Dharma as armour

Ironman’s sequel-ramarolls on. In the new movie, Robert Downey Jr, who plays the maroon-suited man with the body armour, has made peace with his inner demons. But he is haunted by an existential dilemma. Do his arms make a man? Or is it the other way around? All credit due to his ironed suit! Believe it or not, Maharishi Ved-Vyas let a similar plot unfold in the Mahabharata.

That might explain the proverbial saying, Vyasocchistasam Jagad sarvam; that aeons ago, the sage Vyasa vetted his lips on every screenplay in existence — present and future. Vyasa’s hard-as-diamonds archetype was Karna, the firstborn son of Kunti and the Sungod Surya. Like the Greek hero Achilles, Karna comes packaged into life with invincible armour and earrings. In fact, Karna’s Teflon-coating is perfectly seamless, unlike that of Achilles.

The Greek hero’s weakness is his heel, which was gripped by his mother Thetis the nymph as she dipped her infant son into divine River Styx to make him invulnerable. Karna’s flaw runs deeper — in his own divided psyche and loyalties.

His legendary generosity has been equated with a need for social approval just as his fatalistic heroism has been ranked higher than Arjuna’s. But he is eventually undone by Dharma: Vyasa highlights the fact that Karna sided with tormentors of a woman by pitching him against Vikarna! The younger brother of Duryodhana is the only man who protests against Draupadi’s outrage.

Having acquiesced in the dastardly killing of Abhimanyu, Karna cannot seek the protection of Dharma: it only protects those who protect it!