Karna: the lost prince

Getting to know the truth

Kunti was sitting in between her sons tears were following down her eyes and she was looking at her trembling hands , all her sons were looking at her worryingly and were waiting for her to start explaining.

"Yy..you...you have an elder brother." She said with much hesitation.

All the Pandavas eyes popped open.

"Who is he mother, and where is he? Why don't we know about him, until now?" Asked yudhisthira.

"Yes,mother ,why did you or anyone else, in the family told us about him ? " Said Bheem

"Why was it kept a secret from us and if today's incident had not happened were you ever going to tell us about him?" Said Arjun.

Kunti's chest heaved and tried to compose herself atleast for sometime time to tell the story of her first born and after that she will allow herself to completely fall apart ,she knew that after learning the whole truth ,her present sons would judge her ,contempt her or may even punish her but she is ready to face all that , it is about time that she face the consequences of her actions.

"I am going to tell you the whole truth ,I just want to request one thing from you that whatever you feel or want to say ,you must say it after I complete my story , because if I am intrrupted in between ,I will not be able to continue later on." Said Kunti.

All the brothers looked at each other ,they were curious, worried and scared about , whatever family secret their mother was going to reveal. They nodded at each other and Yudhisthira promised his mother that they will let her complete her story ,before saying anything or asking questions in response.

Kunti nodded took a deep breath and started,

"I was a teenage girl, living with my adoptive father ,the king of Kuntibhoj,one day sage Durvasa came to kuntibhoj and my father asked me to take proper care of the esteemed sage and serve him.
So ,I did as I was told ,the sage was very happy with me and gave me a boon ,after teaching a Mantra to me and with that mantra ,he told me that I would be able to evoke any God and get a child from him. He also told me not to use the mantra before marriage or it would be a curse for me and my family.

I was very happy and told this to my friend and head maid Priyamvada ,she did not believed me and was doubtful about the effectiveness of mantra.
I too became doubtful and wanted to test the mantra, I was a naive girl ,who had no Idea about the consequences of her actions,so one day a was praying to the sun god and a wish came to my mind ,I chanted the Mantra and evoked Suryanarayan.
Suddenly , a bright light appeared in front of me and next thing I know was that lord Suryanarayan himself was standing infront of me.
He was very angry at me and asked me ,why I evoked him.....I told him that I was only testing the validity of the mantra and since the mantra works ,he can go back and after my marriage I will again evoke him with my husband and then he must give me a son just like him.
He shouted at me for taking all of this so lightly and told me that he is bound by the power of this mantra and could not go back without fulfilling it...he raised his hand and a light like sun rays emerged from his hand and entered my womb.
I could feel it inside of me.
I was devastated and asked him to take it back, if I became a mother without getting married it will not only tarnish mine but my father's reputation as well.
He told me that I should had thought all of this before evoking him.
He told me that the son born from his aura would be a part of sun himself, he would also be born with divine kavach and kundal,which would be a part of his body, he would be called by the name Karna.
Then,he disappeared.
I was at loss ,did not know what to do,so I told my friend everything.
We decided to go live in forest for one year , give birth to the child and then come back without anyone knowing about him.
Do, I asked permission from my father and told him that I wanted to go live in forest for year to do penance and would be living in seclusion.
After much persuasion ,he agreed .
Me and priyamvada went to live in the forest , there after nine months I gave birth to a baby body and he was so beautiful, his aura was like of a mini sun.
I was happy seeing him but because of my duty towards my father and not wanting to tarnish his reputation,I knew o had to give up this child.
My maid prepared a basket and placed some gold coins and jewelry in it ,then I put that child in the basket and flowed him in river Ganga.
He was crying alot and even gripping my fingers ,as if telling his mother ,not to abandon him but I had made my heart of stone at that time.
I after few more months ,I returned back to Kuntibhoj ."

Kunti stifled a cry but tear were constantly leaking from her eyes.
All the pandavas were in shock and angry ,Arjun came forward with tears in his eyes and wanted to say something to his mother but Yudhisthira gripped his hand and moved his head sideways, knowing that their mother had more story to tell.
Bheem was gripping his mace in a deadly grip to the point that his knuckles were turning white.
Sahadeva and Nakula were hurdled together as if the twins were trying to find comfort in one another.
It was a heart-wrenching tale and they were scared,hurt , sad, filled with anguish.