​Bhagavatam study 64 1.13.9-18 Fulfilling purpose is more important than just sharing information

Thank you Text 9 Text 9 Yudhishthir is asking Vidura who has returned back home, how did you live, how did you maintain yourself By what occupation, he has renounced the world so obviously he did not have an occupation but ultimately everybody has to get their livelihood somehow or the other. So what was the way you got your livelihood? kaya vritya vartitambhashya charadbhikshitimandala On this earth as you moved about, how do you maintain yourselves? And tirthanikshetramukhyani. Now the main holy places which were those sevitaniha bhutale.
Now he has a beautiful phrase over here. He doesn’t say that just which holy places did you visit. He says which holy places did you say sevitaniha.
So when you go to a holy place, it is not just to do any sightseeing. As we do get to see beautiful sights, it is actually troublesome and there is often a certain level of austerity involved when we go to a holy place. Basic comforts might not be there.
In the past travelling means we had to go on foot and sometimes there in the forest there could be dangerous animals, there could be decoys. So through it all when one goes there, we certainly get to see Krishna and it’s a beautiful sight to behold. But the primary purpose is not to see Krishna.
The primary purpose is to actually become to serve Krishna who is manifested at the holy place. When we bow down to the holy place, when we take darshan of important sites at that holy place, we are actually using our body, our eyes, our everything in the service of Krishna and his manifestation of the holy name. And when we go with that attitude of serving the holy place, not holy place, not holy name, then we actually grow spiritually through such a devotional service attitude.
And Yudhishthira does not consider asking about how Yudhishthira maintained himself as a mundane enquiry. No, it’s a natural part of living and for a devotee who has devoted their lives for spiritual purposes, then even the material is important, has a strong bearing on the spiritual and thus an enquiry of the material is appropriate. Significantly the Bhagavatam, when it describes Yudhishthira’s answer, Yudhishthira does not mention how he maintained himself.
He just said that his experiences he described systematically. Still as a matter of etiquette, as a matter of culture, when we enquire about the well-being of people, we can’t just separate their soul from their body and say that I care for your soul, I don’t care for your body. No, we care for them as full persons.
And how we care for them? That is by expressing affectionate words, having appropriate enquiries and showing proper respect as Yudhishthira is doing for Vidura. Shivad Bhagavatam 1.13.10 bhavad vidha bhagvatas teertha bhutah svayam vibhau teerthi kurvanti teerthan svantas te na gadabhrithan Yudhishthira Maharaj is addressing Vidura respectfully after Vidura has returned home from a long pilgrimage. bhavad vidha bhagvatas bhavad, respectful second person address.
People like you are bhagvatas, are great exalted devotees of the Lord. teertha bhutah svayam vibhau that you are the holy places personify teerthi kurvanti teerthani indeed wherever you go you make those places holy svantas te na gadabhrithan svantas, in your heart is situated, gadabhrithan the Lord holds the gadha, that refers to Vishnu, Krishna Shankar, Chakra, Gadha, Padma is the standard paraphernalia of Vishnu which he always carries with him and he is identified by gadabhrita. Now it’s significant that Vidura is not being addressed by Yudhishthira as my uncle, as a family elder, certainly there is that affection of having seen a family elder and he’s also expressed his gratitude for the way Vidura has protected him, protected them all, the Pandavas and their matruka, paksha chaya, he says a bird protects its young ones with wings but at the same time he’s also recognising that Vidura is just not my relative, Vidura is not just a wise counsellor, Vidura is a saint and he’s stating over here that this great saint has actually acquired such incredible saintliness that being with him is like being with as like being at a holy place, saintly people are repeatedly glorified in the bhagavatam because they are able to, because they actually are people who can help us all experience the sanctity of the holy places even when we are not able to go to those holy places ourselves in life there is always the tendency to get caught in materialistic things and the way to protect ourselves from that tendency the way to conquer that tendency is by moving onwards in our spiritual journey towards Krishna by the association of those who have moved towards him and often this association is available in the form of devotees who travel various places so we all have our places where we stay and we cannot go to holy places always, we can occasionally go for pilgrimages there but overall we have to stay at our own places so the holy places are places where we can access Krishna’s mercy but then the holy people are movable means to such access, they enable us wherever we are to remember Krishna to relish Krishna’s glories and to thus move closer to Krishna now what makes a holy person holy Yudhishthir is pointing to this this feature or this truth in the latter part of the last part of his verse when he states that that in your heart situated the Lord so what makes a holy person holy is not a dress is not the speech but it is the heart what is situated in the heart of course what is still in the heart will also express itself in speech a holy person will speak about Krishna what was in the heart will also manifest as sweetness in as appropriate saintliness and appearance usually speaking unless the person is an avadhuta but the point is that we