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July 03, 2010

Karna had the tendencies of a Kshatriya.He had the desire to acquire knowledge of the

Brahma Astra.He tried to get it from Drona Acharya.He was turned down by the Acharya

since Karnas legitimacy was questionable.Then Karna approached Parasurama.

Parasurama was well known for his angst against the Kshatriyas. Karna approached

Parasurama as a Brahmin boy and deceived Parasurama into believing it.Parasurama thus

accepted Karna as his Pupil. Karna was trained amply by Parasurama in all the martial

sciences.One day Parasurama was resting on the lap of Karna. Indra Deva wanted toexpose Karna in front of Parsurama and so he appeared in the form of a bee and started

stinging Karna on his thighs.Although the pain was unbearable and blood was oozing

from his thighs, Karna took care not to disturb his master.However the blood flowing out

from the wound touched the cheeks of Parasurama who at once woke up and checked

the blood stains on his cheeks.He saw that Karna had been stung badly by a bee.

Parasurama at once realised that Karna was in fact a Kshatriya and not a brahmin. It was

clear to Parasurama that had Karna been a brahmin boy , he could not have withstood

the bees sting so belligerently. Only Kshatriyas could be so stoic in withstanding such

intense pain.This fact enraged Parasurama who chose to curse Karna in a way that all

knowledge acquired by Karna from Parasurama would be to no effect whenever Karna

desired this knowledge to be put to use.Thus certain tendencies in human beings are

innate as was the case with Karna.

One needs to undergo through the process of Samskaras if at all one feels a need to

change his varna.Bhima as a newborn was dropped by Kunti Devi on a rock.The result

was that the rock was crushed to pieces and nothing happened to Bhima.Srila

Prabhupada said that the Kaliyuga is now devoid of Kshatriyas.There was a film director

who wanted to shoot a film on the life of the famous Rana Pratap who ruled

Mewar.Therefore a study on the armour and the other accessories of the great warrior

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were considered.The actor who was playing the role of Rana Pratap wanted to try the

armour of Rana Pratap.When he wore the armour , he collapsed to the ground and could

not even get up.This gives us a wee bit of idea on the might and built of the Kshatriyas of

the past.Srila Prabhupada used to say , religion without philosophy is sentimentalism and

philosophy without religion is wry speculation.