Estimated reading time: 9 minutes
* Karna donates his Kavach and Kundal to Indradev as a charity
* Indradev blesses Karna for honoring his promise with a weapon – Vasavi shakti (can be used only once)
* Karna becomes severely injured; Kunti takes care of him; Radha and Adhirath also comes to help their son; Duryodhan feels true pain and loss for the first time for Karna
* Shakuni reveals his true intentions – Gandhari’s sacrifice, Gift from Hastinapur or Hastinapur has to pay a price –> Mahabharat
* Kunti seeks Nakul and Sahadev’s help for saving Karna’s life
* Krishna speaks of killing Bhishma to have war equilibrium and stability for Pandavas’
Karna fulfills his promise and removes his earrings and Kavach from his body with much pain and blood oozes out when he realizes the removal. He gives it to Indradev who came there as an old Brahmin. Karna informs the Brahmin before removing his powers that he is Indradev who came to him because of his son – Arjun (as Arjun is Indradev’s son). The brahmin receives the Karna’s kavach and Kundal and then appears in the original form of Indradev. Around that same time, Arjun comes there and sees Karna has given up his powers to Indradev as a charity.
Arjun speaks that just to help his son Indradev has inflicted much pain on Karna. Indradev that in war, portions from God cannot be used and cites that the Kavach was a blessing from Suryanarayan (Suryadev). Arjun asks him whether he was confident of his victory, and says that even Karna had Kavach and Kundal, he would have defeated him. Furthermore, he reiterates that still he will only kill Karna but his father Indradev has taken away the happiness of victory from him and feels that people will make taunts on his victory and say that he won over a weak person. Arjun wants his father to return back Karna’s powers but Indradev informs that Karna will not take back his charity and he wholeheartedly asks Karna to seek a blessing from him.
Karna asks for some novel weapon (Astra) which can kill anybody with a mere mention of the name identifying the target. Karan receives a weapon as a blessing (Vasavi Shakti)from Indradev who informs him that the weapon can only be once in the battlefield and also when the enemy is in-front of him. Karna agrees to the stipulations of that weapon and vows to kill Arjun with the same weapon. Indradev goes from there and Karna walks back to his resting place with much pain and sadness. Karna couldn’t walk and falls on the ground and becomes unconscious. Kunti sees him in that dreadful situation and cries profusely.
On other end, Krishna hears the pain arising from the war and then encounters Shakuni who begins to come there and walks with shivering. Krishna speaks with Shakuni that shivering and nervousness appears in people whenever they comes to terms with the bad situation. Krishna speaks that Shakuni has a revenge plan and reminds of the time when Bhishma has realized the marriage of his sister Gandhari with the blind king Dhritrashtra. Krishna says that after that incident, Shakuni has made up his mind that his sister and her sons should be ruling Hastinapur always, and that belief is the reason of the war. Shakuni doesn’t accept Krishna’s line of argument regarding the reasons for the war and he suggests otherwise. Shakuni opens out regarding the main reason for the war and sheds more light on his thinking regarding the war.
Shakuni says that he was hurt to see his sister Gandhari marrying a blind king Dhritrashtra and on top of that she even sacrificed by blindfolding her eyes after her marriage. Shakuni says that tomorrow’s war is because of Hastinapur’s ego and informs Krishna that he has made a promise to himself that either Hastinapur will reward and give a gift to his sister for her sacrifice or pay a price for inflicting pain to him and his family. Thus, Shakuni’s intentions can be interpreted as if Hastinapur wins Mahabharat, then its a gift, and if they lose, then they would be paying a price for inflicting insult on Shakuni’s family. Krishna speaks that Shakuni regards sacrifice as a business and wants him to not consider work as sacrifice. Shakuni doesn’t listen to Krishna and speaks that Krisha himself is a big deceit in the entire world as he can employ non-righteous things to win the war of righteousness and pious (Dharm). Krishna reiterates that for protecting truth many non-righteous things will be used to realize the Dharm, both power and deceit will be used, lies will be told just to protect truth, and finally for a new beginning and developments, even if full destruction is needed that is also fine.
