The Fall Of Karna
Disappearing under a cascade of fiery arrows, Karna had miraculously managed to re-emerge by detonating each of those thousands of arrows with as many of his own. Unleashing blasts of fire, the weapons collided with each other causing tumultuous sounds, while the chariots seemed to dance on the battlefield. And in the midst of that hell, Karna’s two aides fled in terror, unleashing Duryodhana’s fury.
Karna thought of nothing but shakti.
“If only I had it with me right now, the dearest dream of my life would be fulfilled by now. But I don’t have it. Krishna took it from me, sending me against that Rakshasa.”
But he was in possession of another celestial weapon he had not yet used, the Nagastra. He realized it was time to use it. With care and devotion he extracted it from the perfumed box in which it was placed, placed it on the bow and aimed at Arjuna’s neck.
“Don’t aim for the neck,” Shalya told him, “Aim for the chest: this way you have less chance of making a mistake.”
“A real archer never changes his aim once he has decided his course,” Karna replied scornfully.
At those admirable words, he let go of the arrow, which darted sparks at Arjuna with the speed of the wind. Seeing the nagastra released, everyone thought that the Pandava could already be considered dead. But Krishna was the first to notice this grave danger and immediately took steps to save his friend.
Seeing that the trajectory was high enough, he increased the weight of his body, and the chariot sank into the mud for a few centimeters: thus the target had been moved: the arrow hit the diamond crown that Arjuna wore on his head. He had received it from Indra when he was in Svarga and for this reason he was also called Kiriti. The nagastra and the crown both fell to the ground.
Seeing that weapon also fail, Karna thought it was over now. Victory would remain a dream.
And as the duel continued, more terrible than ever, a wheel of his chariot got bogged down in the mud and the movement became less and less agile and fast. Shalya was surprised. In that moment, like a flash, a memory reappeared in Karna’s mind, when the Brahmana whose cow he had killed by mistake cursed him.
“The moment you meet your enemy on the battlefield, your chariot wheels will be sucked into the mud and you won’t be able to untangle them.”
The chariot was now almost stationary. An uncontrollable panic seized him; he tried to invoke the brahmashtra, but in his mind there was total darkness. He couldn’t remember the necessary mantras. And other words, those of his guru, came back to him:
“Because you have deceived me, when you have the greatest need for the weapons I have taught you to use, you will fall into total oblivion, and you will not be able to use them.”
Realizing that the opponent was in clear difficulty with the slowly moving chariot, Arjuna approached him and attacked him more closely, cutting the strings of the bows faster than Karna himself could put.
The fury of Surya’s secret son exploded; after throwing a dense rain of arrows at the enemy, he jumped off the chariot and with all his might tried to lift the wheels from the clinging grip of the ground. But to no avail. The Brahmana’s curse seemed stronger than any physical energy.
And Arjuna saw his archenemy in desperate conditions and decided to kill him.
Fixing a large arrow on his bow, he began to devoutly recite the mantras to call the rudrastra. And this, releasing flames, appeared around its arch. Karna had heard him invoke the divine weapon and was seized by panic.
“Arjuna, you don’t want to hit an unarmed, chariotless enemy. Wait for me to lift the wheel and take my seat again and then we will continue our duel fairly.”
Krishna laughed loudly.
“Now you talk about loyalty, about righteousness,” He told him aloud. “These words sound strange to hear from your mouth. How many dharma rules have you and your worthy friend Duryodhana transgressed over the years? Hundreds. And lastly, what did you do to young Abhimanyu just a few days ago? Now you come and demand honesty from his father just to save your life? You should be ashamed.”
Radheya, frightened, took his bow and continued the fight from the ground.
But the arrow loaded with Rudra’s mantra departed from Gandiva and in a flash reached his neck.
The head adorned with long blond hair fell to the ground; Karna’s shining soul was seen moving upward. And the moment he died, the sun in heaven no longer seemed the same, it was as if it had turned pale: his favorite son had fallen.
This is a section of the book “Maha-bharata, Vol. 2”.
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