The tragic and heroic figure of Queen Kunti emerges from an explosive era in the history of ancient India. As the wife of King Pandu and the mother of five illustrious sons (the Pandavas), she was a central figure in a complex political drama that fifty centuries ago culminated in the devastating Kurukshetra war.
The tragic and heroic figure of Queen Kunti emerges from an explosive era in the history of ancient India. As the wife of King Pandu and the mother of five illustrious sons (the Pandavas), she was a central figure in a complex political drama that fifty centuries ago culminated in the devastating Kurukshetra war.
At the conclusion of the war, Queen Kunti approaches Lord Krishna as He prepares to depart the scene of the battle. Although Kunti is Lord Krishna’s aunt (He incarnated as her brother Vasudeva’s son), she perfectly understand His exalted and divine identity as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. She knows full well that He descended from His abode in the spiritual world to rid the earth of demoniac military forces and reestablish peace and righteousness. Thus the prayers she offers Him on this occasion are not the conventional pious solicitations. Rather, they are philosophical reflections, devotional illuminations, even mystical exultations. As such they have been recorded and immortalized in the Srimad-Bhagavatam, Indian’s greatest philosophical and spiritual classic.
Queen Kunti’s prayers—the simple and illuminating outpourings of the soul of a great and saintly woman devotee—reveal both the deepest transcendental emotions of the heart and the most profound philosophical and theological penetrations of the intellect. Her words have been recited, chanted, and sung by sages and philosophers in India for thousands of years.