"Vidura's questions"

Skandham-3-1.

 

 

Chapter-1.

 

Slokam-1 to 45. 

 

Questions by Vidura:-

 

 

(1) S'uka said: 'This is what formerly Vidura asked His Grace Maitreya Rishi when he entered the forest after renouncing his prosperous home: (2) 'What to say of the house [of the Pândava's] I am identified with? S'rî Krishna, the Supreme Lord and master of all, was accepted as the minister of its people and had given up entering the house of Duryodhana.'

 

 

(3) The king said: 'Please tell us master, where and when did Vidura meet with His Grace Maitreya Muni to discuss this? (4) Certainly the questions Vidura asked the holy man cannot have been unimportant, they must have been full of the highest purpose as approved by the seekers of truth.'

 

 

(5) Sûta said: "He, the great sage S'ukadevathus being questioned by King Parîkchit, fully satisfied replied him from his great expertise: 'Please listen to this'.

 

 

(6) S'rî S'ukadevasaid: 'At the time when King Dhritarâshthra was nourishing his dishonest sons he, never being on the right path, had lost his sight with the sons of his younger brother [the deceased Pându, see family tree] in being their guardian. He made them enter the laquer house which he set on fire [see Mah. I 139-148]. (7) When in the assembly the wife of the saintly Kuru's [Draupadî] was insulted by his son [Duhs'âsana] who grabbed her by her hair, the king did not forbid this although his daughter-in-law shed tears that washed the red dust of her breast [see Mah. II 58-73]. (8) When by unfair means he who was without an enemy [Yudhishthhira] was defeated in a game of gambling and as one loyal to the truth went to the forest, he upon returning in due course never was given his right share by him who was overcome by illusion [Dhritharâshthra]. (9) Also Lord Krishna, when He on the plea of Arjuna came for them into the assembly as the teacher of the world, was, with His words as good as nectar, of all men of sense by the king not taken seriously in the dwindling of the last of their piety.

 

 

(10) When [formerly] called to the palace Vidura entered there for consultation upon the request of of course the elder brother [Dhritarâshthra] and the advice that he then gave was exactly suitable for what the ministers of state with his instructions knew to appreciate: (11) 'Return now the legitimate share to the one who has no enemy [Yudhishthhira] and who was so forbearing to your unbearable offenses. Of him together with his younger brothers, among which Bhîma wrathful like a snake of anger, you should verily be afraid. (12) The sons of Prithâ have now been taken up by the Supreme Lord of Liberation who with the brahmins and the godly is now here along with His family, the worshipful Yadu dynasty, that conquered with Him an unlimited amount of kings. (13) He [Duryodhana], this offense in person, envious of the Original One, has by his existence entered your household thinking he is your son maintaining opposition to Krishna while being bereft of all goodness - that inauspiciousness you must for the sake of the family give up as soon as you can.'

 

 

(14) After Vidura spoke thus he was there addressed by Duryodhana who swollen with anger and with trembling lips insulted the respectable one of good qualities in the company of Karna, his younger brothers and S'akuni [a maternal uncle]: (15) 'Who asked him to be here, the crooked son of a mistress, who grew up living on the subsistence of those with whom he's taking the position of an enemy spy? Throw him immediately out of the palace to be left with his breath only!' (16) Vidura himself consequently put his bow at the door and left the palace of his brother being afflicted in the core of his heart with the external energy, but despite of these severe arrows to the ear, about which he didn't feel sorry, he felt great.

 

 

(17) After having quit the Kaurava's, going from Hastinâpura, he achieved the piety of the Supreme Lord in taking shelter in pilgrimages, desiring only the high grade of devotion as established by all those thousands of idols. (18) He traveled to holy places of devotion where the air, the hills and the orchards, waters, rivers and lakes are pure with temples decorated with the forms of the Unlimited. Thus he proceeded alone through the holy lands. (19) Traversing the earth pure and independent, he was sanctified by the ground he slept on and without his familiar dress one could not recognize him being dressed like a mendicant performing to the vows to please the Lord. (20) Traveling this way through India only, he came to the holy land of Prabhâsa, which at the time was under the reign of King Yudhishthhira who by the mercy of the Invincible Lord ruled the world under one military flag [see C.1-13]. (21) There he heard how all his kinsmen had perished [at Kurukshetra] in violent passion like a bamboo forest burnt of igniting through its own friction, upon which he, silently thinking to himself, went westward towards the river Sarasvati. (22) There at the bank of the river he visited and duly worshiped the holy places called Trita, Us'anâ, Manu, Prithu, Agni, Asita, Vâyu, Sudâsa, Go, Guha and S'râddhadeva. (23) There were also other places there established by the godly twice-born and devotees of the various forms of Lord Vishnu, who as the chief marked each and every part of the temples - which already seen from a distance reminded one of Lord Krishna. (24) From there passing through the wealthy kingdom of Surat, Sauvira and Kurujângala (west of India), did he, as he after some time reached the Yamunâ river, also happen to see Uddhava, the Supreme Lord His greatest devotee [see Canto11].

