The next day Madanmanjari did her Shringar in such a way that even Devs could not resist her charm. She wore a beautiful light pink colored dress which enhanced all her curves beautifully. She was confident that today Karna would completely surrender himself to her.
Madanmanjari, 'Your guru asked you to meditate to please Tridevs. But after today, all your efforts will be only to please me. You yourself will profess your love to me and leave everything for me.' Thinking that she reached to Mahendra Giri Parvat.
It was early morning. Sun was still not completely risen. Karna was sitting in the lotus position in front of a beautiful waterfall. He was meditating to have complete control over his senses. Karna always had problems with religious rituals. He never chanted any mantra to please the Devs. But even if his dislike towards the Devs, he somehow never made himself hate Suryadev. He always felt a strange connection towards Suryanarayan. Though he never worshipped Lord Suryanarayan but he always loved to wake up early even before the sunrise and observed the beauty of the dawn. Today he was trying to obey his Guru and meditate to concentrate his mind. But he was feeling that something was going to happen. He was feeling restless but tried to control his mind. Suddenly he heard a jingle of payel. Opening his eyes he saw a beautiful maiden wearing a very seductive dress was coming towards him. He observed the woman and realized that she was the princess whom he met a few days back. The girl came in front of him and said, 'So we meet again darling. I am really impressed with your strength. So I came here to thank you properly.' Karna said, 'There's no need to thank me Princess, I just did my duty as a human. But what are you doing here alone? You are the Gandharva princess. You shall not roam in this place alone. Now please return to your Lok and let me finish my meditation.'
Madanmanjari, 'What will you gain by doing hard penance dear. Such a handsome and strong man like you shall not waste his youth in doing hard penance. What do you achieve by staying with sages here alone, in the forest? You know, with your strength you shall be a king. You can have all luxuries in your life. You can enjoy all the beauties and pleasure of life.'
Karna thought, 'Why is this princess not leaving? What does she want?' So he asked, 'Princess, I am not interested in any luxury. Right now my only goal is to obey my Gurus' order and finish my training. So please, I am requesting you to leave me and let me finish my meditation.'
Madanmanjari was irritated. Many sages, Devputras and Gandharvas could do anything to please her but today this man was not showing any interest. She said, 'Every man needs pleasure my dear. You are just pretending to be indifferent to my beauty but actually, you are not. You are just a hypocrite and today I will prove that. Soon you will confess your feelings to me.'
Madanmanjari was an expert in singing and dancing. She started to sing in her melodious voice. Her voice was so soothing that even the Gods in heaven were mesmerized. She also started dancing and her beauty captivated the entire nature. Karna was also enchanted by her beauty. He had neither seen such a beautiful woman in his entire life and nor did he had a chance to go near any girl before. Her close proximity was also rising the desire in him. Madanmanjari also understood his condition. Karna tried hard to keep himself still and continue his meditation. He tried to separate his mind from his body and controlled himself. Madanmanjari then sensually came towards Karna and hugged him. She held him tightly and kissed him. Her soft body, her enchanting smell, soft lips created sparks in his body. Karna thought, 'I have to resist her. I cannot lose myself to her. My intuition is saying that she is not a good woman. She is just doing this to seduce me, not for love. I cannot fall for such a woman.' Here Madanmanjari mentally laughed. She knew Karna could not resist her for long. Here Karna closed his eyes. He almost surrendered himself to the beautiful maiden but suddenly he felt someone called him, 'Bhrata, I know you can do anything.'
Karna opened his eyes and saw Shon was standing in front of him. His entire body was covered with blood. He was smiling sadly looking at Karna and said, 'Bhrata, till now you have faced so many hurdles to bring changes in the society. You dedicated your life to avenge my and others' death. For that, you even go against the Devs as well. You cannot accept defeat now bhrata. You cannot surrender yourself to mere lust. Fight bhrata, fight. My brother is a warrior and you can do it.'
Karna woke up from the stupor. he jerked and freed himself from her embrace and shoved her on the ground.
Karna roared, 'Madanmanjari, you wretched woman. How dare you try to impure me? What do you think that I fall for such a vile creature like you? I am the disciple of Sage Parshuram and Viswamitra and you are trying to tarnish my purity and distract me from my path. No one has the ability to do that. Not even the Gods. Now get lost before I do something bad to you.'
Madanmanjarai screamed in frustration, 'You scoundrel! You dared to hit me. Just wait, I will teach you such a lesson that your mere existence will be wiped out from the universe. You challenged the Princess of Gandharvlok. Now you will face the consequence.' saying that she vanished.