cannot just reduce the externals the speech and the dress we cannot equate that alone with saintliness it is the heart which needs to be devoted to supreme lord the heart needs to become the abode of the lord now in one sense the heart lord is present in the heart of all living beings Krishna states that he’s present in the heart of all living beings but essentially there is his presence which is of which we are unaware unconscious and there is a presence is his presence which is consciously sought and and meticulously cultivated that means we sadhakas strive to remember Krishna strive to make their heart a worthy abode for Krishna strive to invoke Krishna’s presence in his heart by becoming more and more conscious of him and that is what is talked about here that such people for whom Krishna is not just present in their hearts but they too are aware of Krishna’s presence and they too delight in Krishna’s presence they are the great soul such people because they are always conscious of Krishna those who come in contact with them also become conscious of Krishna by their association and thus they manifest the potency of holy places as is so poetically glorified in this verse there is a alliteration especially played with the word we have the word comes thrice and that stresses on the fact that actually holy places are themselves the holy people are themselves holy places manifested excellent is basically a generic form of effect a generic affectionate form of address they’re all absorbed in thoughts of Krishna so have you seen them did you go there to Dwarka have you heard about them are they residing happily in their abode so naturally if we love someone and we don’t know how they are if somebody has travelled and come from a distant place we may ask them you know oh have you been there you know how they are doing so like that you listed natural affection for the yadus is manifested here when he asked this question to Vidura that are they they are Krishna Devata they’re absorbed in the thoughts of Krishna always they’re utterly devoted to Krishna so how are they Prabhupada highlight this in his purport now from the context we will see later that Vidura does not answer this question and the reason we will discuss when the Bhagavatam will explain why it does not answer this question so when Dharma Raja Yudhishthira spoke thus at that time everything Vidura described systematically described as he has experienced slowly step by step so Yudhishthira asked Vidura which all holy places did you serve how did you maintain yourselves he’s basically asking for a report of his travel and Vidura did that and described where he went what he did or how he heard from various people but it is said that he did not describe the destruction of the yadus so this implies that actually Vidura had been gone for a very very long time so it is stated that the Pandavas ruled for approximately 33 years before Gandhari’s curse acted and the yadus were destroyed by that curse so it seems that that much period or more than three decades have passed between the previous chapter and this chapter so Yudhishthira has ruled virtuously and Yudhishthira also lived to a prodigious old age and now what is happening is that Vidura has come back after a long long time and when he has come back during this intervene period the Lord has decided to unwind his pastimes and what yadukulakshayam happened exactly that will be talked about in the future chapters but essentially the point made here is that Vidura does not speak about this we don’t have to be the bearer of bad news unless it is unavoidable as the next verse talks about nanvapriyam durvishaham nranam svayam upasthitam na vedayet sakurano dukhitam drashtum akshamaham so now in the previous verse it is stated that Vidura did not speak about the Pandavas about the destruction of the Kuru dynasty why did he not speak this that is mentioned here that nanvapriyam durvishaham that which is apriyam durvisham that is unpalatable unbearable there are degrees unpalatable means you know some food we don’t like it so we say it is unpalatable but unbearable means something which just cannot tolerate at all so the degree of intensification in durvishaham is much stronger than apriyam nranam svayam upasthitam of others nranam svayam upasthitam so now the distressing things have happened by their own accord and now when he is not the cause of that he feels there is no need for him to speak about that na vedayet sakurano na vedayet ved means to know so avedayet means to get to help people know to tell people to inform people so Vidura felt that this is not what he wants to do sakaruno so he was compassionate dukkhitam drashtum akshamaham he could not bear to see drashtum akshamaham he will not have the capacity to tolerate that so two points are talked about over here first is Vidura’s nature and second is the nature of things in the material world so Vidura’s nature is that he could not tolerate the distress of the Pandavas and the Pandavas had already experienced a lot of distress in their lives over the years when they had been persecuted by the Kauravas decades in fact they had been persecuted and now finally when they are living happily when they are living prosperously at this point Vidura feels no desire in fact strong reluctance to interrupt their joyful condition and thus he states that he refuses to speak they are living in happiness why should I cause them distress and then the second part is the nature of things in material world he says that unpalatable unbearable calamities happen by their own accord so now what we have caused if we have caused some harm to people we need to explain to them we need to apologise we need to do what we can to rectify but something has happened on its own do we need to inform about it to others now if