 

 

(25) He embraced the sober and gentle constant companion of Vâsudeva who was formerly a student of Brihaspati, the master of all ritual, and with great love and feeling he questioned him about the family of the Supreme Lord: (26) 'Are the original personalities of Godhead [Krishna & Balarâma], who, on the request of the Creator who was born from the lotus, descended in the world for the elevation and well-being of every one, all well in the house of S'ûrasena [the father of Queen Kunti, aunt Prithâ ]? (27) And, o Uddhava, is our greatest Kuru and brother-in -law, Vasudeva [father of Lord Krishna], who is truly like a father to his sisters and so generous in providing his wives to their pleasure with everything they desire, happy? (28) Please, tell me whether the military commander-in-chief of the Yadus, Pradyumna, is all happy, o Uddhava - he was in his previous life the God of Love and is now the great hero whom Rukminî bore as prince from the Supreme Lord after pleasing the brahmins. (29) And is Ugrasena all well, the king of the Sâtvatas of the Vrishni family from the Dâs'ârha race in the Bhoja-dynasty? He is the one to whom Lord Krishna restored the hope of the throne after he had to give it up being put at a distance [because of Uncle Kamsa's reign]. (30) O grave one, is the similar son of the Lord faring well that is the foremost and best behaved among the warriors, Sâmba, whom Jâmbavatî [another wife of Krishna] so rich in her vows gave birth to after his previous life as the godly Kârttikeya who was born unto the wife of S'iva? (31) And how is Yuyudhâna [Sâtyaki], he who learned from Arjuna and achieved as one understanding the intricacies of the military art and as well surely of service attained to the destination of the Transcendental that even by the great renouncers is so difficult to achieve? (32) And the well learned faultless son of S'vaphalka, Akrûra, how is he - he is the one who in his surrender on the path of Krishna's lotus feet fell in the dust showing symptoms of transcendental love having lost his equilibrium. (33) Is everything well with the daughter of King Devaka-Bhoja; the way from the Veda's came about the purpose of sacrifice did she [Devakî], just like the mother of the demi-gods [Aditi] who gave birth to the Godhead, give birth to Vishnu. (34) And is also He, the Personality of Godhead all happy who of you all is the one devotee that is the source of all desires, Aniruddha, who from a long time past is accepted as the birth channel of the Rig-Veda, the creator of mind and the transcendental fourth plenary expansion of the Reality Principle [Vishnu-tattva]? (35) And o sober one, are others like Hridîka, Cârudeshna, Gada and the son of Satyabhâmâ, who accept the Divine of their own self as the soul in following with absolute faith, also all well passing their time?

 

 

 

(36) Does Yudhishthhira, heartening the principles of humanity, maintain the respect of religion under the protection of the arms of Arjuna and the Infallible One, which, with the opulence of his royal entourage and the service of Arjuna, so envied Duryodana? (37) And did the unconquerable Bhîma, who is like a cobra, release his long-cherished anger upon the sinners? The battlefield could not bear his stepping up on the path of the wonderful play of his club. (38) Arjuna, the famous one among the chariot warriors with his bow the Gândîva who vanquished so many enemies, is he doing well? Once he satisfied Lord S'ivacovering him with arrows when S'ivaunrecognizable presented himself as a false hunter. (39) And do the twin sons of Prithâ [Nakula and Sahadeva] play carelessly who protected as they are by their brothers as the eyelids do the eyes in their snatching back their own property in the fight with the enemy like Garuda [the carrier of Vishnu] did [with the nectar] from the mouth of Indra? (40) O dear one, is Prithâ still alive; she dedicated her life to the care for the fatherless children, living without King Pându, who alone as a commanding warrior could conquer the four directions with a second bow only.

 

 

(41) O gentle one, I am just lamenting him [Dhritarâshthra] who gliding down on his brothers [Pându's] death revolted and drove me, his well-wisher, out of my own house in adopting the same line of action as his sons. (42) Therefore I travel without being recognized by the eyes of the common man through this world of the Lord, which is so bewildering for others to manage, to the grace of His feet, which I never missed to see being doubtless in this matter. (43) Of course, to the kings going astray out of the three kinds of false pride [from the hindrances of the self, others and the wordly influence] who constantly agitated the earth through the movement of their troops, He, being the Supreme Lord of the Kuru's and willing to relieve the distress of the surrendered, waited to kill them despite of their offenses. (44) As the appearance of the unborn He operates for the annihilation of the upstarts without another motive than to make all understand; who otherwise than Him is the deserve of the body united in transcendence to the three modes or what to say of [the command of] the law of karma. (45) O my friend, sing the glories of the Lord of all the sacred places who for the interest of the unborn was born in the family of the Yadus and to whom all rulers of the universe surrendered in the control of His own Self.