Product Details:
Hardbound Edition
- Hardbound; 258 pages; 15.2 x 22.9 (centimeters); 6 x 9 (inches)
- 12 Color Illustrations; jacket; index
- Publisher: The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust; First issue: 1978; Reissue: 1992
- ISBN: 0-89213-102-0
- Suggested Audience: Introductory
Queen Kunti, a tragic and heroic figure, emerges from an explosive era in the history of ancient India. Her teachings are simple and illuminating outpourings revealing the deepest transcendental emotions of the heart and the deepest philosophical and theological penetrations of the intellect.
At the conclusion of the devastating Kurukshetra war, Queen Kunti approaches Lord Krishna as He prepares to depart the scene of the battle. Kunti's words are words of glorification impelled by a divine love steeped in wisdom.
Kunti's spontaneous glorification of Lord Krishna and her description of the spiritual path are immortalized in the Mahabharata and the Bhagavata Purana (Srimad-Bhagavatam), and they have been recited, chanted, and sung by sages and philosophers for thousands of years.
As they appear in the First Canto of the Bhagavatam, Queen Kunti's celebrated prayers consist of only twenty-six couplets (verses 18 through 43 of the Eighth Chapter), yet they are considered a philosophical, theological, and literary masterpiece.
Let her heartfelt words of wisdom bring solace to your soul.
From the flaps:
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.
