"Further Inquiries by Vidura."

 

 

 Skandham-3.1

 

Chapter-7.

 

Slokam- 1 to 42. 

 

Further Inquiries by Vidura :  

 

(1) S'rî S'uka said: 'Thus speaking with Maitreya Muni, the learned son of Dvaipâyana Vyâsa,Vidura, respectfully expressed a request. (2) Vidura said: 'O brahmin, how can of the Supreme Lord, although He is of the complete whole and the unchangeable, his pastimes take place of acting with the modes of nature while He himself is outside of them? (3) Boys willing to play with other boys are enthused in the matter of playing, but how is that different for one who is self-satisfied and at all times detached? (4) The Supreme Lord gave rise to the universe endowed with its three modes; by the potency of her soul are all these maintained and again conversely dissolved as well. (5) How can it be that that pure self under the circumstances of time in the position of a living entity, being of dreams and others, devoid of consciousness can be engaged in nescience? (6) The One Supreme Lord is situated in all these living entities; by what kind of actions is there either the misfortune or the obstruction of the living beings? (7) On this, o learned one, is, in distress of nescience, my mind causing me trouble and therefore, o great one, please clear the great illusion of my thinking.'

 

(8) S'rî S'uka said: "He, this way urged by Vidura so anxious to find out about the reality, as a great sage acted as if wondered and then without hesitation God-consciously replied. (9) Maitreya said: 'Saying that of the Supreme Lord one is of illusion, that of the ever liberated of His Lordship there would be insufficiency or the idea of bondage, one becomes logically contradictory. (10) Of that kind of confusion of the identifying self of people one is thus bereft of meaning, which superficiality looks like if one's own head is being cut off. (11) As because of the quality of water the moon reflected in it is trembling, so the self is seen by the seer to the [material] qualities that are other than of the soul. (12) To that there is also detachment being engaged by the mercy of Vâsudeva in relating to the Supreme in bhakti[devotional]-yoga, which gradually diminishes this [delusion] in existence. (13) When the senses are satisfied thus to the observing soul that is becoming engaged in transcendence to the Lord, then miseries are done with completely as if one has enjoyed sound sleep. (14) If one can put an end to an unlimited number of miserable conditions by following to the transcendent of hearing and chanting about Murarî [Krishna as the enemy of Mura], then what again to say of the serving [itself] of His lotus feet in the attraction of the self realized?

 

(15) Vidura said: 'O powerful one, you have cut down my doubts with the weapon of your convincing words my Lord, now my mind on both [God and the living being], o Supreme one, has perfectly merged. (16) All these explanations you gave are as good as they should be, o learned one, the self is not without the apparent meaning in being moved by the external of the Lord, as outside the origin of the Supreme there is no basis. (17) In this world the one slowest of understanding and the one of transcendental intelligence both enjoy in happiness while the persons in between do suffer. (18) I am obliged by the service to your feet in being ascertained that to the apparent values there is nothing material although its self seems to be so, and thus I am able to give up [the misconception]. (19) In serving the personality of Godhead who is the unchangeable enemy of the demon Madhu, one develops in different relationships [râsa's] to the feet the highly ecstatic that vanquishes distress. (20) Of those who are meager in their austerity it is certainly rarely seen that they are on the path of service towards the Kingdom of God [Vaikunthha] in which the Lord by the godly is always glorified as the controller of all living beings.

 

(21) After the creation of first the complete of the material energy, in a gradual process of differentiation [evolution] the universal form manifested along with its senses and organs in which later the Almighty entered [for His incarnations]. (22) He who is called the original person has thousands of limbs, legs and hands living in all the worlds of the universe according the evolution of each. (23) You explained how there are three kinds of life [to the modes] in which one has ten kinds of life-force with the [five] senses and their [fivefold] interest, please describe now to me what the specific prowess of the societal divisions are. (24) In them, that prowess along with the sons, grandsons and family-members of the different generations has spread itself in the form of all the different varieties. (25) What were all the Manus [heads of the age], and the generations following surely too, to which was He decided as the leader or the father of the living beings [the prajâpati, or Brahmâ] of the generations, and what was their descend? (26) What worlds are there at the head and which earthly worlds are lying beneath, o son of Mitrâ; please describe what their situation is and what the extend of their worldly locations is. (27) Describe me the infra human, the human and the superhuman, as born from the reptiles or the birds and the generations and subdivisions of the ones born from wombs, who are toiling or twice-born or of the plants and vegetables. (28) Kindly describe the incarnations to the modes of material nature for the creation, maintenance and destruction of the universe and the magnanimous activities of the one Personality of Godhead who forms the ultimate shelter.

 

(29) What are to the respective divisions of the status orientations to age and vocation in society the embodiments, the character and the birth's of the sages and their activities and the divisions of the Veda in categories? (30) And of what sacrifices and ways are the expansions of the yogîc capacity, o master, and what is the path of devotional service in the non material interest and analytical study as well of relating to the Personality of God with regulative principles? (31) The paths of the faithless, crossbreeding in the imperfect of their contradiction, and the situation and movements of the individual souls as many as there are to the modes and the types of work, what are they? (32) The causes of religiosity, economic development, sense-gratification and salvation that do not contradict to the means of livelihood to law and order and the scriptural injunctions; what are also their different regulations? (33) How are the periodical offerings of respect regulated, o brahmin, to the created of the forefathers and how are the time durations settled to the planets, the stars and luminaries? (34) What is the practical outcome of charity, penance and the endeavoring for reservoirs of water and how are the duties described of one who is away from home and of a man in danger? (35) Please describe to me, o sinless one, how He as either the Supreme Person, the Father of the Religion, or the controller of all, or as all of these can be satisfied completely. (36) O best among the brahmins, please describe the spiritual masters so kind to the needy, the followers, the disciples and their sons without being asked for it. (37) O great sage, how many dissolutions are there to the chief elements of nature and then who are they, who being saved for the Lord may be of His service in His slumber? (38) And what, to the existence of the different identities of the Supreme, is of Vedic knowledge the same as a necessity to the spiritual master and his disciple? (39) Spotless devotees also have mentioned the source of such knowledge; how does the devotion and certainly also the detachment of the living entity lead to self sufficient knowledge?

 

(40) All these questions I asked in the desire to know about the pastimes of the Lord; please answer them to me as a friend for those ignorant ones who lost their vision by the external energy. (41) All divisions of the Veda, all sacrifices and all penances and charities surely do not even partially compare, o spotless one, to the security the living entity is offered by one who gives such assurance.

 

(42) S'rî S'uka said: 'He [Maitreya], the chief among the sages so well known with the stories [Purânas], thus being questioned by the chief of the Kuru's felt sufficiently enriched and satisfied and thus being stimulated on the topics about the Supreme Lord, he smilingly replied Vidura.'