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 Who is responsible for Karna’s misery ?

In the Mahabharata, Karna cuts the saddest figure of all the main character.  Though he lived in the lap of luxury, Karna was always miserable, constantly wondering, “why wasn’t I born a kshatriya ?”  Though born to a princess, though crowned as a king, while he lived, he was never acknowledged as a ‘Kshatriya-by-birth’.  This led to much misery in his life.  BUT, who was responsible for this ? 

Should Durvasa be blamed for giving Kunti a mantra before she was mature enough to use it ?

Should Surya be blamed for despoiling a girl who was unmarried and whose child would be considered illegitimate in the world of Men ?  Could he not have deferred his blessing or looked after his son ?

Should Kunti be blamed for using the mantra without contemplating its consequence’s ? 

Or, is society at large responsible for the sorry fate of Karna ?

Durvasa muni, with his formidable store of life experiences should have known that to give something as precious and dangerous as a mantra that can call down the Gods should only be given to the right person at the right time.  He could foresee that Kunti will have need of this mantra in the future to sire sons on behalf of her husband.  Surely he could have also seen the potential dangers of giving such a powerful mantra too early to an unmarried and immature adolescent.  As the donor of the mantra, surely he is culpable for the aftermath of what he set in motion. 

Surya, the god who literally sees everything – past, present and future, could see the dangers of siring a child with an unmarried maid.  If the mantra compelled him to sire a child, surely as one of the 33 most powerful denizens of the heaven, he could postpone the effect of his boon.  Surely Surya the all powerful god of the Vedic pantheon could defer the birth of his child till after the wedding or something more suitable to the culture of the young girl concerned. 

But he did not. 

Nor was he bothered about the upbringing and welfare of the child.  Surya did not speak to his son till the eve of the battle when he spoke to confirm the words of Kunti and to warn him about Indra’s desire to deprive him of his impenetrable skin. 

Within Mahabharata, there is a prior example of a father taking care of his son being born out of wedlock.  Parashar muni has a child with Satyavati and raises their child himself.  Why should a child suffer for the mistakes of the parents ?  Surya could have done the same.  Like Ganga who raised Bhishma in the heavens and taught him all the weapons, Surya could have raised Karna in his own world.  But for some strange reason, Surya does not raise or teach Karna, not does he find an ideal teacher for him.  Surya is not just an absent father, he is an off-hand father who does nothing to help his son throughout his life.

Unfortunately, according to most critics, Kunti carries the can for Karna’s misfortune.  Most people blame her for having had him too early, for abandoning him in his infancy, for not acknowledging him early enough once he was rediscovered, for acknowledging him too late, for asking him the impossible boon of sparing his brothers and for publically rehabilitating him only after his death. 

Time and again, Kunti finds her hands tied behind her back and she is unfortunately unable to influence her own future.  As a child she was sent away to be raised by an uncle and no one asked her if she wanted to be parted from her bothers.  Durvasa muni gave her an impossibly powerful mantra without asking if she was ready for it.  Sun’s son was born to her at a time when she wasn’t mature enough to take care of her child.  Her handsome husband chose to abandon the throne and his life without once asking Kunti’s opinion.  Kunti was burdened with the care of her co-wife’s sons at a time and place where she had no choice but to take charge of whatever fate had thrust upon her.  Her earlier youthful exuberance was kept was constantly kept in check by her terrible experience of having had to abandon Karna.  Kunti became cautious to a fault.  She took each and every step only with great consideration.  Even when her little family was constantly threatened with annihilation, Kunti refused to deal with things head on and complain to Dhritarastra or Gandhari.  Her silence cost her dear. 

Though she lived as a dowager empress, she was constantly living in fear of assassins.  Seeing Karna made her happy, but that very instant he entered enemy camp and brought her infinite sorrow.  Kunti had never thought she would have to run from her own family, but she no choice but to do that to escape fire and foes.  Her simple instructions to “share the bhiksha.” Caused unprecedented problems for her sons and new daughter-in-law.  Kunti had never wanted to see kingdom of the Kurus split up, and yet it was.  Her brief period of happiness was shattered when her own son gambled away everything and reduced her to being a dependant on her enemies. 

