The Greatest Gift

Chapter 1

3137 BC

Karna

The sun shone down on his mighty son in the morning hours. Karna as usual was out in the Ganga taking his morning bath and praying to the Sun God.
Kunti silently approached him and waited till he finished his prayers. As soon as he opened his eyes she spoke up, "Karna".
He looked up to find his enemy Arjuna's mother looking at him. But he was confused by her gaze.
"Yes, what can I do for you?", he asked solemnly.
Kunti took in a deep breath and decide to reveal her darkest secret which she had hidden from the entire world all these years.
She choked on her tears as she tried to form her words but opened her mouth at last. "Dear, my dear son I.... I am your mother." And she couldn't hold herself.
Karna was shocked at first. It was a sudden news which he found so hard to believe. He stared at her. His gaze urging her to explain herself.
Kunti went on, "Karna I ....I had you when I was not married. I was so ashamed of myself that I couldn't reveal you to the world. Believe me son I am not lying I am truely your mother." She sniffed some more.

The rational mind of Karna wanted to believe that all this was just fake. That the Pandavas were scared of loosing so they sent their mother here to persuade him to spare them. That all this was a, political strategy. But when he looked into the former queen's eyes, he knew that this was true. A person can never lie through their eyes.

Tears started to build up in his eyes and his throat became constricted. And so he didn't speak fearing that his 'brothers' that is the Pandavas might see him broken. He was scared to let his tears to be shown.
"I am the son of Radha and Adhiratha. And I will always be their son. You discarded me. As a baby you left me. I never got any love from you. You....you destroyed me in ways an enemy can never do", he retaliated.

This was too much for him.

He stepped forward and gently wrapped his arms around his mother and they remained this way, in the arms of each other, a mother and son reunited. But even after he did show tenderness to her he remained her, "I believe myself to be Radha's son and I always will be. Until the day I die you will not tell anyone about me. You mustn't tell my brothers about me."

Kintu tried one last approach to see all her six sons alive.
She knew that Karna had vowed that no one who begged to him after his morning prayers would go home empty handed. So she asked him, "Son in the battle please spare my sons. I want to see all of you alive. Please I beg you".

Karna knew that this would come up. He knew that he had to keep up his promise but he was not going to let his friend down. Duryodhan, he thought. He was more of a brother to him than the Pandavas. He had pledged himself to his friend and was not going to go against him. But again he had to keep his promise.
So he said, "mother I will do as you ask. I will spare all your sons except Arjun. You had five sons before the war and you will have five sons after the war. It will be either Arjun or me." Kintu tried to blink away her tears. If not for Krishna she would never have the opportunity to hold her oldest son in her arms. Deep inside she was scared. She feared for Karna's life.

When promising this to his mother he wanted to be the one alive, to be the one to feel her hand on his head. But he had a feeling that he would not be the fifth son.

****

Before the start of the war, Bhishma, the commander-in-chief of the Kaurava force, did not pick Karna as one of his key generals and instead assigned him to a less significant position. Insulted, Karna rebeled against Bhishma, and refused to fight under Bhishma's authority. He was aghast when Duryodhana did not intervene to reinstate him. Duryodhana, the astute politician that he is, knew the advantage of having Bhishma on his side even though the grand patriarch of all the warriors, undefeated for several generations, has openly declared that the Pandavas are also dear to him and that he would not kill them.

So thereafter Karna entered the battlefield on the 11th day, after Bhishma was struck down the previous day. Keeping his promise which he made to Kunti he did not capture any of the Pandavas even though he had defeated them and had the opportunity of doing so. All he wanted was to defeat Arjun and that fueled him up.

On the seventeenth day of battle, the much anticipated confrontation between Karna and Arjuna finally took place. They were evenly matched during the spectacular combat. Karna had been gifted a bow by Parashurama called Vijaya, one designed by Vishwakarma himself.

Without the Shakti weapon, Karna had no particular way to kill Arjuna. He had to rely upon his own garnered skill. In a wondrous, intense display of amazing archery, valour and courage, Karna and Arjuna engaged and exhausted all their brilliance, knowledge and passion. Karna devised an intelligent strategy based upon his personal prowess. He stunned Arjuna with a powerful volley of arrows that struck his chest. And the instant in which Arjuna was dazzled, Karna let loose another powerful volley intended at killing his powerful foe. King Shalya of Madra, Karna's charioteer told Karna to play safe by aiming the naga-astram arrow at Arjuna's chest. However, Karna refused to heed that advice and aimed the arrow at Arjuna's head. But Lord Krishna came to his friend and devotee's rescue, plunging the chariot into the earth by his power, causing the fatal arrow to miss Arjuna by a few miserable inches and strike Arjuna's crown instead.

During the course of combat, one of the Karna's chariot wheels got stuck in loose soil, apparently because of a curse put on Karna by a Brahmin whose cow Karna had mistakenly killed. King Shalya, who was his charioteer, refused to get down and remove the wheel from the mud . Hence Karna asked Arjuna to disengage in combat, while he got off his chariot and removed the wheel from the mud. Arjuna agreed.

But Krishna recalled Karna's previous lapses in honourable conduct and ordered Arjuna to shoot at Karna while he was attempting to lift his wheel out of the mud. The chariot wheel remained stuck and the curse of Parashurama ensured that Karna could not recall the mantras necessary to unleash the more powerful weapons of mass destruction - The Brahmastra. Krishna reminds Arjuna of Karna's ruthlessness against Abhimanyu when Abhimanyu was similarly left without a chariot or weapons.

All of Arjuna's tears, pain and anger swelled up within him as he aimed the fatal shaft Anjalika at a desperate Karna and shot him.

Though an enemy Arjun wanted to respect this soul. And upon confiding in Krishna, he was shown the true colours of the Karna he so very despised.