Time Line of Krishna Shishtai Contd.

Mahabharat says that Krishna invited Karna on his Ratha when he returned from Hastinapur to Upaplavya. They travelled together a short distance and then had a dialogue. Then Krishna continued onwards and Karna returned. The text does not state the story of the event directly. The Kauravas came to know about it and asked Sanjaya about what transpired. How he came to know about it? It is NOT stated. Why the indirect narration is not clear. During this dialogue Krishna told Karna that he was actually Kunti’s son. And so elder brother of Pandavas and so he should leave Duryodhana’s side and join Pandavas. Then Yudhishthira will give him due respect as the eldest Pandava and he will become King at Indraprastha.

Karna rejected the suggestion saying he cant suddenly give up his valued friendship of Duryodhana. If he did that the world would say that he was afraid of Arjuna.

He also said that he knew that he was Kunti’s Son!

Two questions arise. 1. How Karna knew he was Kunti’s son? 2. Equally important, how Krishna knew this. (This is not a question for those who believe he was Paramatma but for others it is a valid one.)

There is also the story, a straight narration here, that before war began, apparently while Karna was still in Hastinapur, Kunti herself met Karna, on the river bank, in the early morning and told him that he was her first son, born before her marriage to Pandu. (Who was Karna’s father has not been stated anywhere. Again, if you believe Sun was his father then there is no question.) She asked Karna to join the Pandavas. Here also Karna refused to be a Pandava, after having lived his whole life as a son of Radha and Adhiratha. Important point is that he did not say that he knew he was Kunti’s son!

Logically speaking, Kunti-Karna dialogue must take place earlier than Karna-Krishna dialogue, since Karna said to krishna that he knew, he was Kunti’s son. Since HE was not Bhagavan in any case, his dialogue with Kunti ought to have preceded to justify his claim.

So what was the sequence of events?

It appears to me that when Krishna reported to Kunti and Vidura the failure of his mission, Kunti herself told Krishna that Karna was her son and asked him to meet Karna and persuade him to leave Duryodhana’s side. Krishna may have asked her to try it herself first so that Karna may not doubt the truth. Next day morning Kunti tried it and when Karna rejected her request, she may have reported her failure to Krishna. Then, as a last ditch effort, Krishna himself took Karna along with him when leaving Hastinapur and made the request. When he also got a rejection, Krishna knew that war is on hand and sent his message to the Kauravas that both sides should meet at Kurukshetra after 7 days for war.

I therefore am of the view that after the meeting at Kaurava darabar on the third day, Kunti met Karna in the morning on fourth day and then Krishna left Hastinapur in the afternoon with Karna and after their talk, proceeded to Upaplavya without wasting any further time. In the evening he reported the failure to Pandavas. With all events accounted for, the mission took total 4 days.

Shri Oak has proposed a different timeline which I will analyze next.