Accepting the will of providence!

 

Arjun released razor sharp arrows cutting Asvasena (son of Takshaka) to pieces as he flew through’ the sky. Sri Krsna then lifted Arjun’s chariot & as He was doing this, Karna managed to pierce Him with ten arrows. Flaring up with rage, Arjun retaliated by piercing Karna deeply & knocking off his crown and earrings, as well as some pieces of his armor. As Arjun continued to strike him, Karna became extremely pained & covered with blood. Finally, after being repeatedly pierced in the chest by Arjun’s arrows, Karna cast aside his bow & quiver as his head reeled due to dizziness

 

When Arjun saw that his adversary was in such a vulnerable condition, he desisted from further attempts to kill him. However, when Sri Krsna saw his reluctance, He angrily shouted: O Arjun, now is the time to kill your enemy!

 

Taking heed of Sri Krsna’s words, Arjun resumed shooting his arrows, but by that time Karna recovered & was able to counterattack. Arjun then picked up a mighty celestial arrow. Karna’s final hour had arrived & so Kāla invisibly came to him & said: In accordance with the Brāhmanā’s curse, the earth will now devour your chariot wheel

 

At that very moment the mantras for invoking brahmāstra that Karna had received from Parasurāma disappeared from his memory. While Karna racked up his brain in an attempt to remember mantras, the earth suddenly grabbed his left chariot wheel so that it appeared to sink into mud

 

As his chariot ground to a halt, Karna became so frustrated & depressed that he lost all composure & began waving his arms like a madman. He raved: Oh! Even though righteousness is supposed to be the protector of all who follow her path, she is now failing me, although I had always acted as the very emblem of virtue!

 

Because Arjun repeatedly pierced him with arrows & due to his chariot wheel stuck in ground, Karna became almost indifferent to maintaining his life. Still, he continued to fight back, repeatedly attacking Sri Krsna & Arjun

 

Arjun then wounded Karna severely, causing him to tremble. It was at that time that Karna decided to make one last effort to exert himself to the utmost. With great endeavour He tried to invoke Brahmāstra while Arjun released an aindra weapon, causing 1000’s of arrows to stream from his bow. In response to Arjun invoking Brahmāstra, heroic Karna not only baffled it with his own, but also cut his adversary’s bowstring. As Arjun restrung, Karna repeatedly cut his bow string in half. It appeared that Karna gained advantage in fight & so Sri Krsna once again urged Arjun to employ superior weapons

 

Then as Arjun once again strung his bow, Karna jumped from his chariot to try & free his embedded wheel. With both arms Karna feverishly strained to pull his chariot wheel out of the mud. At that time, Arjun invoked an Agni weapon & united with it the power of his Raudra weapon

 

Karna managed to pull up the entire earth, with its seven island & seven seas, a distance of four-fingers breath, but while doing so he shed tears of frustration, for inspite of exerting superhuman strength, Mother Earth would not release his wheel

 

Accepting the will of providence takes a lot of courage & intelligence. We always feel it easy to advise others at the time of misery, but when we face such incidents in our own lives, it becomes extremely difficult for us to accept. Life is very smooth & sounds happy to us whenever things happen the way we want it. But the actual test comes when things don't happen "Our" way.

 

We become free from material hankering, envy & fear, when we absorb ourselves in the glories of the Lord and accept what comes our way as his blessing. We are disturbed because of the non-acceptance of the realities of the material world. Always the question arises -why has it happened like this? Why has it not happened like that?" We are not able to accept reality as it is & are disturbed

 

Tolerate, accept and adjust. This should be our formula for living life peacefully

 

yatreḍyante kathā mṛṣṭās tṛṣṇāyāḥ praśamo yataḥ
nirvairaṁ yatra bhūteṣu nodvego yatra kaścana

 

Thoughts? #gameoflife