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Karna is cast as Mritunjaya
(Death-triumpher) in Shivaji Savant's award-winning novel. Cast away at
birth, the eldest Pandava is rescued by a charioteer. Despite his divine
looks and ability, Karna is insulted throughout his life for ambition
disallowed to his caste. Meanwhile, Arjuna, Karna'a half-brother, leads a
charmed life. As he sails smoothly from one triumph to another, he acquires
appellations by the dozen, all synonymous with victory, chivalry, dexterity
and other virtues.
On the eve of the epic battle, Karna finally
gets to know the secret of his parentage yet he vows to spare the lives of
his half-brother except Arjuna, against whom his mind is made up for mortal
combat. Arjuna knows nothing of this nor is he told anything because then he
would simply refuse to fight. This trait, and the fact that Arjuna harboured
deep misgivings about the fratricidal war, weakens the great archer's
character in the novel, which has Krishna deriding Arjuna as a stuttering,
Shambling doubter whose failing courage needs to be psyched up with repeated
bouts of magic and pep-talk!
Savant thus echoes a widespread prejudice
against protagonists who question. Most spiritual traditions advise, train,
order, and warn you not to doubt. The doubting soul is ultimately destroyed
soul is ultimately destroyed (samshayatma vinnashyati) says even the Bhagavad
Gita. You also find it articulated in the putting down of the female scholar
Gargi and in the gagging of the doubting Nachiketas in Kathopanishad.
However, the Upanishadic tradition also seems to suggest that doubt is a
softer, more open state closed minded certitude.
It's possible to learn more when you're in
touch with doubt than when you are dead certain or condescending. "If you
haven't yet developed your confidence, it's better to stick with your real
situation of doubt than to armour yourself with attitudes of superiority,"
says Shambhavi Sarasvati of the Kashmir Shaivite tradition. "Doubting is a
middle position. When we are in doubt, we have not yet decided. We are
suspended between or among. We can absorb. We can change. We can earn.
Although many traditions recommend faith or belief as an antidote to doubt,
my teachers have always advised that belief and faith are of no consequence.
Imagine if, instead of confessing his doubt, Arjuna had scoffed at Krishna?
The greatest story of the human condition would not have been written." |
