Yudhisththir and Karna. ' a bit long read'

mohit_raja thumbnail
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Posted: 16 years ago
#1

Yudhishthir and Karna


Yudhishthir was the eldest son of King Pandu and he and his brothers were collectively known as the Pandavas. Pandu had been rendered impotent by a curse and his wives gave birth to the children by invoking the blessings of various demi-Gods. Kunti gave birth to Yudhishthir, Bhim and Arjun by invoking Dharma the God of Universal Law, Pavana the Wind God and Indra the King of Gods respectively. His second wife Madri gave birth to Nakula and Sahadeva by invoking the twin suns of the Sun God.
Yudhishthir was the paragon of righteousness and always put others before himself and his brothers. Though the other Pandavas had suffered greatly because of this in the past, they revered Yudhishthir and were not prepared to hear a word said against their elder brother. Lord Vishnu in his eighth incarnation as Krishna was the ally of the Pandavas in the epic war of Mahabharata against their cousins, the Kauravas. He was especially close to Arjun. Karna was a highly respected general of the Kaurava army and a close friend of Yudhishthir's cousin Duryodhan. He was known for his philanthropy and it was said that no one had gone empty handed from his door. Once Krishna told Arjun that Karna was a greater philanthropist than Yudhishthir. Arjun was annoyed that Krishna spoke so highly of an enemy and asked Krishna to prove his statement. Sandalwood was in short supply at that time and it was decided that Krishna and Arjun should disguise themselves as merchants and approach both Yudhishthir and Karna for sandalwood and judge their responses.

They first went to Yudhishthir and introduced themselves as merchants from a neighbouring town. They said that they were building a marriage hall and had run out of sandalwood. They needed a certain quantity of sandalwood to complete their task. Since they were not familiar with this city and they had heard a lot about Yudhishthir's generosity they were approaching him for assistance. Yudhishthir ordered a servant to collect the sandalwood from the timber merchants and invited the disguised Krishna and Arjun to have dinner with him. Dinner was soon over but there was no news from the servant. Instead of retiring at his usual time Yudhishthir stayed awake with his two guests attending to their every comfort. It was late when the servant returned. He had manages to procure a small quantity of sandalwood, but because of the untimely rains large stocks had become wet and hence unusable. Yudhishthir promised to have the procured quantity delivered the next day and requested the merchants to restart work. The remainder would be sent as soon as it dried and became usable.

Arjun was sure that Karna would not do better when the two went to Karna's palace the next day. They repeated the same story. Karna sent his aide who returned with the news that all stocks were already committed for sale and that the merchants would have to wait till the next lot came in. Arjun smiled at Karna's imminent defeat but Karna was calm and collected. He asked his guests to wait and went inside to his chambers. Arjun cursed Karna for neglecting them and kept on reminding Krishna about the personal attention Yudhishthir had lavished on them. After two hours Karna returned, an axe in his hand. His servants followed bearing lengths of sandalwood very obviously cut from items of furniture and from columns and beams and other supporting structure. He said that if the merchants needed more he would cut up the woodwork from other rooms of his palace as well. Thoroughly embarrassed, Krishna and Arjun thanked Karna and left.
Now there was no doubt in Arjun's mind that no matter how great Yudhishthir was, he was no match for Karna. Karna in reality was Kunti's eldest son, obtained by the blessings of the Sun God whilst she was unmarried, and floated down a river to be rescued and raised by foster parents. But the Pandavas learnt of this only after Arjun slew Karna in the battle of Mahabharata.

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ananyacool thumbnail
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Posted: 16 years ago
#2
😊This story is an attempt to tell about two different styles of leadership; Karna is a man who believes in doing the work by himself, he is the kind of leader who wouldn't hesitate to to go to the level of a soldier to complete his work . Imagine a CEO of a company going to the floor level to work on a machine!! That CEO is KARNA who is at ease with his sub-ordinates, whereas Yudhishthira's leadership is a bit different he believes in giving orders rather than looking into the matter himself ; he is not at ease with his sub-ordinates when it comes to work along with. He believed in comforting the guests(consumers in management sense) rather than look to their needs whereas Karna saw to it that the need of the consumer is meet
It is said that a leader is one who is able to take effective decision in all kinds of situation, but given the above situation Karna prevailed over Yudhishthira
ght_3fr3 thumbnail
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Posted: 16 years ago
#3
no matter if karna was wrong or rite , but, he give gr8 example of frindship, leadership, he was gr8 in different way from all pandaves, from mahbharat he is my fav ************************
Krinya thumbnail
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Posted: 16 years ago
#4
whatz the source of this artciel? plz mention..
Durga1994 thumbnail
Posted: 16 years ago
#5

Internet sources cannot be trusted. Please quote from Veda Vyas's original book. For religious epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata, Internet sources cannot be accepted as reliable soruces, because anyone can post anything.

Durga1994 thumbnail
Posted: 16 years ago
#6
@Mohit_Raja,
I've read the other posts in this Forum that relate to Pandavas/Kauravas.
I don't get it. why are you continuously puttting down the Pandavas? Jeesh, they were incarnations of Gods, and i really don't like how you talk against shri krishna, who was the image of lord vishnu. it's like saying something against lord rama. one must not say anything against gods, who have a reason for doing the things they did.
and it's not wrong liking a particular person in an epic, but it is wrong to put down those who are known as the Dharma side. you will even put down shri krishna to stand up for karna. i can't believe you...
what was the point of this article? to say that karna was better than yudhisthira? we already know that you think karna is better than shri krishna, what to say of yudhisthira. so please stop bringing up the topic again and again. it's boring to read.
mohit_raja thumbnail
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Posted: 16 years ago
#7
hmm ok from now on, i am not going to make any threads about karna, no bringing down to any pandavas, no insulting to lord krishna.
promise.
mohit_raja thumbnail
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Posted: 16 years ago
#8

Originally posted by: Durga1994

Internet sources cannot be trusted. Please quote from Veda Vyas's original book. For religious epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata, Internet sources cannot be accepted as reliable soruces, because anyone can post anything.

i agree you on this point that internet is not always 100% right.

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