Karna and His Karmic Journey: Unveiling His Past Life as Dambodhava

glorifying Karn was done only for his good deeds. He was the son of Surya (the sun god), but he made only three mistakes in his life. The first time was when he lied to his guru Parshuram, the second time was when he supported his friend in the wrong, and the third time was when he insulted Draupadi by calling her a prostitute.

Apart from these, he probably made no other mistakes in his life. To tell the truth, Vyasa Maharishi did not glorify him because he knew about Karn's previous birth, where Karn was known as Dambodhava, a demon who had obtained 1000 armors and earrings from Surya deva, making him invincible.

It was impossible to pierce him with any weapon until he broke his armor after a 10,000-year-long penance. However, the one who would pierce his armor would die instantly. This was the boon given to him. After his cries of distress, all the gods went to Lord Vishnu, who took the form of Nar and Narayan and performed penance.

One by one, they broke all of Dambodhava's armors. When only one armor was left, which Nar was going to break, Dambodhava fled to Surya Deva for protection, and because he sought refuge with Surya Deva, Nar and Narayan cursed him that in the next life, his body would be one, but his and Dambodhava's souls would be in the same body, so due to supporting Surya Deva wrongly, he had to suffer so much pain in the next life.

So, that's why Vyasa Maharishi did not glorify Karn so much because our past life deeds also matter. But those who didn't know about it glorified him just by looking at Karn... I hope you understand.

Another thing is that Nar and Narayan incarnated as Arjuna and Shri Krishna in their next life. That's why you might have heard in the Gita that Krishna says, "Hey Arjuna, you have had many births, you don't remember them, but I do." And Arjuna was supposed to kill Karna because it was the duty of Nar to break dambodhav's armor in the 1000th battle, but when he tried to kill Dambodhav, he ran away. That's why Arjuna killed Karna in the next life, as he had performed penance for 10,000 years in the previous birth.