Kuntī Stotra

The Kuntī Stotra is the prayer Kuntī offered to Bhagavān Kṛshṇa when he was about to return to Dvārakā after the Kurukshetra war. It is found in the Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 1st Skandha, chapter 8. In it Kuntī speaks of the nature of Bhagavān Kṛshṇa, who is hidden by māyā. She tells of the times he protected her and her sons. And she makes a surprising request: she asks for calamities, so that Bhagavān Kṛshṇa may always be near.

The setting

Bhagavān Kṛshṇa had finished his duties after the war. He had comforted those who had lost their dear ones, seen three aśvamedha yajñas performed for Yudhishṭhira and protected the unborn child of Uttarā. He was now ready to leave Hastināpura for Dvārakā.

Kuntī came to bid him farewell. She stood before him with the weight of a whole life, in which every crisis had been survived only by his grace, and she offered this hymn.

Bhagavān Kṛshṇa hidden from ordinary sight

Kuntī first called Bhagavān Kṛshṇa Ādi-Nārāyaṇa, the first Nārāyaṇa and the ruler of all the worlds. She then spoke of the great puzzle of his nature.

“You are without beginning, the cause of all causes, within and outside all beings. You are not seen by the ordinary senses. Like fire covered by ashes, like the sky covered by clouds, like the ātmā covered by the body, you are covered by māyā. So you are not seen directly, though you fill everything.

“The great mahāṛshis who have completed the practice of samyag-darśana (right seeing) see you only through bhaktiyoga, the yoga of devotion. It alone cleans the mirror of the mind enough to show your form. How then can we women, with all our ties and cares, claim to understand your nature? I bow to you because you are beyond my understanding.”

The testimony of grace

Kuntī then told, from her own life, the times she had seen his protection with her own eyes.

  • The poison given to Bhīma. Duryodhana’s attempt to kill him failed.
  • The lac house fire at Vāraṇāvata. The Pāṇḍavas survived the attempt to kill them.
  • Hiḍimba, Baka and other rākshasas. She tells of meeting them in the years in the forest.
  • The assembly in the court of Dhṛtarāshṭra. This was the vastrahāraṇa, the attempt to shame Draupadī. He stopped it by the wonder of the sari that did not end.
  • The twelve years of exile in the forest and the time of ajñātavāsa (living unknown). They lived through them by his grace.
  • Karṇa and the great warriors of the Kaurava side. She was protected from them in the war itself.
  • The brahmāstra of Aśvatthāmā. He made it harmless in the womb of Uttarā.

The request for calamities

The most famous verse of the stotra is this.

O Govinda! May calamities come to us again and again! For when calamities come, we see your face. And one who has seen your face has no need to see this saṃsāra any longer.

Kuntī asks for calamity because calamity brings Bhagavān Kṛshṇa near. In ease and wealth the mind forgets him. In trouble one turns to him fully, and one who turns to him fully sees his face. One who sees his face is free from the endless round of saṃsāra.

The closing verses

Kuntī ended by addressing Bhagavān Kṛshṇa in these ways.

  • Daridrānāṃ tvaṃ hi sampat. For the poor, you are the treasury. More exactly: for those who are daridra (poor), you are sampat, wealth and abundance, the fullness that completes.
  • He delights wholly in his own svarūpa (true form) and is not touched by the qualities of prakṛti.
  • He is muktida, the giver of mukti to those who come to him.
  • He has taken forms for the protection of the good and the lessening of adharma, as the Bhagavad Gītā says of the avatāra.

She offered namaskāra and fell silent.

Sources

  • Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 1st Skandha, chapter 8