Mahabharata
Major Sections
Hinduism

THE DEATH OF KARNA

"Waste no more time, Arjuna," cried Madhava. "Send your shaft and slay your wicked enemy." Arjuna's mind was wavering. His hand hesitated to do what was not chivalrous.

But when Krishna said this, the poet says: "Arjuna accepted this command of the Lord and sent an arrow which cut and severed the head of the Radheya."

The poet had not the heart to impute this act to Arjuna who was the embodiment of nobility. It was the Lord Krishna that in cited Arjuna.

To kill Karna when he was vainly trying to raise his chariot out of the mud in which it had stuck. According to the code of honour and laws of war prevailing then, it was wholly wrong.

Who could bear the responsibility for breaches of dharma except the Lord Himself?

The lesson is that it is vanity to hope, through physical violence and war, to put down wrong.

The battle for right, conducted through physical force leads to numerous wrongs and, in the net result, adharma increases.

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About The Death Of Karna
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