a trance under the scorching morning sun. Approaching without being heard, Kunti, with a hem of the sari protected him from the sun rays for several hours.
When he finished his meditations and opened his eyes, Karna saw her in front of him, crying with emotion.
“Maybe you don’t know me, but I know you and I have something to ask,” she told him in a gentle voice.
“Noble lady,” he responded, “I have never seen you, but I feel that you are a person very close to me. Tell me, what can I do to make you happy?”
Kunti didn’t answer. Karna looked at her carefully, then his eyes lit up and he told her that he had a recurring dream, in which a woman, his mother, often came to see him and protected him from the sun’s rays. She was that woman; he recognized her.
“I am your mother,” she confirmed then, “and I am also the mother of the Pandavas, those whom you consider your worst enemies.”
At that point she recounted in all details the circumstances of his birth.
Karna let her speak, and at the end he told her that he already knew everything, that Krishna had revealed it to him.
“But, why have you come here today? What do you want from me?” he asked.
“After knowing that my sons are your younger brothers,” she replied, “how will you be able to stand against them in the battle field to try to kill them? Join them, win this war and be the king. Take the throne that is rightfully yours because you are the eldest among them. Please do this for me.”
Karna told her smiling:
“It’s touching to see how you try to protect your children and ensure a happy future for them, but if I’m also your child, why don’t you do the same for me? You don’t know nor can you realize that my life has been conditioned by the fact that you had never recognized me.
“For fear of admitting your union with Vivasvan before your marriage to Pandu you have condemned me to suffer the hardships of hell. You have never thought about my well-being, and now you come here to offer me the throne of Bharata.”
“Is it now that you come to recognize me as your firstborn? You’re not doing it out of maternal love, but to save the lives of your other children. This is not correct, mother.
“Duryodhana has been the only one who has given happiness to my existence, and I owe him gratitude; without a shadow of a doubt I will fight for him and will try to help him win. But you came to ask me for something, and I can’t send you away without giving you something. Before this war you had five children, and in the end the same number will remain. I will try to kill only Arjuna, but I will not cause the death of the other four. In this war, either he or I will die, but in any case, you will always have five children.”
After hugging him with love, Kunti returned to her home.
This is a section of the book “Maha-bharata, Vol. 2”.
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