Karna was completely shaken by the incident. He was almost fallen for her charm. How could he? He had failed his Guru. He was still not ready for Brhammastra. He had no control over his Ripu. Karna was ashamed of himself. So he decided to confess everything to Lord Parshuram and left his Ashram. After everything, he had no right to stay here.
'Karna,' Lord Parshuram called him. Karna fell on his feet. He was ashamed and he could not even look at his Guru's.
Lord Parshuram, 'Karna why are you sad?'
Karna cried, 'Pravu, I am not eligible to be your disciple. I almost committed a great a sin.'
Lord Parshuram, 'You almost did but actually not. You controlled yourself on time.'
Karna, 'But I felt lust Gurudev, I felt desire for her. If I cannot control my Ripus then how can I be worthy of Brahmmastra? How can I be your student? I failed you Gurudev, for that I will face every punishment you want to give me.'
Lord Parshuram, 'Who said that you have failed. Who said that you have no control over yourself? Yes, I know what you felt but you also controlled yourself on time. My son, today you passed your test. You are not a sage, you are a young man. So it is normal to feel desire for a beautiful woman but a real man is one who has full control over himself. Even feeling lust you have stopped yourself. Even Devs cannot resist that Gandharva Kanya's seduction but you did that. I must say dear, you are a true warrior who can even win over himself.'
Later sage Viswamitra asked Lord Parshuram, 'My Lord, are you going to give Karna Brahmmastra now?'
Lord Parshuram, 'One more test sage Viswamitra. If Karna can control his anger, then I will give him every knowledge I have. And this test will be the hardest one for him as Karna's anger is very dangerous.'
On the other side, Princess Madan Manjari was plotting revenge. She knew that she would never be succeded to have Karna as her lover. She thought, 'If you can never be mine, then you have no right to live. I will destroy you.' She was making a plan to kill Karna. But it would be very difficult as Karna was a great warrior. Suddenly she remembered that Karna was complaining against Indradev. So she got an idea. She went to Indralok. Indradev was enjoying his time with the apsaras'. He then saw the Gandharva princess was coming towards him. He was surprised to see her disheveled condition and then asked her, 'Princess Madanmanjari, what are you doing here and how did you get these injuries?'
Madanmanjari, 'Indradev, there is an impudent man called Karna. He is evil and tried to harm me with bad intentions. I want justice Indradev. He was also talking against you as well. You know it was he who asked the villagers near Mahendra Giri parvat not to worship you. He doesn't even respect you as a Dev. Hey Vasav, you shall punish him.'
Indra dev was an arrogant king and said, 'A mere human and such an audacity. I will punish him and make him fall at your feet. I will show everyone that I am superior to everyone. In future, no one will dare to go against me. I will send my soldiers to defeat that man.'
Madananjari, 'No Dev, he is a student of Lord Parshuram. Your soldiers cannot do anything. You, yourself have to punish him.'
Next day Indradev went to Mahendragiri Parvat. He looking for the young man as Madanmanjari described and near a waterfall he saw a young man was meditating.
Indra dev, 'So this is the young man who insulted me and Gandharva princess. He is just a young man and Madanmanjari was scared of him? I can easily teach him a lesson but fighting such a young, weak boy is against my honor. I will give him a chance to seek forgiveness first. If he accepts his mistake and asks for forgiveness, then I will decide what to do next.'
Thinking that Indradev asked haughtily, 'Hey young man, so you are Karna who dared to insult an esteemed princess and challenge my authority?'
Karna opened his eyes. Due to yesterday's incident, he was already irritated but now seeing Indradev in front of him, his anger increased by many folds. But then he remembered his Guru Viswamitra's words, 'Karna, don't let anger cloud your judgment. Whenever deal with any situation, how angry you are, always act peacefully. Don't show your anger to your opponent.'
So he politely said, 'Yes I am Karna. But neither did I insult anyone without reason, nor do I know you to challenge your authority. Pray tell your name first so that I can recognize you.'
Indra dev angrily, 'I am Indra, the king of Devas. And you a mere human asked the villagers not to do my Puja. You are such a vile man who even touched a Gandharva princess with impure intentions. How dare you? If you don't want to face my wrath then ask for forgiveness from me and princess Madanmanjari. Only then I will give you less punishment. Otherwise, I will give you such a death that even Yamraj will be afraid of me.'
