Was Vidura irresponsible in departing when his family was about to fight the worst war of their life?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So thank you very much. So Vidura, he just walked away when the most important war took place.
And he could have very well stayed and tried to avoid the war, or tried to give advice at that time. Yes, it’s true that his sight is the clearest sight. After the incident has happened, we can see things clearly.
But Vidura did try his best. Even when Draupadi was being dishonored, Vidura again and again was warning. He was the strongest, most vocal critic of what was happening.
And eventually, the incident which made him walk away was also at one level very traumatic. It was Dhritarashtra had been neglecting Vidura’s advice. That’s why Dhritarashtra and Vidura are in the same generation.
But till that time, Duryodhana, he was very strongly against Vidura, but externally he was respectful. He would speak about how he feels Vidura is against him to Dhritarashtra. And Dhritarashtra would speak it to Vidura sometimes.
But at this particular point, it was Vidura who came out. He spoke straight to Vidura. Sorry, it was Duryodhana who spoke to Vidura.
He says, who is this? Who is this son of a maid servant? He is living on our food, but he is working for our enemies. It’s like a very grievous insight. And if you consider from a traditional hierarchical society, in general, a junior never speaks even verbally against a senior.
What to speak of? Even a younger brother doesn’t publicly find fault with the elder brother. What to speak of? One with the son’s generation finding fault with somebody in the elder generation, father’s generation. It was not just a finding of fault, it was just attacking his own character.
And when he did that, that itself was a very grievous insight. But more than that, Dhritarashtra remained silent. And that was even more beautiful.
See, the harsh words of our critics, the harsh words of our enemies, don’t hurt as much as the silence of our friends. You should defend me. I am doing this for you.
I am on your side. How can you remain silent? So that, when Dhritarashtra remained silent, Dhritarashtra realized that things are no longer in my control. So Dhritarashtra’s attachment he was able to tolerate and he continued on.
But Dhritarashtra’s insolence and Dhritarashtra’s public insolence, public impudence, arrogance and Dhritarashtra’s staying silent even through that. At a particular time in life, he realized that, I don’t have the power to do anything about it. It’s too awkward.
It’s described that Prabhupada was working with his godbrothers at one time. And then he had his own preaching program. And then somebody came and he was doing a program and he did a program and then some person attended the program and said, Prabhupada, I would like to take initiation from you.
It was Abhay Babu at that time. Or was it Bhaktivedanta Swami? I think it was Bhaktivedanta Swami. Prabhupada was just taking sannyas.
I would like to take initiation from you. And then there was some disciple and godbrother with whom Prabhupada was staying. And he directly told Prabhupada, No, you cannot give initiation.
This is our Math and our Mathadi. He will give initiation. And Prabhupada just remained silent.
And then he naturally gave it to the spiritual master. The spiritual master did not say much. Prabhupada walked away.
Prabhupada realized, I cannot preach in this situation. Later on, when his godbrother came to know about this, he was unhappy and he spoke to his godbrother. He should not have spoken like this.
There is a breach of etiquette for you to speak like this. The point is that it is not so easy for us. It is not fair on our part to see from his side and say what somebody should have done or not done.
In his situation, he had tried again and again and again. And it was just as if it was a catastrophic war. And he knew that it was going to be a disaster that was happening.
But he just said, I cannot avert it anymore. So sometimes, what is that? Sometimes when we see that something is, like say a car is being driven towards off a cliff. Telling the driver, don’t go there, don’t go there.
And the driver doesn’t listen. He tried to pull the driver and take control of the car. That person just beats him up.
What can you do at that time? Because he is not ready to let go of the car. He is not going to stop the course of the car from going off the cliff. The only thing he had to do was to jump out of the car.
We can’t save them. At least save ourselves. And afterwards, we can be there.
If somebody’s survivors are there, we will be there to help them. So at that time, Vidura just had exhausted all options. He had seen how they had even tried to arrest Krishna.
That was infuriating for him. He just realized that Duryodhana’s arrogance had just crossed all limits. And Dhritarashtra was too attached to speak anything.
So sometimes, especially if we are used to doing things or getting things done, to acknowledge that this is beyond my power, it is not easy. But then, some things may just be beyond our power. And it’s just what is required.
Walk away from there. So yes, it was a catastrophe, but it was just he had done his best. And it was like a train designed for a break now.
Just walk over the train.