Especially for SME – 61: Examples of selecting when only from Mahabharat.
12 October 2022
SME 1: Mahabharat should be having a lot of examples for this vital step of choosing when only to start execution.
Mr. Lowe: Krishna knew that Karna was the eldest of the Pandavas but no body knew this including the Pandavas. It was also clear that Arjun and Karna are arch enemies to such an extent that each had marked the other for killing. If at all there was a war between the Kauravas and the Pandavas, Karna would fight the war on behalf of Kaurvas and of course Arjun would fight the war for the Pandavas. Karna and Arjun were equals in archery and prowess. Krishna had plans for every one of the vital few in the Kaurava army that he had chosen and Karna was one of those vital few.
Krishna thought if Karna comes to know that he is the eldest of the Pandavas, just this information that he is indeed the brother of the Pandavas would psychologically affect his fight and vengeance against the Pandavas. But when should this information be given to Karna, Krishna had to choose “when only”. As this was a delicate task to be achieved, Krishna decided to do it in two steps: First Krishna himself would go to Karna when he is alone well ahead of the war but after it became certain that war was inevitable. Then Krishna would send Kunti, the mother of the Pandavas, who was also mother of Karna to him.
In the meeting with Krishna, Karna talked about his bottleneck to Krishna as any system screams its bottleneck: how he did not know who his parents were. Krishna simply told him that he was not the son of the charioteer (sooth puthra). Karna, once his bottleneck was touched, started responding fast and with great curiosity. He asked Krishna: “Do you know who my parents are”. Krishna just shook his head in the affirmative. This raised Karna’s curiosity even more and he begged Krishna to share with him this secret. Krishna told Karna he was a kshatriya (king) and born to two great parents and the brother of five brave hearts, each one of whom were heroes in their own might. Karna asked Krishna: You do not mean Pandavas?”. Krishna says: “yes, I do mean of course the great pandavas. What surprises me is that nobody recognizes that you are a Pandava as this is written all over you”.
Karna still highly excited and emotional (the typical emotional response of the system once its bottleneck is touched), asked Krishna: “Is Kunti my mother and who is my father?” Krishna says your father is the same as the deity that you worship daily namely the Sun”. Karna pitied himself saying that the son of the Sun and the queen Kunti devi was known as the son of a charioteer to the whole world. Then Krishna had to tell him as to why his mother had no choice but to forego him as he was born before her marriage: She foolishly decided to check whether the boon given to her by Maharishi Durvasa, that once she chanted a mantra for a specific deity, that deity would appear and would give her a child, really worked or not. She chanted the mantra for the Sun that the rishi had given her, and the Sun appeared in front of her immediately and they got Karna as their son.
But Karna asked Krishna the question of the meeting: Why, despite knowing all this before, Krishna kept this as a secret and told him only now? Was he revealing the identity of Karna because the war between the Kauravas and the Pandavas was certain? He accused Krishna of cunningness and told him: “Now that I know that Arjun is my younger brother, how can I fight with him in the war and kill him? You have wrecked me psychologically Krishna and you have heavily disturbed my mental balance”. Now imagine if Krishna had revealed the identity to Karna a few weeks before or after this meeting. What would have been the result? What a perfectly timed revelation? ……………….Contd.