Lessons from Kunti Maharani Prayers

vipadasantutavat tatratatrajagad-guro bhavatodaranayatsyd apunarbhava-daranam I wish that all those calamities would happen again and again so that we could see You again and again, for seeing You means that we will no longer see repeated births and deaths.

Principles for personal applications:

Suhotra Swami in his essay Prayer as the voice of pure devotion establishes such prayers as true prayers and an expression of pure love of God. And pure love of God is the meaning of everything for a practitioner of Krishna consciousness. In the essay he quotes St. Francis of Assisi: "The happiness beyond all happiness comes from loving God and feeling oneself loved by Him." He further comments, This happiness beyond all happiness is the happiness of our original nature as pure spirit, which needs nothing material to sustain its existence. Some people pray to God for the happiness of physical satisfaction. Others pray for the happiness of wealth. Still others pray for the happiness of a long life in the body. But these kinds of happiness are not real happiness. Therefore these kinds of prayers are not real prayers. Similarly, SriCaitanyaMahaprabhu, the original founder of the Hare Krishna movement in India five hundred years ago, prayed in this way: "O Lord of the universe, I do not desire material wealth, materialistic followers, a beautiful wife or to achieve anything

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else the poets of this world describe in flowery language. All I want, life after life, is unmotivated devotional service to You." In the original Sanksrit, Sri Caitanya's prayer closes with the words *bhavatadbhaktirahaitukitvayi*, "Let there be *bhakti* (pure devotion) with no motives unto You." This is the prayer of a pure soul to his pure God in pure love.
The brand I:

Spiritual conception of life is with the eternal soul else our identification is only with color, height, weight, position, prestige: combination of material elements. And with current situation this branding of I is only intensifying with color of ones i-pod, ones T-shirt brands, ones car model, the amount in pay-check In prayers of Kunti Maharani, full acceptance of ones real identification and constitutional position is reflected which is: servitude to the God. She true spiritual connoisseur of brand I. As sadhakas we also develop so many identifications, ignoring that we will ultimately have to give up all of them and take a birth again and continue Bhakti. These identifications bewilder us again when we identify ourselves with roles or positions in life or we are scared to loose comforts, prestige, wealth or health. But Kuntidevi is completely detached as she is asking Krishna to even cut of her ties even with her beloved family members; remember these are the people for whom she went through all he pains throughout her life. This leads us to another principle.
Stringing the world with the Krishna thread

O Lord of Madhu, as the Ganges forever flows to the sea without hindrance, let my attraction be constantly drawn unto You without being diverted to anyone else. Radhanath Swami says in a lecture on Kunti Maharani, Kunti Maharani is praying, Oh! Lord of the universe; please sever my tie of affection for kins. What does it mean? She did not leave her family and take sanyyas. But she is praying to sever the tie of affection for kinsmen. She wanted to sever that tie of that illusion of me and mine within the heart that they are children, this is my family, this is my dynasty, and this is my cast. This
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is all an illusion and one can not love you truly as long as one is caught up in this wave of illusion. Let me love them only because they are part and parcel of you Lord. If I love you that mean I love all your parts and parcels only because of their relationship with you and for no external reason or designation. As long as we are attached to any of these external designations we can not love Krishna. This is Krishna consciousness. Often in family different members and their egos are like different magnets with two poles. Like magnets we sometimes attract each other and sometimes we repel. But if we a big metal ball of God as the center we can stay connected by connecting to that ball. Similarly, we have to connect to Krishna and try to connect everyone to Krishna that bring a real connection with everyone.
Treasure of the pauper

ChaitanyaCharanprabhu in a conversation on Kunti Maharani draws out this beautiful point that such a surrender to Krishna by Kunti Maharani reflects that devotional service to Krishna is her only wealth. Thus, in a later verse she addresses Krishna as akincanavittaya. Thus, devotional service to Krishna should be the only wealth for a devotee; at least this should be an aspiration for a sadhaka. Moreover for someone in renounced order this is only way.
Cultivating Gratitude

If we take a look at Kunti Maharanis life, we can see that Krishna was there always to help her out every time a calamity struck her life. Whether it was death of her husband, attempts to burn her and her sons, poisoning her son, sending her the Forrest, killing of her grandsons etc., Krishna was always there. Still, she is not asking Krishna for a relief from the suffering but more suffering because that suffering has always brought Krishna along with it in her life. Thus, she is expressing her gratitude to Krishna by asking for more sufferings. As sadhakas, we also have to learn to see Krishna in difficulties. I can recall that though I connected with devotees
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at ease but my intensity in practice took a shift after I came across some difficult situations in life. Similarly, there are many more lessons in this single prayer of Kunti Maharani and there are many in all her prayers.

Presenting this mood to a newcomer or non-practitioner of Krishna consciousness

SuhotraMaharaj reflects on this aspect in his essay. We will come across people who will say, "We cannot pray like that. We dont have the capacity to be such a strong person. Why to invite difficulties when God can give prosperity. Maharah suggests we can answer with another question: "Do you think God is a miser? If you simply pray to God, `I want You and You alone, for You are the true and only shelter of my life," do you think He will neglect you in any way?" After all, God is a person--the greatest, kindest, gentlest, most loving and most beautiful person. What endears us to the people we know? Is it our friendship, or our demands of them? Obviously, if you are a friend to someone and he is a friend to you, he will naturally want to help you in so many ways. But if you pester someone, "give me this, give me that," without showing any true feeling for him as a person, he'll not be pleased with your company. Material religion is a pestering process but spiritual religion is based on exchange of love.
Calamity is a test of integrity

This is a quote by a 17th century writer. Even non-practitioners people believe that calamities are the time when one will know their real worth. In difficult times do we stuck to principles or take a short cut. Two, years we heard about the CEO of big Indian IT Company Satyam initiating big tax frauds in the company to save the company from some loss making situations. His, action was not appreciated by the industry and we have

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people like Narayan Murthy, SubrotoBagchi etc. in industry who are known as people of ethics.
Calamities are opportunities

There are times when difficult situations present us with a big opportunity in life. In Vedic texts we have the example of Dhruva Maharaja who was insulted by his step mother and dejected by his father Uttanpada. In a mood of revenge he practiced austerities in Forrest but he finally, he had a jackpot personal association of Vishnu and an entire planet for himself. If we see very recent examples, the Google founders were drop out, Bill gates, founder of Microsoft was a drop out, Steve Jobs, Apple Co-founder was a college drop out and if you will search there will be 100s of stories where seemingly failed people made it big in life.
The adrenaline rush

Challenges keep our life filled with high intensity and high spirits. People who have substance are always looking for something challenging and that which will help them to grow in life. Otherwise, there is no thrill in life which subdued and ordinary. Connecting to oneself and the super-self is also a challenge; though simple but not easy.
Live in present

When we struck calamities, we have everything thing at stake. We might end up losing all our possessions except our own self that is what we have always; thus we come back to present from our dreams. Everything else in life is bound to decays but it our spirit, values and connection with supreme that will stay with us and we can start life again.

Manish Goel