Karna - The greatest Dani (Giver or one who does charity)

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Karna – The eldest son of Queen Kunti and eldest among Pandavas

Karna was raised a ‘Sudra’ (the labour class) – a charioteer’s son but was actually a ‘kshatriya’ by birth. He was given birth by Kunthi, a princess but was disowned because she was not married by then. (We see a similarity here with the story of Moses)

 

Though bought up by a ‘Sudra’ his kshtriya blood beckoned him to learn warfare technique and he learnt it from none other than the Great Guru Parasurama. He became archer par excellence.

Even today if anyone does charity (in India) he is termed as ‘karna’.  Karna’s name has become synonymous with charity. Because Karna would give in charity anything to a person who would meet him after he had done his ‘surya namaskaram’ (morning prayers which is done as ablutions given to Sun God in India) in the morning. Once King of devas, Indra came to ask him to part with his ‘kavach kundal’ (his natural armour with which he was born as which was his seconed skin). He knew if he gave away his kavach kundal, he could be killed by Arjuna, his arch rival and son of Lord Indra, yet he gave way his armour happily. He took charity to a new level that no one could/can match even today.

He proved his mettle as ‘commander-in-chief’ during Kurukshetra for three whole days. That talks about his warfare knowledge. His parents were extremely proud of him and looked after them with lots of love and respect. He proved himself to be a very good son.

Lord Krishna has immense respect for him for he knew ‘Dharma’ and was always advising his friend Duryodhan to follow it and discouraged him from following his uncle’s plans and wrong ideas.

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