Karna - Part 3 of 8

Soon Karna became Sage Parashurama's favourite student and the two of them used to spend countless time together talking about everything under the sun. The Sage happily taught the warrior the advanced fighting techniques and Karna absorbed the knowledge like a sponge.

As was the practice between them, the teacher and the student went on frequent hunts to the forest. After one such hunt, the sage became extremely tired. Karna sensing this, went and sat down under the shade of a tree and offered his lap to the sage as a pillow for the sage to lie down. Smiling happily and sage laid on Karna's lap and went into a deep, blissful sleep.

Karna watched the tired face of the sage wondering how such a fierce warrior could look so innocent in his sleep. Part of him was feeling proud that the sage trusted him implicitly knowing that he would protect the sage no matter what...

However now seemed to be the time for Karna's lies to catch up with him......

The place where Karna had chosen to sit down was infested with worms and insects. As Karna sat stock-still hoping that he would not disturb the sage, a huge worm slowly made its way towards Karna's thigh. Karna tried shooing it away, however he saw that any movement from him disturbed the sage and sat perfectly stock still....

The worm climbed up onto Karna's lap and Karna was shocked to find that it had a sharp sting. Karna almost shouted when he remembered the sage lying on his lap. Gritting his teeth, Karna firmly kept his mouth closed. The worm by now had bored itself deep inside Karna's thigh and Karna could not remove it without moving. 

Blood spurted out of the wound and Karna tried his best to ignore the throbbing pain in his thigh....The blood soon covered the cloth and slowly spread towards the head of the sage....

Sage Parashurama woke up with a start when the stench of blood reach his nostrils. Even as he woke up Sage Parashurama realized that a part of his head was covered in blood. Turning his head, Sage Parashurama looked at Karna whose face was lined with pain and stubbornness. He looked angrily at the worm and the worm suddenly dissolved in the blood and fell dead and a huge being stood in its place.

'Who are you?' Sage Parashurama asked the being.

'I am Dansa, an Asura!' the being said in a deep rumbling voice. 'You have saved me from this life...Thank you! Thank you very much!'

Sage Parashurama looked confused as the being continued. 'I belong to the first yuga – the Satya yuga or the Krita yuga! When I was younger....I....I....' The Asura fumbled and then cleared his throat and continued again. 'I...fell in love with Sage Bhrigu's wife!'

Sage Parashurama looked angrily at the asura. Sage Bhrigu was his ancestor. The asura hurriedly continued. 'It was for this reason that the sage cursed me to be born as a worm!' Dansa looked crestfallen as he continued. 'The sage said that only when I meet Rama from his clan, my curse would end! You are the great Parashurama and today my curse ends!' Saying this, Dansa vanished from there.

Sage Parasurama turned his attention to Karna who was looking at the entire scene stupefied, the pain in his thigh forgotten. Sensing that the sage was watching him, Karna turned his attention to the sage. However he was shocked to see the sage angry with him. 'You cannot be a Brahmin!' the sage said sharply. 'No Brahmin would have the capacity to endure so much pain! You have the makings of a warrior! Tell me the truth! Who are you?'

Karna took in a deep breath and realized that he had no other option other than to tell the sage the truth. 'Sir! I...I am Radheya, the son of Radha and Adhiratha. Adhiratha is a fisherman who comes from a charioteer's family. I...'

'So you lied to me?' Sage Parashurama asked Karna, his voice deadly cold and without any emotion.

'No....You don't understand...' Karna said fumbling. 'I lied because I was afraid you would not teach me....And I wanted to learn...I so desperately wanted to learn the advanced warfare techniques....All my life I have wanted nothing more....nothing more than....'

'SILENCE!' The sage thundered. 'I trusted you and you lied to me and you lied to me because you wanted to learn warfare techniques....Radheya I curse you....!' The sage said angrily. 'The knowledge that you have got from a lie will fail you....It will fail you when you need it the most!'

Karna was looking at the sage numb, wishing that he could say anything....anything to make all this go away. But all that he saw was the furious sage standing before him, unrelenting....I did this for knowledge...He wanted to scream but he knew that the sage would not listen....

***********

Elsewhere, Dronacharya had finished teaching the Pandavas and the Kauravas all the warfare techniques. Much to Duryodhana's anger(Duryodhana was the eldest Kaurava), Arjuna, the third Pandava became a brilliant archer and was Dronacharya's favourite student. Dronacharya taught Arjuna not only archery but much more. Duryodhana, Dhirdarashtra's son was dismayed. Hastinapur was originally ruled by Pandu. But Pandu had gone to the forests to perform penance for the killing of a sage. So, in the absence of Pandu, Dhirdarashtra – his blind, elder brother had ruled the kingdom.

Now Duryodhana,fueled by his maternal uncle – Shakuni, nursed an ambition to rule the kingdom of Hastinapur after his father. Initially he was glad when the Pandavas stayed in the forest. Because then his claim to the throne was undisputed. Unfortunately after the death of Pandu, his wife Kunti (Pritha) came to Hastinapur with her five sons.

Duryodhana who was entertaining thoughts of defeating the five Pandavas was shocked when he saw them. He realized that though all the five of them were formidable warriors, Bhima and Phalguna (another name of Arjuna) were such powerful warriors that singlehandedly they could defeat all of the hundred Kaurava brothers.
Duryodhana was more than confident of his own mace wielding capabilities and knew that he could match upto to Bhima on any day.
But Duryodhana studied Arjuna, he realized that he had absolutely no one to match up to Arjuna's skills...