Karna and Duryodhana

 What’s the difference between them?

This is something that I felt while watching the Indian Epic , Mahabharatham .

Everyone knows Karna has been very good in his deeds and he is well  known as “Daana Veera Sura Karna” . And similarly everyone knows what kind of a greedy person Duryodhana is ,and how blind has he become towards his acts with greed for power and property.

Having known this difference - why is Karna taken to face the same bad hits as Duryodhana even though Karna is no where close to Duryodhana in any form?Here is the answer.

Karna never has been greedy of anything .All that he wished was that a person must be respected for his skills . Karna being a son of a charioteer (though actually born as a Kshatriya, no one was aware of this except Kunti devi and he was always treated the son of a charioteer until the time this truth about his birth got revealed ) who belongs to the Shudra varna. When his thoughts were matched by Duryodhana’s offer to let his skills be shown and appreciated - Karna was happy and took the friendship of Duryodhana. But he had never wished to become a King nor was greedy about anything. Since then ,he only tried to support his friend, Duryodhana ,in every aspect .

But Duryodhana on the other hand ,was always greedy. He was always trying to attain the power in one or the other way and he was so blinded by his greediness that he didn’t even bother to think of righteousness and just kept doing anything and everything to attain power. Even his friendship with Karna was someway part of satisfying his greediness to achieve power.Karna is the most powerful archer and is the only one who can equally fight against Arjuna.So, Duryodhana was dependant on Karna’s skills to attain his power and binded him in the name of friendship.

Karna , who is the powerful archer who was righteous in his acts and a person with good heart was punished badly. Why? 

Because, though he himself was on the righteous path , when he saw that his friend Duryodhan is not and Duryodhana is planning and executing many things that are very unrighteous - Karna supported him in the name of friendship. 

Its like : If a dog sits and rides over a mighty elephant and tries to shout at everyone on the way and show pride and shows off that it’s riding an elephant, it is the mistake of an elephant to let the dog do so than that of the dog. If the elephant does not encourage a dog to ride on her back and let the dog take the pride for no reason - a dog cannot get that position or pride.

Similarly, If Karna had not encouraged /supported his friend Duryodhana on the unrighteous things that he was planning to do or executed but instead tried more harder to let Duryodhana understand and change his behaviour - Karna would have become the best ever friend who made his friend realise and become a good person.In the name of the same friendship that led Karna towards his downfall along with Duryodhana and his clan , Karna would have become a person who saved them all from the downfall. (May be avoided the deadliest war too )

The hidden lesson from this story is - Be it friendship or any other relationship, one must know a limit until where you support your partner ( a friend/colleague/relative/family member ). If you are a true friend, it is not always about supporting your friend but it is also mainly and keenly about what you are supporting them for. A true friend must be able  to congratulate and appreciate his friend’s good deeds and as well be able to correct any mistakes/ bad deeds of them and help make them a better person. That’s when you become a great friend /person😊.

So, if someone is trying to point out a mistake in you, instead of reacting immediately over it , try to see how far their comment is true and also before you try to point out a mistake of someone, try to analyse how far it is true as well.

-Deepthi,18/08/2020