Kuṇḍala

Kuṇḍala, simply known as Kundala, Sanskrit: कुण्डल, Telugu: కుండలుడు, Hindi: कुंडल.

Kuṇḍala was an elderly brāhmaṇa of Kurukshetra and the father of Sukarma. He is known as the one who received the great pitṛ-bhakti (devotion to parents) of his son. Sukarma served his parents every day, and this service made him more powerful than any tapasvin (one who practises austerity).

Because of Sukarma’s complete devotion, Kuṇḍala and his wife reached Vishṇuloka, the highest loka (world), though they had not themselves performed tapas, yajña or visited any tīrtha. This agrees with the teaching of the Bhūmi Khaṇḍa that the parents themselves are the highest tīrtha.

The father served by Sukarma

Kuṇḍala comes into the narrative of Pippala’s humbling by Brahmā. Brahmā, in the form called Sārasa, told Pippala to seek out the most powerful being he did not yet know. He described him as “Sukarma, son of Kuṇḍala of Kurukshetra.” In this way Kuṇḍala’s name places Sukarma among the brāhmaṇas of Kurukshetra, a sacred region.

Kuṇḍala and his wife were old and fully dependent on Sukarma. Sukarma washed their feet, bathed them and fed them every day. This unbroken pitṛ-sevā (service to his parents), with no other sādhana (spiritual practice) beside it, gave him a power greater than three thousand years of Pippala’s tapas. The Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Bhūmi Khaṇḍa, chapters 61–62, tells this.

Liberation through his son’s service

Sukarma called Indra and the devas before Pippala. He asked for only one vara (boon): that his devotion to his parents would never waver, and that his parents, Kuṇḍala and his mother, would go to Vishṇuloka. The vara was granted. Chapter 62 of the Bhūmi Khaṇḍa tells this.

So Kuṇḍala reached the highest loka through the śakti (power) of his son’s service, not through his own austerities. The Bhūmi Khaṇḍa teaches that parents who are well served become the means of their own liberation and also the source of their children’s power.

Sources

• Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Bhūmi Khaṇḍa, Chapters 61–63