Kunti's Secret

महाभरत

Mahābharata

As retold by

Michael Dolan, B.V. Mahāyogi

Kunti's Secret: the power of the mantra

Kunti said, "One day I went to fetch water from the river Ganges. I walked at dawn under the banyan tree where kokil birds were singing. 

"One day I went to fetch water..."

The rays of the sun shone through the trees scattering the early morning mist and casting their life-giving rays on the jasmine flowers that bloomed by the river-bank. Now I was also in the full bloom of youth. It would be time soon for me to have a husband and get a child and live with my husband in a palace greater than my father’s.

Surya The Sun God सुर्य

At this time I remembered the mantra.  I wasn’t sure if I remembered it completely or correctly and seeing the radiance of the early morning sun, out of curiosity, I began to chant the mantra. Nothing happened. I concentrated more deeply. I sat in yogic meditation under the banyan tree and forgot all else. I could no longer hear the song of the kokil birds. In my mind’s eye I saw the sun appear before me as I was saying the mantra. I felt the suns’ warmth. At this I opened my eyes, and there before me stood the sun-god himself, radiant and smiling.

Surya the sungod

“O lovely child of the forest,” he said, “daughter of the great king Kuntibhoja, your prayer has called me down from the heavens. Though  you are but a mortal maid, I am here to satisfy you.”

“O heavenly god. Are you here to help me find a suitable husband?” I asked, hardly knowing what to say.

"Is that why have you called me here?" He asked.

"O My Lord, I was only playing. The erudite scholar, Durvasa Muni told me I could call a god from heaven with his mantra. I thought it must be mythology. Now I see you have come before me. Please forgive me. I had no idea what I was doing." I said. “You may go now," I said. I was ashamed of myself for having troubled such a great god.

Kunti and Surya

"Such a powerful mantra must not be said in vain," the sun-god said. "In your childish desperation for a husband you have called the god of the sun from heaven. So be it. We must not waste this opportunity. Come to me, and I shall give you a child who will be the greatest of warriors. When he is born his effulgence will light up the night sky."

Kunti and Surya

While I protested, his words were filled with poetry and I could not resist his advances. Finally I told him, “No prince will marry me if I am not a virgin. Please return to the heavens and leave me."

The Sungod smiled. He said, "You needn't worry my dear girl. By my mystic power as the lord of light I will bless you that you shall remain a virgin even after giving birth to my great son, who will grow into the fiercest warrior of all time. His very name will remind people of valour and of charity."

Karna, son of the sungod Surya, brother to the Pandavas: the fiercest of all warriors.

"My dear Kunti,” he said, “As the god of the sun, I give you my word that after bearing my child, you will remain a virgin, as chaste as the day you were born."

Stunned by his words I submitted. I closed my eyes and felt a golden warmth within me and when I awoke the sun had returned to the sky where it shined ever brighter as if made happy by our short time together.

So it was that within months I bore a son in secret. It was a miracle. When it came time, the tiniest embryo emerged from my ear. I know it's hard to believe, but it's true. My son later became known as "karna" as he was born from my ear. He grew very quickly and in a matter of days, he was a strong and healthy little baby with a golden effulgence.  Miraculously, my son was born with a golden armor breastplate and golden earrings. You knew him. He was your rival and brother.

The other son of Kunti

I tried to hide him, but my newborn babe shone so brightly that his effulgence lit up the night sky. My maidservant was present at his birth and perhaps it was she who was responsible for the rumor that so enraged my rival Gandhari, that she would strike at her own womb.

 I was so ashamed I hid the infant in a little cradle made of bamboo. I was only a girl.

"I was only a girl."

 The whole thing seemed like a dream. I didn’t know what to do. I hit my little baby with his beautiful breastplate of gold and his golden earrings. I put him in his cradle and left him on the river. The waves of the Ganges took him away. So I prayed to the sun-god to protect him. I didn't see him for many years after that. By that time, I had married your father Pandu.”

"I prayed to the sungod to protect him."

Note: it may seem like ridiculous mythological hyperbole that a child could be born from the ear. But have a look at this news item from NBC News, updated April 23, 2015 this morning, about a woman who carried an embryo in her brain:

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Embryonic-Twin-Discovered-in-Womans-Brain-During-Surgery-300891281.html