Aditi’s Kuṇḍalas
Aditi Kuṇḍala · aditi-kuṇḍala, “the earrings of Aditi”
Aditi’s kuṇḍalas are the gem earrings (kuṇḍala) of Aditi, the mother of the devas, which flow with amṛta (the nectar of immortality). The Brahma Purāṇa tells, in Vyāsa‘s account of Śrī Kṛshṇa‘s life to the munis, that Naraka, the son of Bhūmi and lord of Prāgjyotisha, took them, and that after Śrī Kṛshṇa slew Naraka, Bhūdevī herself brought the kuṇḍalas to him. Śrī Kṛshṇa carried them on Garuḍa to the city of the devas and, with Indra, bowed to Aditi and gave them back to her, and Aditi praised him with a great stuti.
Taken by Naraka
Indra, mounted on Airāvata, came to Śrī Kṛshṇa at Dvāravatī and told him of Naraka‘s deeds. The son of Bhūmi tormented all beings. He had carried off the maidens of the devas, the siddhas and others and held them captive in his house. He had seized the umbrella of Varuṇa, which pours forth water, and the peak of Mandara mountain, the mine of gems. He had taken the kuṇḍalas of Indra’s mother Aditi, which flow with amṛta, and now he wanted Airāvata too. Bhagavān Śrī Kṛshṇa, the son of Devakī, smiled gently, took Indra by the hand and rose. Garuḍa came as soon as he was thought of, and Śrī Kṛshṇa went with Satyabhāmā to Prāgjyotisha.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 202
Brought back by Bhūdevī
At Prāgjyotisha Śrī Kṛshṇa cut the nooses round the city with the Sudarśana cakra, slew Mura and his seven thousand sons, and struck down thousands of daityas. When Naraka rained śastras and astras on him, Śrī Kṛshṇa threw the cakra and cut him in two. Then Bhūdevī took the kuṇḍalas of Aditi, came before Jagannātha and said: “Svāmī, when you lifted me up as the Varāha-mūrti, this son of yours was born from your touch. He has fallen by your hand. Take these kuṇḍalas, and protect the children of this Naraka.” She praised him as the doer, the destroyer, the cause of creation and the form of the world, the ātmā, the bhūtātmā and the Paramātmā, and asked him to forgive what Naraka had done. Śrī Kṛshṇa said, “So be it,” and took the treasures of Naraka’s house. With the umbrella of Varuṇa and the gem mountain set on Garuḍa, he went with Satyabhāmā to the city of the devas to give the kuṇḍalas to Aditi.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 202
Given back to Aditi
At the gate of svarga Śrī Kṛshṇa blew his conch, and the devas came to meet him with the arghya vessel. Worshipped by the devas, he entered the house of Aditi, whose peaks were like white clouds. With Indra he bowed to her, gave her the gem kuṇḍalas, and told her that Naraka was destroyed.
Aditi, mother of the world, deeply pleased, fixed her mind on Hari and praised him: lotus-eyed, giver of fearlessness to his devotees, of eternal form, beyond birth and beyond the three states, the form of time and of the five elements, the maker of creation, who pervades the world through Brahmā and the other forms made by his māyā. She said that she had worshipped him for sons and for the end of enemies, not for moksha, like one who asks a wish-granting tree for a loincloth, and she asked him, who holds the Śārṅga bow, the cakra and the gadā, to destroy her ignorance.
Śrī Kṛshṇa smiled and asked her, as their mother, to be a giver of varas. Aditi blessed him: he would be unconquerable by suras and asuras and would dwell in the world of men. To Satyabhāmā she gave the vara that old age and change of form would not come to her and that every wish of hers would be fulfilled.
Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 203
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Chapters 202–203