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The Roots of War
 ‘Think twice before using the power that is vested in you,’ is what the story of Kunti shrieks out loud and clear. More. When power is vested in the hands of a person, whose age or attainments are disproportionate to what is given to him or her, he or she should be made fully and completely aware of the consequences of its use, even accidentally.
We have adequate instances of such warnings in the Mahabharata, whenever a divine astra is gifted to someone. ‘Do not use this missile unless the situation demands it,’ says Acharya Drona to Arjuna, when imparting him the knowledge of the use of Brahmastra. A short narration of how to use and when to use as also what would follow by its use precedes the gifting of every missile, including the Pasupatastra, received from Lord Maheswara. We see that adequate care is taken to inform the recipient on how to use it and also when to use it.
Sage Dhurvasa, who was pleased with this young girl Kunti and who foresaw the peculiar situation in which she would be placed in later years, which would come in the way of her begetting children, taught her a mantra to invoke any deity for being blessed with a child. The girl, Kunti, was too young at that time. May be the sage thought that she would not be able to understand or may be he was under the impression that she already knows what would happen by a premature use of the mantra, he did not instruct her not to use it without a valid reason. He taught her how to use it, but did not tell her when to use it.
After the sage left, Kunti was thinking about the peculiar power that has been given to her. She was unable to believe that such a thing could happen. She was so curious in her innocence to verify if such a thing would happen at all. In a sudden and irresistible impulse to test the mantra, she invoked Sun with the mantra. She could not believe it when he appeared before her in all effulgence, bound by divine words uttered by her. Kunti was scared. Realisation ‘dawned’ on her with the appearance of the ‘Sun’.
She pleaded with him to go back. ‘I am unmarried and cannot be found going about with a child. Please understand my plight and please go back,’ she wept bitter tears. But then it was too late. ‘The command that you invoked on me by the mantra is extremely potential and is irreversible. I cannot but obey the command. I cannot go back without what I am told by the command enshrined in the mantra,’ said the Sun.
Now, it was beyond the power of Kunti to take back her own words and beyond the power of Sun to return without fulfilling the purpose for which the mantra was uttered. Kunti was bound by her own spell. ‘Do not be afraid,’ the Sun pacified her. ‘You will be blessed with a son who would be a warrior of extraordinary calibre. And I promise that your maidenhood would be restored after you deliver the child.’
T here was no choice left either for Kunti or for the Sun. She delivered a healthy and beautiful baby. The baby was born with a protective armour and earrings. Her maidenhood was restored. But what to do with this baby? How can it be brought up? Who will take care of this child? Kunti was afraid of social customs. She put the baby in a chest, filled the sides with diamonds - intended as a gift to the person who happened to find the box with the baby and to support him in his endeavour to bring up the child properly - and left the chest floating in a river, carried away by its strong currents.
And there floats away in that box an immaculate warrior, a complex person, a noble soul and a wicked character - a Jekyll and Hyde personality - the eldest Kaunteya, (child of Kunti) about twelve years elder to Dharmaputra, abandoned by the parent at birth, pushed around by the society during growth and deserted by his own charioteer, dulled by the curse of his master, by which the art that he mastered failed him at the time of death.
Hari Krishnan
harikrishnan@vsnl.net
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