DIFFERENT SURYAPUTRA

Chapter 12

Two years have passed since Pandavas came to Hastinapur. In these two years Karna continued being their caretaker and with that they developed a great bond. In this year he met Kunti too but he treated her like any other royal. One year before there was a change in the palace. Rajmata Satyavati, Rajmata Ambika and Ambalika have left for their sanyas. Entire Hastinapur bid them farewell. The three ladies were not feeling well since the death of Maharaj Pandu and decided to leave for vanprasth and sanyas. It was first decided by Rajmata Satyavati and then her daughter in laws decided to accompany her in it. The children were heartbroken then Karna  consoled them and told them about four phases of human life: brahmacharya, grihastha, vanprasth and sanyas. He made them realise the significance of that and made them understand the fact that life goes on no matter what and they should understand that.

Karna was 18 years old now and knew the time had come for him to leave Hastinapur for a brief time as well. A month ago information of Dronacharya being insulted in court of Panchal by the King of Panchal, Drupad, spread throughout the Aryavart. He also knew the elders in the palace had started warfare training for the children and soon they would become students of Dronacharya. First Kripacharya himself started but because of being Kulguru of Hastinapur his schedule was packed. So there is a need for a separate Guru for princes of Hastinapur and who would be better than his brother in law, son of Bhardwaj Dronacharya who is in search of able students. So on his request, he and Bhishma left to fetch Dronacharya to become guru of princes of Kuruvansh. Karna just sat around the corner when they were training with kripacharya, never once did he try to train with them or others. Even when Kauravas and Pandavas asked him to join in, he declined politely because there was nothing that Kripacharya could teach him. The children were taught only the basics by him. They were good at it but they needed to learn more which would be under Drona.

Today was another day, the children were playing in the practice area beside the Sahodar Bhavan and Karna was supervising. He was helping Dushala in her paintings and suddenly he heard a huge noise, he immediately rushed and everyone in the bank of river Kauravas were holding Pandavas who were eager to get rid of their hold and jump in the river. They each were crying and calling the name of Bheem. He understood what happened but didn't know how it happened. Everything was fine till few moments ago

Karna : What happened here?

Nakul: Bharata Bheem……

Karna : What happened to Rajkumar Bheem?

Susasan: Bharata Vasusen he fell in water.

Karna: What? How? Forget it, now is not the time for this.  Calm down everyone, Someone go and get elders. Prince Yudhishthir, don't worry Prince Bheem is a demigod, he will be fine with blessings of his celestial father. I will go and fetch him for you.

Suyodhana: But Bharata Vasusen, there us nag clan living beneath.

Vasusen: Don't worry nothing will happen to me. I promise I will return with him after some time.

Saying that Karna dived into the river, he knew it was niyati that was playing its part. Bheem was supposed to go deep down in the river for the nag clan to save him and bestow him with poison immunity and strength of 10000 elephants. Karna knew Bheem would be fine but the same couldn't be said for others; he was glad it wasn't due to poison. In these years mutual respect and love between both sets of brothers. He dived deeper and faster, Bheem being heavy already was down because of all the time he took to come here. He was intercepted by a nag clan man. Who challenged him for infiltrating their territory. Karna fought him and defeated him with one hand. But soon he was surrounded by nagas and they began showering arrows, karna was weaponless to counter them so his kavach showed to protect him. Till now no one has seen it except Kunti and his adopted parents. He was with it when they found him but after that he never summoned it as there was no need for it.