Kunti’s toughest test was when she had to ask her own first born to spare his brothers.  Hate consumed Karna so much, he promised to kill only Arjun.  How can a mother chose between which son to kill and which one to spare ?  Kunti’s pain is palpable at the end of the war when she requests Yudhisthir to offer ancestral dues to her first born.  She could have remained silent.  No one would have known if Kunti had kept her peace.  But as a mother, she did not want to her son to die unacknowledged.  Maybe it was too little too late.  But, unlike Surya, she did not abandon her son in death.  At great cost to herself and her honour as a dowager empress, Kunti acknowledged Karna as her own.

Should Kunti be blamed for Karn’s life long misfortune of being called Suta-putra ?  Is she is the only one who is responsible for his identity crisis (is he a Kshatriya or Suta) ?  Is Kunti, a woman of limited means, solely responsible for what others say or not say to her sons ?  If Kunti had kept the child, what greater miseries might have been visited on her as well as her child ?  Would society have let her and her son live in peace ?  With his lustrous and impenetrable skin, Karna would have found it impossible to simply mix in with the rest of the population.  How would he have fared as an illegitimate child of an unmarried mother ?  How do such children fare even now in India ?  What space do we – the rest of society – give such mothers and their children ?  Even after several thousands of years, have we – the unforgiving society at large – learned to be kind and compassionate towards such people ? 

This is not a ‘Hindu’ problem or an ‘Indian’ problem.  Society at large does not accept children born out of wedlock.  Why we don’t is a social and legal matter, but the fact is, generally as a society we do not accommodate children born out of wedlock with ease.  We do not make their life easy.  We do not make them feel welcome.  We do not give them a place in where they can feel comfortable. If this is the case in the 21st century, what of Dwapara yug when such matters were even more stringent.  What hope did Kunti have for a peaceful life for her and Karna ?

Given her limited resources, Kunti did the best she could. She set the child afloat in a reed boat so that he could be raised as a foundling child.  As a foundling, with amazing skin and unusual features, at least he will be raised as a miracle child and not an illegitimate, ill gotten child born out of wedlock.  Kunti had very little choice at that point in life.  She was panicked, she was immature, she was without any friend or advisor at that point in her life.  Put yourself in her shoes and think what would you do.  Hindsight is a great thing, but none of us have it.  None of us are gifted with foreknowledge of what the consequences of our actions.  Not knowing your future or that of the child, what would YOU do in such a harrowing situation ?  Countless unwed mothers have pondered over this question.  Countless women have cried pitifully as they have had to abandon their children because society will not allow them to bring up their children born out of wedlock. 

Even in the enlightened 21st century, we have no dearth of  women leaving their ‘sins’ at the door of orphanages, churches, temples, government buildings and such.  We, the judgemental society, have labelled such children as shameful signs of lust, one-night-stand, sin, illegitimate etc.  We have brought such stigma upon the mother and the child that no young woman dares contemplate the horrors of bring up such a child without being shaken to the core.  Are we the society not responsible for countless Karnas suffering lives of ignobility even now ?  Despite all that we have known about Karna, Shakuntala, Bharata, Luv, Kush, Kripi etc, do we not force children born out of wedlock to live in the shadow of shame for the rest of their lives ?  Even a tiny shadow of doubt about the parentage forced Luv and Kush to live their lives in shamed silence of the forest.  Even when Rama was ready to acknowledge that they were his sons, the children had to chose between one parent or another.  Isn’t our unforgiving society responsible for such injustices ?

Will the society ever accept responsibility for Karna’s miserable dichotomy of “who am I ?”  Will the society accept responsibility for his confused identity ?  Will the society ever accept responsibility for separating a mother from her child on account of her marital status ?

Until society is willing to be compassionate and considerate, countless Kuntis and innumerable Karnas will continue to suffer the insufferable strictures imposed on them.

© Bhagwat Shah
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