Karna & Arjun - The Union of Brothers

6. The Welcome Treat

Before learning advanced warfare from Lord Parashuram, Karna was one of the students in Dronacharya's aashram. Being a charioteer's son, the opportunity to learn warfare did not come to him at an early age. His father, Adirath, was Mahamahim Bhishm's charioteer. It was due to Bhishm's recommendation that Karna got the opportunity to join Dronacharya's institute. By then, Arjun had already become Drona's favourite, much more so than his own son, Ashwathama.

Karna was naturally good with almost all the weapons, and everyone in the ashram was fascinated by his divine armour and earrings. While he wanted to learn the technique to invoke Brahmastra to have an arsenal as rich as Arjun's, Dronacharya considered his intentions to be wicked and denied him the knowledge of Brahmastra because he was a sut-putr. At that very moment, Karna decided to learn from Dronacharya's gurudev, the pupil of Mahadev, the slayer of Kshatriy kul, Narayan-avtar, Lord Parshuram.

Seeing Arjun after a few years reminded him of the discrimination that he had faced in Dronacharya's ashram. Arjun, on the other hand, had no idea who Karna was. He found the face familiar, but his focus on learning never let him notice anything else. Even at that point, he regretted not being aware enough to protect his brother. He expressed his gratitude to Karna with a slow blink of the eyes. Karna slowly nodded in response.

Karna pulled Sahdev down to the floor and left his hand only when he sat in padmasan again. Sahdev, Suryodhan, and Ashwathama had recognised Karna. Everyone in the ashram knew that he was among the few warriors who possessed the potential to challenge Arjun. Things started to settle down as they approached the sunset. The vimaan stabilised and started hovering at one spot rather than continuing its course.

After about thirty minutes, the setting of the sun made way for the lamps inside the vimaan to magically light up. There were hundreds of little lamps, stationed about twenty feet above the floor of the vimaan.

Aahwathama had been a silent observer of the events in the Vimaan. He had continued to meditate while keeping his mind fixed on Mahadev. All of a sudden, he felt a pair of spikes penetrating his forearm, causing excruciating pain. Being aware of his gifts, panicking wasn't his first reaction. He quietly opened his eyes to find a couple of feet long, green-colured serpent with its mouth locked on his right firearm. First he condescendingly smiled at the serpent, then placed his foot on its stomach, causing its mouth to open. The wound on his forearm healed almost immediately, and the venom came out in a green gaseous form. He then held both halves of the serpent's mouth and mercilessly pulled them apart, splitting its body into two halves.

The sound of Ashwathama's grunt disturbed everyone's concentration. The warriors opened their eyes to see another green serpent horizontally flying into the vimaan through the opened door. It was followed by one more similar-looking serpent. Within a minute's time, there were about twenty serpents inside the vimaan.