The secret of the armor ring of Maharathi Karna

There was a demon, Dambodbhava. He did great penance for the Sun God. When Surya Dev appeared pleased and asked for a boon, he asked for the boon of “immortality”.

Suryadev said this is not possible. Then he asked for the protection of a thousand divine shields. Only one who has done penance for a thousand years can break even one of these shields and as soon as anyone breaks even one of them, he will die immediately.

The Sun God became very worried. They were able to understand that this demon would misuse this boon, but they were helpless in front of his penance. He had to give him this boon.

After being protected by these shields, what Suryadev had feared happened. Dambodbhava considered himself immortal with the power of his thousand armors and started committing atrocities as per his wish. He came to be known by the name “Sahasra Kavach”.

On the other hand, Sati ji’s father “Daksh Prajapati” married his daughter “Murti” to Brahma ji’s mental son “Dharma”. Murthy had heard about Sahasrakavacha and prayed to Sri Vishnu to come to end it. Vishnu ji assured him that he would do so.

In due course of time the idol gave birth to two twin sons whose names were Nar and Narayan. Despite being in two bodies, both were one, one soul in two bodies. Lord Vishnu had incarnated simultaneously in two bodies in the form of Nara and Narayana.

Both brothers grew up. Once Dambodhbhava climbed this forest. Then he saw a bright man coming towards him and felt fear.

The man said that I am “male”, and have come to fight with you. Despite being afraid, Dambodbhava laughed and said, what do you know about me? My armor can be broken only by one who has meditated for a thousand years.

The man laughed and said that I and my brother Narayan are one and the same, he is doing penance on my behalf, and I am fighting on his behalf.

The war began, and Sahasra Kavach was surprised that the man’s strength was indeed increasing due to Narayan’s penance. As soon as the time of thousand years was over, the man broke one of the armor of Sahasra Kavach. But as per the blessing of the Sun, as soon as the armor broke, the males fell dead there. Sahasra Kavach thought, even though one Kavach is gone, this one is definitely dead.

Then he saw that the male was running towards him, and he was surprised. Just now a man had died in front of him and how is he still alive and running towards me?

But then he saw that Nar was lying dead, it was his brother Narayan, who looked exactly like a man, who was not running towards Dambodbhava, but towards his brother Nar.

Dambodbhava laughingly told Narayana that you should have explained to your brother, he lost his life in vain.

Narayan smiled peacefully. He sat near the man and recited a mantra and miraculously the man sat up. Then Dambodbhava understood that by doing penance for Lord Shiva for a thousand years, Narayana had attained Mrityunjaya Mantra, through which he could revive his brother.

Now this time Narayan challenged Dambodbhav and sat in penance. After a thousand years of war and penance, one of the armor broke and Narayan died.

Then Nar came and revived Narayan, and this cycle continued again and again.

In this way war took place 999 times. One brother fights and the other does penance. Every time the first one died, the second one would revive him.

When 999 armors were broken, Sahasrakavach understood that now he would die. Then he gave up the war and ran away to Surya Loka and surrendered himself to the Sun God.

Nara and Narayana came there chasing him and asked Suryadev to hand him over. But Suryadev did not agree to hand over his devotee. Then Narayana took water from his Kamandal and cursed Suryadev that you are trying to save this demon from the consequences of his karma, for which you also became a partner in his sins and you will also be born with him to suffer the consequences of his karma.

With this, Treta Yuga ended and Dwapar era began.

After time, Kunti ji, while examining her boon, invoked the Sun God and Karna was born. But it is not generally known, that Karna is not only the son of Surya, but has both Surya and Dambodbhava within him. Just as Nar and Narayan had one soul in two bodies, similarly Karna has two souls residing in one body; Surya and Sahasrakavacha. On the other hand, Nar and Narayan came this time in the form of Arjun and Krishna.

The part of Sun within Karna makes him a brilliant warrior. Whereas due to Dambodbhava within him, he gets many injustices and insults as a result of his actions, and inspires him to insult Draupadi and do many such misdeeds.