Shakuni speaks about Krishna’s confidence on Pandavas. Krishna replies that he is confident about Shakuni’s deceit working in favor of Pandavas and thinks that whenever Shakuni plays with deceit during the course of the war it will be advantageous to Pandavas and suggests Shakuni to be careful in his deceit activities. When Shakuni reminds Krishna of his promise to not hold weapons in the war, Krishna responds that he has only power of Dharm which is sufficient and he will be a shield for Pandavas. Krishna speaks on the widespread deaths as a result of the war with the soil of the battlefield becoming red. Krishna suggests that whoever dies in the war will see the Dharm in-front of their eyes before their death.
Kunti continues to takes care of Karna whose health continues to deteriorate. Duryodhan attends Karna and learns about Karna giving up his Kavach and Kundal as charity. Duryodhan speaks how come Karna has given his body part as a charity, and tells him what’s the need of this charity as everything will go away and questions him on why he respected his Dharm. This is the first time that Duryodhan felt real pain and look shattered for his friend Karna, and has not thought of only benefits. Karna asks for forgiveness from Duryodhan, and speaks that if had broken one promise then that would make him break another promise and potentially he would face difficulty in participating in the war. Karna assures Duryodhan that soon he will be healthy. Shakuni accompanies Duryodhan and is not impressed with Karna’s action and takes away Duryodhan from there. Shakuni also informs Duryodhan about the teachings of Balaram (Duryodhan’s teacher and Krishna’s brother) that the combination of ego and Dharm brings in downfall. Furthermore, Shakuni suggests that now they don’t need the services of Karna as he is not useful as he has returned his special powers and can be defeated. He wants Duryodhan to leave Karna in his situation and move ahead without him.
Karna’s parents – Radha and Adhirath visits Karna and Radha cries after seeing her son severely wounded. Sooner, Kunti finds Karna health to deteriorate further and the herbal doctor speaks that Karna is in a serious situation as he has given up his kavach and kundal which was almost like his body part. Radha taunts Kunti that she has taken away his son’s blessing and suggests that just for the sake of her sons Pandavas’ safety, she played a game. Radha says that his son’s rank was of kings but he lead a normal life for most of his life. She regards Kunti to be the one responsible for Karna’s situation and asks her how come she should be called Raj Mata ?. Kunti informs them that Karna is her son, and Karna’s father Adhirath speaks that her sons Nakul and Sahadev have the blessing of Ashwini herb which can only cure Karna at this critical moment. Karna’s wife Vrushali also requests Kunti to speak with her sons – Nakul and Sahadev after which Kunti contemplates to speak with her sons.
Kunti goes to meet Nakul and Sahadev who were discussing on their army requirements to match Kauravas army strength. Kunti looks gloomy and teary in front of them and she asks Nakul and Sahadev to come with her so as to help Karna as he needs there Ashwini herb. Nakul says that how could they can help an enemy as the enemy in turn will destroy them. Kunti speaks that war hasn’t started yet and says that humans act according to their circumstance but again they don’t accept her suggestion and asks how the current situation is different ? She begins to disclose about Karna’s identity of their brother. It has to be seen whether she will disclose to her sons about Karna’s identity just for saving his life. It turns out that Kunti didn’t reveal the identity as Arjun informs his brothers that Karna has donated his Kavach and Kundal and made a big sacrifice. Arjun wants Nakul and Sahadev to save Karna’s life as he wants him to be defeated and killed in the battlefield. Karna is helped then by Ashwini herb and he recovers from his wounds and thanks them.
Krishna learns that Kauravas has 11 Army units while Pandavas’ have only 7 Army units and to sustain a war both parties need equal army support. Krishna speaks that if Pandavas have full Dharm then they don’t need to worry about lower numbers in Army as Dharm alone will make them victorious. Therefore, Krishna suggests to Arjun and Pandavas’ that in this circumstance, Bhishma’s killing is the need of the hour, and they have to realize such a plan. In this way, Krishna himself deviating from the rules of the war as Bhishma can only be defeated by Shikhandi who is a women, and thus employing the first non-righteous plan for realizing a much bigger goal of bringing the Dharm in the entire Aryavart.
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