there is some immediate remedial action that can be taken it is different say if terrorists are attacking and then we have to then people have to move to some safe territory from some place then informing them is fine but if terrorists have attacked somewhere else and it is not really relevant we may not bring that up in our discussion so here it might seem a little odd today there is so much emphasis on breaking news we all feel that we need to be abreast of whatever happens wherever and especially if a major event has happened you would like to know about it that’s what we feel but often we also have to think that now what is the effect of certain knowledge on what we have of the knowledge on us so that effect is not positive Vidura he has met his loved ones after such a long time and he has come here with a specific purpose in mind as will become evident in his future talks he has come here to help Nitrashtra become detached from material existence now if he starts talking about the destruction of the Yadu dynasty the whole focus will shift the Pandavas will be devastated and then he will have to console them and in that process getting the Nitrashtra detached will not happen at all so it’s not that we have to conceal bad news or deny bad news it is not that we have to share bad news we have to focus on what is our purpose and what best helps our purpose and what does not help our purpose so in this particular case sharing the news of the destruction of the Yadu dynasty will distract Vidura from his purpose of instructing Nitrashtra and inspiring him to renounce the world and to avoid the distraction he does not speak about the destruction of the Yadus text 14 kanchit kalam atha vatsit satkrito devavatsukham prathur jeshthasya shreyaskrit sarvesham sukham avahan so kanchit kalam for some time atha vatsit he resided there Vidura stayed with Yudhishthir in the kingdom satkrito devavatsukham satkrito satkar is honour satkrita is to be well treated devavatsukham and he he enjoyed the facilities there devavat like the gods so earlier it has been said how Yudhishthir’s prosperity was such that the news spread far and wide throughout the three worlds so he had opulences which were like those of the celestials and Vidura who lived with them also partook of those those opulences associated comforts and luxuries he had lived a life of great austerity in the forest and now he was living a life of great comfort but he remained fixed in his purpose he wanted to prathur jeshthasya his elder brother that was Yudhishthir in Dhritarashtra Vidura wanted to enlighten him and he he stayed for some time so that he could again develop the relationship further and once there was a adequate platform of proximity then he could speak the strong words that he had to speak in order to enlighten Dhritarashtra so his instructions of Dhritarashtra will be the main part of this chapter and that will come in due course so here some background is given how it said he was enjoying the facilities like a celestial devavat so what is being mentioned over here that how he exactly was a actually Vidura was not just living like a dev he was himself a dev that is pointed to in the next text, text 15 abhibradh aryama dhannam yathavad aghakarishu yavad dhadhara shudratvam shapad varshashatam yamaham abhibhavradh aryama dhannam so dhannam as long as the punishment was being given yathavad aghakarishu the function of punishing those who are sinful aghakarishu who was doing that aryama yavad dhadhara shudratvam till the time he had accepted shudratvam the life as a shudra shapad varshashatam yamaham shapad because of a curse yamraj had to do that varshashatam for 100 years so it’s mentioned that Vidura was actually yamraj and for 100 years while he was acting as a shudra because of a curse aryama officiated in his post the devatas are not just persons they are also posts and there are different persons who may occupy the post at different times and if a person is somehow not able to occupy the post even during their tenure because of some problem then the post has the functions of that post will have to be done and then someone else has to take up those functions so the Mahabharata tells the story of a of a rishi manduk who in his childhood had while playing just pierced and bifurcated some ants and later on he was actually he was framed for having accused for having robbed a place or at least assisted a robber and the king and when he was framed like this at the last moment the king came to know that actually a sage has been a sage is being punished and the king went and apologised to the king and to the sage and released him honourably still the sage was upset and he went to he had been about to be killed so he went to Yamaraja and asked him when I had lived virtuously why did I have to undergo such a nightmarish experience of being on the verge of death and the reply was that actually there was just no way he as a sage could have committed such sins worthy of reaction but in his childhood he had cut those ants and that’s why he got this reaction so the sage was furious he said oh Yamaraja don’t you have any discrimination a child does not have intelligence and if a child does something how can you administer a disproportionate reaction for what a child has done in innocence and ignorance so because of that Yamaraja was cursed by the sage he was told because you are not acting like a Deva you are acting without a proper sense of discrimination you are acting like a Shudra so you have to become a Shudra so Yamaraja had thereby been cursed to take birth through the contact of Dhritarashtra with a Shudra woman and the result was Vidura so here it is being mentioned that Vidura was actually a Devata it was Yamaraja who was presently acting as acting as a Shudra so now actually speaking if we