Karna: the lost prince

Trying again

"We should have followed him...we should not have let him go." Said Bheem to no one in particular.

"He was so distressed....he is not going to accept us." Said sahadeva.

"No, he will or we will die trying but we are not letting him stay away from us." Said Arjun.

Vrushali entered the room at this point ,she has been searching for Vasu but could not find him so..she thought of asking the pandavas.

"Pranipat rajmata, pranipat princes...do you..." She said but stopped when she saw all of their faces, they all looked so devastated that she thought some untoward incident had happened...but then she saw vasu's Kalash ( pot) on the table.

"What is this Kalash doing here , he uses this for Surya puja? You were supposed to meet him today ,what happened where is he?" She asked Arjun.

Arjun could not even look her in the eyes ,he said,

"He...he is fine physically but.....we don't know where he has gone to."

"What do you mean by that ,prince Arjun? What happened,what did you talk to him about?......I  believed you and told you where to find him and by the looks of it ,you have somehow hurt him." Said Vrushali.

"We didn't mean to...."

"Don't bother ,if you have hurt him, I will hurt you back,who ever you may be.
Now I am going to find him ,don't try to follow me." Said Vrushali and left to look for Vasu.

-

She knew he would be at the hideout. ,so she went there but what she found there was shattering for her.

She found Vasu sitting in the corner ,hugging his knees and crying in distraught,his face cover was discarded to the side and he was gasping with tears flowing from his eyes.
She immediately went to sit near him and hugged him gently, trying to calm him down.she had no idea what could have left someone as brave as Vasu so weak and distraught but she is going to comfort him as well as she could.

When Vasu calm down a little, then Vrushali asked,
" What happened Vasu, tell me....I could be able to help ?"

"I...i....I can't..."

"It's alright ,take your time....I am here ,I will listen whenever you are ready." She said looking in his eyes and nodding her head, trying to smile a little to make him feel comfortable.

"They said ..they said I am ..I am rajmata Kunti's son." Finally Vasu said.

"Son... rajmata Kunti's son...you are?" Asked Vrushali.

"Yes ,they came to me this morning and told me about my real identity." After that Vasu told everything to vrushali.she gasped , in shock...how could a mother do this to her own child.

"I told prince Arjun where to find you." She said.

"You did...it is for the best , I guess, atleast I got to know about my true identity... although I denied it infront of them." Replied Vasu.

"I will not even pretend to understand what you are going through right now, I mean what rajmata Kunti did, was so wrong , I can understand that she was scared and due to societal pressure ,she did what she did back then... but she could have found some other way....not what she did...on the other hand your brothers are innocent of the situation , they did not knew about your existence or where you were but as soon as they found out ,they came to you ,trying to apologise and request you to accept them....I think they deserve a chance." Said Vrushali.

"Truthfully, I am not angry with any of them, I may have said some hurtful things in the heat of the moment but I am not angry....not even with rajmata ,I am just hurt.....sad...confused , broken over my destiny....I realised that I needed not to suffer as I did, if I knew the truth earlier but......" Exclaimed Vasu.

"What are you going to do now?" She asked  realising that only her Vasu could be so big hearted to not be angry with anyone , even if he suffered all his life for someone else's mistake.

"Nothing... nothing is going to change...I am going to remain as Vasusen only....not as karna.... Because accepting them in front of everyone and revealing my identity to the world would only bring humiliation and sorrow to rajmata Kunti and my brothers, how can I do that to them,also my work as Aditya is very dangerous and if they are affiliated with me ,they will be put in danger one way or another?"said Vasu.

"Something tells me that your brothers are not going to let you do that, when I saw them earlier today , they were so sad ,I think it was because you had not accepted them, so they would keep on trying until you accept them.....I think you should let them be united with their jyestha... Even if it is only in private." Advised Vrushali.

"May be I will...I don't know...I am not sure but having such loving brothers would certainly feel nice,don't you think?!" Replied Vasu,smiling a little.

"I am sure of it and you deserve their love and respect." Replied Vrushali.

They sat there for a bit and then Vasu stood up telling Vrushali that he have to go and fix some old woman's hit as he had promised her in the morning.

Vrushali knew that keeping busy right now ,would be good for Vasu and he will never break a promise ,so she let him go but first she cleaned the wounds on his legs and bind the major cuts, after that they went to market Vasu took a carriage from shon's shop and bought some hay , and powdered limestone with the little money he had to fix the wall of the hut, he also bought some cold medicine for the old lady. They reached her hut , Vrushali said goodbye to him and Vasu went inside.

Vrushali went towards her home ,when she saw five men coming towards the hut ,on closer inspection she realised that they were Pandavas dressed as commoners.

They stopped in their way after seeing her.

"Pranipat princes, where are you going?" Said Vrushali.

"Devi...Devi Vrushali ,we are going to... going to...is he ...is mitra Vasu.." tried Arjun .

"You are going to help your jyestha in repairing the older woman's hut, right." Said Vrushali smiling.

"You know..we ..."

"Yes ,I know and seeing you here, I am sure you want to try and make your brother accept you .....go ahead...just remember..be patient and listen to your heart ,he had lived a tough life but if you are sure that you could give him love and respect, he deserves , go ahead with what you are here to do....I must go to my home now...good luck to you all." Said Vrushali and left.

Pandavas took a breath in relief, listening to Devi Vrushali , they were sure that now their was a chance of their jyestha accepting them.