Originally posted by: medha00
Kunti is always judged
because she abandoned her first born due to fear, impulse and other things that
define adolescence.
But she had three sons
and two step sons that she raised well; they all grew up to be fine young men.
As much as I don't like her, I will give it to her as a mother. Whatever kind
of human she was, whatever kind of a woman she was is not pertinent to the fact
that she was a fine mother. Her sons stayed away from greed, jealousy etc. and
she tried and was successful in keeping them away from it too. They were raised
in a way that they were never not satisfied with whatever they had.
So why does she get
targeted on the basis of a mistake she made as a teenager, teen pregnancy is
frowned upon even today, especially if the girl is unmarried (and not just in
India but other countries too),which results in so many atrocities, not just
against the female but also the child too. New born dumped in garbage? Abortions?
New born killed?
But kunti is quick to be
judged. "She could have done this; she could have done that, so many options, so
many alternatives blah blah."
(everyone who did not made mistakes as a youth, throw a stone at her)
What about the more
mature and wiser personalities involved? Rishi Durvasa and Suryadeva, both are
to be held accountable alongside her, if not more. Durvasa was a famous sage,
quite elderly and intelligent and Suryadeva was, well Surydeva ...They both were
more experienced, more aged than a teenage girl. They should have known better.
Give a brand new Iphone 5 to a youth and tell them to not use it, see how it
functions.
So what steps could these two have taken to avert
the disaster?
Couldn't durvasa give
the Mantra to her Guardian? Warn her that don't use it till you are ready to
become a mother? Wait till marriage? What about Suryadeva?
Keep in mind the Moderators Note here while making a comment :
Karna never knew that Kunti was his mother, wasn't interested or curious about it, and had no issues w/ being the son of Adiratha/Radha.
I don't think you get why Kunti gets all the opprobrium. It's well deserved, and here's why
- After the tournament, even if she was at a loss of what to do then, she had ample opportunities to fix things: she was no longer a kid. It's not like she never had any private moments w/ her sons. She could have sent for Karna privately and revealed to him the circumstances that she had to abandon him, and request him not to make enemies of her other sons. In lieu of that, she could have offered him a respectable status within the family, at least as her acknowledged son, if not Pandu's. Similarly, she could also have summoned Pandu's 5 sons and told them who Karna really was, and that they should apologize to him. At that stage, Karna was not in Duryodhan's debt - he could easily have thanked him, returned Anga, and join Yudisthir in his attempts to bridge the gap b/w the Pandavas & Kauravas
- Since she made no attempts to do that, she had no business approaching him at all. The only reason she approached him b4 the war was one of 2 possibilities, depending on how charitably one wants to look at her
- She wanted to save her other 5 sons from him, knowing that he was the only one capable of killing them. She didn't care about him at all
- She wanted to demoralize him (like Krishna did) by revealing to him this secret (she didn't know that Krishna had already done it for her) so that while her other sons would fight him wholeheartedly, he'd fight them less willingly than he was to date
- She wanted to give him his rightful part of Pandu's inheritance.
- Since she had given him nothing throughout his life, approaching him like a beggar particularly reflects badly on her, given that in the war, every one else - all her bahus (except Chitrangada) had lost their sons, but she didn't lose any of hers, thanks to Karna's gift. But she apparently had no issues w/ her grandsons getting killed - be they the Pandava sons, or Karna's.
The point that Karna sympathizers have is that if Kunti wanted Karna to recognize her as a mother, the least that he deserved from her was her caring about him. But the truth is - notwithstanding all the serials - that she never did. Given that fact, which is hard to contradict based on the evidence, Kunti had no business approaching Karna for anything.
Another thing - as a kshatrani, Kunti knew that one of the duties of her sons was to fight & die in battle. Far more innocent warriors than her sons, who might have had a bright future had they survived, died - Sveta, Uttar, Abhimanyu, Iravana, Kshatradharma, et al. So what was so special about her that all her sons had to be kept alive after the war, even if they lost each of their kids? What sort of a grandmother was she? Since her sons were kshatriyas, they ran the risk of dying in battle. Did Draupadi, Subhadra, or anyone else approach the killers of their sons b4 the war begging them not to kill their sons?
It's true that people sympathize w/ Karna for being discarded as a newborn. It's also true that he had loving parents in Adiratha & Radha. But that would be relevant in today's society, not that era's. It's the equivalent of a baby being born to a millionaire, being put up for adoption and adopted out to a family that can barely pay for his livelihood. Let's say that that kid grows up and through his own genius becomes a tycoon that then competes w/ and puts his biological parent's company in the red. Would the birth parents of that kid then have the right to go to him, reveal his original parentage and then beg him not to do a leveraged buyout of their disintegrating business empire?
Remember, Karna had to put up w/ being insulted as a sutaputra, not merely being called one. He was denied knowledge of the Brahmashira even though it was given to Arjun, just on the basis of caste. For those who think that he didn't have the right temperament, neither did Ashwatthama, but Drona gave it to the latter b'cos he was a Brahmin Dhritarashtra. Honestly, does anybody believe that had Karna successfully remembered and used the Brahmashira against Arjun in a manner similarly to Ashwatthama, that he would have diverted it at the wombs of the Pandava womenfolk? I for one don't for a minute, b'cos Karna was nowhere as vile as Ashwatthama, as Bheeshma & Drona apologists might like to believe.
Nonetheless, despite getting nothing from Kunti, Karna did the best he could from what he learnt from both Drona & Parashurama, and as a result, not only did he get Anga as a gift from Duryodhan, he also got Champa/Malini as a gift from Jarasandha. So he was hardly complaining. But one can blame Kunti for Karna not being eligible to even contest for Draupadi (she'd still have had the rights to choose if both Karna & Arjun had successfully won the competition).
In short, Kunti was not judged for merely abandoning Karna, that by itself would have been fine. If you notice, nobody ever blames Vishwamitra & Menaka for abandoning Shakuntala. What makes Kunti a real loser is her going back to that son that she abandoned and begging him to spare her other sons' lives. As a kshatrani, she should have been willing to risk losing all her sons, as far more innocent women than her in the war did. 😡
P.S. Re-reading your post, I recognize that you're trying to hold Durvasa & Surya-dev responsible for what happened. But that's really giving Kunti a pass, which she didn't deserve.
Surya-dev couldn't do anything as long as Kunti wasn't willing to own up to paternity of Karna. I generally despise Durvasa, but even he couldn't have blown her secret, w/o her permission. Yeah, he could have promised her a boon just b4 her marriage, or made the mantra conditional that it would only work post marriage. But I don't see what Surya-dev could have done, given her unwillingness to fess up about it to the world.
Yeah, Durvasa might have warned her against experimenting w/ the boon, while Suryadev - could devas just appear on earth and declare that _____ was their son?
Oh, and one more thing - Kunti knew from his armor and earrings who he was at the tournament itself. The Pandavas knew him from b4 that @ Drona's gurukul, but didn't know that he was their half-brother.
Edited by .Vrish. - 10 years ago
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