Justification for killing Drona,karna
Justification for killing Drona,karna- because they joined with evil forces
The Kuru-war, supposed to be a ‘
Dharma-Yuddha,’ gradually degenerated into one with ‘
Victory-at-any-cost’ becoming the chief protagonist, and ‘
Dharma’ the main victim! The rules of '
fair' warfare framed at the beginning of the war, were thrown to the winds as the war rolled on through its bloodiest phases. Abhimanyu was killed by seven
maharatha’s in of one of the most cowardly acts! It is said the four pillars of the Kaurava side - Bhisma, Drona, Karna and Duryodhana were also killed unethically.
Traditionally accepted facts, nay ‘
interpretation of text’ hazes our judgement so much that we seldom feel the urge to take a firsthand plunge into the ‘text’ itself to see what is the ‘fact in the text’ if not the ‘fact of history’! However, a close reading of the ‘text’ relating to the death of Bhisma, Drona, Karna and Duryodhana reveals different shades of the accepted myths! –
After Bhisma’s death, Drona became the supreme general of the Kaurava army.
When he was exterminating the warriors, (Section CXCII of
Drona Parva) ‘the Rishis Viswamitra, and Jamadagni, and Bharadwaja, and Gautama, and Vasishtha, and Kasyapa, and Atri, and the Srikatas, the Prisnis, Garga, the Valkhilyas, the Marichis, the descendants of Bhrigu and Angiras, and diverse other sages of subtle forms’ met him.
This meeting could not have taken place in the battlefield! The delegation of the Rishis must have come during a recess of war!
They rebuked him on four counts:
1) He was fighting unrighteous.
2) It did not befit him to perpetrate such exceedingly cruel deeds.
3) A ‘film of error’ shrouded him and he should adhere now to the eternal path.
4) He burnt men that were unacquainted with weapons with superior Brahma weapon.
Following this severe admonition, Drona became exceedingly cheerless in battle. –
He had lost the support of the Rishis!
Krishna, feeling Drona would annihilate their army, advised Yudhishthira -‘falsehood is better than truth.’ -
Bhima slew a mighty elephant named Aswatthaman, belonging to Indravarman, the chief of the Malavas,
And so when Dronacharya asks Yudhisthir whether his son really died, the elder Pandava replied “अश्वत्थामा हतः इति, नरोवा कुंजरोवा…” which meant Ashwattama is dead but whether he is a human or an elephant, I am not sure.
Yudhishthira's car that had stayed at a ‘height of four fingers' breadth from the surface of the earth’ touched the earth! ‘Hearing those words from Yudhishthira, Drona could not fight as before.' Nevertheless, he was still fighting. It was now Bhima’s turn to chastise Drona
Bhima, holding the car of Drona, called his Guru ‘wretched amongst Brahmanas’, and exterminator of the Kshatriya order. In a rare inspiration of eloquent rhetorical flow, Bhima called him self-centric and avaricious. Bhima, in fact, gave a forceful voice to the opinion of the Kshatriyas and Rishis about Drona. -
Besides, in the din and bustle of a terrible war, Yudhishthira’s dramatic overtone and undertone is as absurd as his car suddenly becoming some sort of an aeroplane. The entire description is rhetorical! What the poet wants to drive home is that, a war’s greatest toll is Truth!
Even a person like Yudhishthira is bound to yield to the real-politick of war! Moreover, Yudhishthira and Bhima’s lies had hardly any effect on Drona! He continued to fight. He did not lay aside weapons; those were exhausted! -
True, Drona and Bhishma were great men. They were not evil men. They did not do anything immoral for their own gain. But they had joined the forces of the unjust Duryodhana.
Similarly, Kama was also a good man. He had respect for Dharma and for Krishna. While Karna was pulling out one of the wheels of his chariot that had struck in the mud, Krishna asked Arjuna to shoot and kill Karna. Karna cried out to Arjuna, "Fight justly." Arjuna then began to doubt if Krishna's advice was just. Krishna said, "Who is to distinguish between Dharma justice) and Adharma (injustice) ? Not those who have themselves been unjust, not those who have been against the just. Only those who are themselves just and live for the sake of justice can do So it is right to kill your enemies in this war. Those who are against Dharma and their followers should be wiped out by using all possible means. This is Dharma' so said Krishna. Accordingly Karna was killed.
Krishna's activities are neither fair nor unfair, but simply transcendental and completely spiritual.
One who understands this mystery also becomes spiritual and transcendental.
janma karma ca me divyam
evam yo vetti tattvatah
tyaktva deham punar janma
naiti mam eti so 'rjuna
TRANSLATION
One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities does not, upon leaving the body, take his birth again in this material world, but attains My eternal abode, O Arjuna.
PURPORT
The Lord's descent from His transcendental abode is already explained in the 6th verse. One who can understand the truth of the appearance of the Personality of Godhead is already liberated from material bondage, and therefore he returns to the kingdom of God immediately after quitting this present material body. Such liberation of the living entity from material bondage is not at all easy. The impersonalists and the yogis attain liberation only after much trouble and many, many births. Even then, the liberation they achieve -- merging into the impersonal brahmajyoti of the Lord -- is only partial, and there is the risk of returning to this material world. But the devotee, simply by understanding the transcendental nature of the body and activities of the Lord, attains the abode of the Lord after ending this body and does not run the risk of returning to this material world. In the Brahma-samhita (5.33) it is stated that the Lord has many, many forms and incarnations: advaitam acyutam anadim ananta-rupam. Although there are many transcendental forms of the Lord, they are still one and the same Supreme Personality of Godhead. One has to understand this fact with conviction, although it is incomprehensible to mundane scholars and empiric philosophers. As stated in the Vedas (Purusa-bodhini Upanisad):
http://www.freeindia.org/biographies/gods/krishna/page12.htm
Mahabharata: The Myth of the Death of Bhisma, Drona, Karna, Duryodhana by Indrajit Bandyopadhyay
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Chapter 4 Verse 9