consider that Yamaraja himself is a Mahajan and Prabhupada clarified in his purport that Vidura was never a Shudra he may have been born in a Shudra family but he was wise he was far wiser than wiser than Dhritarashtra his brother who was born who had pure Kshatriya blood running through him we could say pure Kshatriya blood just to quote people who claim that greatness comes from bloodlines but Dhritarashtra was blind blind physically and blind spiritually and Bhishma was was among the foremost learned persons but even Bhishma would take take would consult Vidura while making decisions Vidura was so wise so he was he had a Shudra body or rather he had born in a Shudra family but he was extremely wise more than a Brahmana as Prabhupada stresses in the purport text 16 Yudhishthiro Labdha Rajyo Dhrishtva Pautram Kulandharam Bhratra Bhirloka Pala Bhair Bumude Parayashriya So Yudhishthiro Labdha Rajyo now that Yudhishthira had got the kingdom Labdha Rajyo Dhrishtva Pautram Kulandharam Pautram Kulandharam so now his grandson also he had Kulandharam who was going to be the carrier of the dynasty who would be the you see that he was also worthy of the responsibility that he was going to get he was going to be a worthy heir so Yudhishthira in this way was happy Bhratra Bhirloka Pala Bhair so Bhratra Bhair brothers who were Lokapalas Lokapalas are four primary devatas who look after the universal administration that’s the technical meaning of the word Lokpal Lokpal also means basically those who administer the people so now his Yudhishthira was the king and he has his brothers who were competent assistants in the administration of the kingdom and in that sense the kingdom was also well managed so Mumudhe Parayashriya Mumudhe he enjoyed life Parayashriya with extraordinary opulence again and again the Bhagavatam demonstrates that even devotees who are blessed by the lord can get materially also glorious things so Yudhishthira had a kingdom he had he had a heir he had a good family and his affairs were well administered so in this way that which materialistic people dream about Yudhishthira had that and in this way he lived on so now Devavata so what was mentioned earlier that Vidura was living like a god enjoying like a god because Yudhishthira himself had such opulence now the Bhagavatam although it says that the devotees can also get extraordinary opulence the Bhagavatam doesn’t focus on such opulence because this opulence doesn’t stay for long it can be taken away at any time as it is described in the 8th canto when Gachendra from the while being in the middle of great prosperity was suddenly overcome by adversity and that philosophical principle will be mentioned over here text 17 those who are attached to home those who are home represents worldly worldly existence bound existence to to family friends and family relatives wealth and everything like that those who are attached like that those who are infatuated by such attachment intoxicated by such attachment and those those who are endeavouring for this those who are absorbed in this so that they are overpowered by they are surpassed by without even their knowledge which is formidable which is undefeatable which is unmatchable so what happened is the Bhagavatam gives the warning that if we become too obsessed with material enjoyment too complacent then we become unaware that time is creeping in and on us that insurmountable eternal time as Prabhupada said now if an enemy is creeping in on us if we are aware that the enemy is coming we can prepare for combating the enemy but if we are not even aware that the enemy is coming then what will we do we will simply be defeated so the Bhagavatam its mood is that we prepare for the inevitable we prepare for the enemy which is going to come upon us and which is going to otherwise destroy us so text 18 now there was royal opulence in Yudhisthira’s palace and because of that people could have become blinded to the imperceptible attack of time but Vidura was not unaware Vidura was aware of this and he could see that Dhritarashtra was blind to this and therefore he spoke to Dhritarashtra Dhritarashtra Abhashata Abhashata he spoke to Dhritarashtra Rajan Nirgam Mitam Shidram okay please give up immediately Shidram Nirgam Mitam give this up go away from here Pashedam Bhayamagatam just see this Bhayamagatam fear has arrived fear is overtaking you we’ll talk about what that fear is in future verses but here the mode of instruction is quite direct now he stayed himself for a few days so that a basic platform of affection was established but when it came to give instructions Vidura does not beat around the bush Dhritarashtra Rajan he uses the word king for Dhritarashtra because although Yudhishthira was officially the king Yudhishthira made an official pronouncement that Dhritarashtra should be offered all honour as if he were the king and nobody should disrespect him so here Vidura is also referring to Dhritarashtra as Rajan in one sense the word Rajan will highlight the contrast of what is going to be spoken you are meant to lead but are you able to lead yourself Raja is one who leads are you able to lead yourself also he says that nirgam mitam shigram renounce immediately pashetam bhayamagaram just see the fearful something very fearful has come behold you know somebody if a snake is hitting on someone then you tell that person hey watch out the snake is coming so it’s almost with that sense of urgency and fervency here Vidura is warning Dhritarashtra just see fear has arrived pashetam although there is nothing physical to see over here it is more of a metaphysical vision to acquire but with this direct address Vidura joins Dhritarashtra out of complacency and instruction what his instructions are and how they enlighten Dhritarashtra will discuss in our future talks