Karna, 'First of all, I did not ask anyone to do anything against you. It's you who did not do his duty towards humanity properly. The poor villagers had no rain for the last few years. they have nothing to offer to you. But instead of helping them, you asked for affluent offerings. You are a dev, you should be above all greed and malice. But instead, you are torturing the poor villagers. Shame on you and here you came to teach me a lesson. First, learn the lesson of humanity and then come to talk to me.'
Indra roared, 'You evil, impudent young man, you are insulting me. A human is going to teach me how am I going to do my work? I will show you who's the boss here.'
Karna, 'If you are so strong then why don't you have a duel with me. I know you are a Deva and much stronger than me. But I am not going to leave the ground without a fight.'
Indradev, 'You are talking like a Kshatriya. Which Kshatriya family do you belong to?
Karna, 'I am not a Kshatriya, I am a Suta.'
Indradev laughed, 'What? A suta is challenging me?'
Karna smirked, 'Yes, today a human is challenging you. You Devas take our offerings to get strength and again use that strength against us. Today I am going to show you the strength of a true human.'
Both Indra and Karna took their bows and start fighting. Indra was sending many Daivi astras and Karna was countering it. Indra was irritated and raised the strength of his weapons. Karna was inexperienced but his sixth strength was very strong. He used his intuitions to counter his every attack. Being an experienced Dev Indra had an upper hand but even after being injured, Karna stood his ground and continued fighting. Devraj Indra at last got angry, 'Why cannot I completely defeat him?' Thinking that he launched his Vajra. Karna realized that he could not stop one of the strongest celestial weapons, so he mentally prepared himself for death. But when Vajra reached him suddenly a bright light engulfed him and a golden armor appeared from nowhere. Vajra collided with the armor and deflected back and hit Indra directly. Indra fell on the ground and before he could react, Karna shot 'Ashtnagpash' and bound him. Indra tried hard to break free but could not. Karna was also very tired because of the impact, so he also fell on the ground.
'Devraj Indra', a loud roar reverberated in the mountain. Both Karna and Inda saw sage Viswamitra and Lord Parshuram were rushing towards them.
Lord Parshuram, 'Indra, how dare you attack my student?'
Indra, 'Lord, why are you supporting this adharmi who touched a girl with bad intentions.'
Viswamitra angrily, 'You called yourself a king and without knowing the full truth you attacked an innocent person.' Then both of them told him about Madanmanjari's lustful act and her leis about Karna. Then Parshuram said, 'Karna, he is your prisoner, now you decide what to do to him?'
Karna was thinking. He was very angry as Indra attacked him without any reason but he controlled his anger and said, 'Devraj, if I want I can curse you or demand your throne from you as you are defeated by me. But I am not such an impulsive person who has greed for the throne. So as a punishment I demand you to bring rain to the villages and in future, you shall give them proper rains without asking for any puja or offering.'
Then he released Indra and Parshuram ordered him to go back. Then Lord Parshuram said, 'Karna you have forgiven Indra, but I am not going to leave that wretched girl.' Saying that he looked at the sky and demanded Gandhravaraj Chitrasen to come on earth along with his daughter. Both of them came and were scared seeing the rage of Parshuram and Viswamitra.
Chitrasen, 'Pravu, you called us. What happened?'
Viswamitra informed him about all his daughter's misdeeds. Then Parshuram said, 'Chitrasen, you have no control over your daughter. You have failed to give a proper lesson to her. But today her sins have reached to its peak. So I am going to punish her. You impudent girl...you tried to pollute a pure man's mind with your lustful act. I curse you..... you acted like a vaishya, a whore. So in your next birth, you will be the one. The entire society will point their fingers at your reputation.
Chitrasen, 'No my lord..please don't give my daughter such a harsh punishment,'
Karna, 'Gurudev, please don't do this. I know what she did was wrong. But a woman's reputation is priceless. By giving her this punishment, you are also dishonoring a woman. Please, take your curse back.'
Parshuram calmed himself and said, 'Okay...my curse cannot be completely nullified, she has to take birth as a human on earth but her life will depend on her attitude. If she can give away her arrogance and become a compassionate human being, she will be respected...but if she repeats the same mistake and insults a nobleman then she will be equally insulted by society. Now get lost. It's my student who lessened your punishment today but in the future remember my words.'
Next- 'From where did that armor come from?'
'I don't want your recognition, I am Adhirathnandan and that's enough for me.'
'My son, I will always look over you. I know I did not do my duty but in future, I will be there for you always.'
'Who is this Aditya? How dare he goes against me?'
'Maharaj, I know where to find him. We can arrest him along with his men.'
Stay tuned for more......