Hemakuṇḍala and His Sons

The Padma Mahā Purāṇa, in Chapters 30 and 31 of the Svarga Khaṇḍa, tells of a rich merchant named Hemakuṇḍala and his two sons. After their deaths one son was sent by Yama to naraka (hell) and the other was led towards svarga (heaven). The younger son asked why, learned the answer from the deva-dūtas (the messengers of the devas), and then gave his own puṇya (merit) to his brother.

Hemakuṇḍala the merchant

In the Kṛta age, in the city of Nishadha, there lived a merchant named Hemakuṇḍala. His trade brought him eight crore gold coins each year. He was devoted to dharma, and he spent his wealth freely. He:

• built a temple of Bhagavān Vishṇu
• built a temple of Bhagavān Śiva
• made a lake
• dug wells
• planted gardens
• gave food every day (annadāna)

He was a true dātā, a giver who seeks the good of all. He had two sons. Śrīkuṇḍala was the elder and Vikuṇḍala was the younger.

The sons’ ruin

The sons were not like their father. After Hemakuṇḍala died, they spent his wealth bit by bit on pleasures of the senses and gave up all dharma. When the wealth was gone, they became thieves to keep up their way of life. This low way of living brought them violent deaths. A tiger killed Śrīkuṇḍala and a snake killed Vikuṇḍala. Both were brought before Yama.

Yama sent the elder son, Śrīkuṇḍala, to Raurava naraka. But to the surprise of the younger son, Vikuṇḍala, the deva-dūtas took him towards svarga.

Vikuṇḍala’s question

Vikuṇḍala was full of grief for his brother. He asked the deva-dūtas: “My brother and I are born of the same parents, of the same conduct, performed the same adharma. How is it that he goes to naraka while I go to svarga? Tell me the reason.”

The deva-dūtas answered: “O child! Karma alone distinguishes beings, not birth, jāti (caste), or family. The reason for your svarga lies in an event of a past life.”

They told him that in an earlier birth he had been born in a certain city. He had become a friend of a brāhmaṇa named Sumitra, the son of the brāhmaṇa Harimitra, who lived in an āśrama on the southern bank of the Yamunā. Through this friendship Vikuṇḍala had taken part in two months of Māgha-snāna (the bath of the month of Māgha) in the Kāverī, and he had gained the puṇya of those baths. That puṇya had been carried from life to life as sañcita-karma (stored karma). It was now bearing fruit and taking him to svarga.

The deva-dūtas then gave him a long teaching on the nature of dharma, on karma-vipāka (the ripening of karma), on the kinds of naraka, and on how puṇya and pāpa (sin) are reckoned. They explained why people who seem alike receive very different results. Vikuṇḍala listened closely.

The deeper puṇya

The deva-dūtas had more to tell. They showed him an older layer of puṇya in his account. In a still earlier birth he had served four saṃnyāsins, the sons of the ṛshi Śakuni and his wife Revatī. Their names were Nirmohana, Jitakāma, Dhyānakośa and Guṇādhika. His service to these holy men had made great puṇya joined with tapas, and it had been ripening through many births.

This made Vikuṇḍala even more eager to help his brother. He asked the deva-dūtas: “I wish to transfer the puṇya I earned through that service to my elder brother Śrīkuṇḍala, so that he too may be freed from Raurava and ascend to svarga with me.”

The deva-dūtas agreed that puṇya-dāna, the giving of puṇya from one person to another, is possible when it is done with true bhāva (feeling) and saṅkalpa (a solemn resolve). Vikuṇḍala made the saṅkalpa and gave the puṇya of his service to the saṃnyāsins to Śrīkuṇḍala. Because of this gift, Śrīkuṇḍala was freed from Raurava naraka. The two brothers went up to svarga together.

Sources

• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Svarga Khaṇḍa, Chapter 30 (Hemakuṇḍala, his sons, their deaths, Yama’s judgement)
• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Svarga Khaṇḍa, Chapter 31 (Vikuṇḍala’s question, the past lives, the gift of puṇya)