Bhagavatam study 66 01.13.24-29 Detachment emerges from education that changes our definition of success

Pindam pindam has thrown strong words of reproach to Dhritarashtra in order to get him out of the stupor of attachment into which he has sunk.
And in that connection he’s speaking agnir, nirishtha, that you tried to burn the Pandavas out of the Dhritarashtra. You set their house on fire, you tried to give them poison, you tried to pollute their wife, dishonour their wife, to contaminate her. And you stole away their property, their kingdom, their wealth.
Yeshaan, those people, what about them? He’s saying there’s no need for you to live at their mercy. So how can you now live on what they are providing you? Here Vidura is helping Dhritarashtra to see through the fogs of illusion that deaden us to the perception of reality, especially when it is harsh. So sometimes the unwashed reality needs to be seen as it is in order for us to be able to take the corrective actions that are necessary.
As long as we are sugarcoating reality, till that point we stay stuck, unable to do anything constructive. So sometimes we have done something grievously wrong but we don’t want to admit that. You want to believe that things are all right.
So the mind tries to obscure our perception of reality by making us deny or by blinding us, deadening us to the vision of what we have done, even when we have done the wrongdoing. So here Vidura places the blame for Dhritarashtra’s actions squarely on Dhritarashtra’s feet. Dhritarashtra might have rationalised, actually it was not all that bad.
I did not do it. Shakuni instigated and Dhritarashtra did it. But then it was all done with the sanction of Dhritarashtra, that he was also a politician and he knew how his politically minded son was thinking and he never stopped him.
There might be some people who are active connivers in conspiracy and some people may be passive participants. But active or passive, still participation in conspiracy is participation in conspiracy. So in their case, in this case particularly, they all did what they did because Dhritarashtra, who was in the officiating position as the king, did not put his foot down.
So here he, first of all, all those brutal wrongdoings, he is mentioning them bluntly and he is in a blunt way telling that you did it. So it’s like pushing the knife into the stomach or into the heart and then turning it so that it hurts. And this hurt is necessary.
It’s like a surgical hurt sometimes is necessary. So here this hurt is necessary for Dhritarashtra to detach, for getting him detached. And then he further says that you are living on the food given by them.
This is also very unpalatable for him to think because he feels that actually I’m a member of the royal family and I’m living in royalty. But actually he’s not entitled to any of what he’s having. If Yudhishthira had not been so gracious, he could well have punished Dhritarashtra for having been a co-conspirator in the conspiracy against him.
And he would not have been blamed for that because Dhritarashtra did actively connive and especially during the gambling match, Dhritarashtra was eagerly asking, has Panchali been won? Has Panchali been won? So Vidura is continuing to speak to Dhritarashtra. So despite all this, that although you tried to kill them and you’re still you are living on them now, you are still living like a miser. You who desire to live, the body is anyway going to dwindle.
Even if you are not willing, it is going to deteriorate. Just like old garments get worn out, they have to be given up. Sometimes in order to hold on to an attachment, we may actually put ourselves in quite a humiliating situation.
But even if we do so, we cannot hold on to it. Because the very nature of material things is temporary. So Dhritarashtra is being told over here that even if you say that I just want this royal honour and I’m ready to even give up my honour, my self-respect for this, to live in a position that is publicly prestigious.
But the question is, how long are you going to live like this? Eventually you have to give it up. So Kripanasya Jee Vishwa, don’t live like a Kripana. Don’t live like a person who is going to go to death’s jaws, ashamed.
Better that we give up voluntarily what we will anyway have to give up for simply. In giving up voluntarily, there is purification. In giving up forcibly, there is only frustration.
When we choose to give up something voluntarily, we take up something else also. So we give up for Krishna’s sake by taking up Krishna. That purifies us.
But when we give up unwillingly, forcibly, then we don’t gain anything by that at all. Dhritarashtra is conveying to him that the only option to renunciation is frustration. Therefore, better to give up voluntarily and become purified rather than to be forced to give up and become frustrated.
So the example here, just as the body gets worn out, it says from the Bhagavad Gita, Old body has to be given up and new body has to be taken up. So there the thrust of Krishna to Arjuna was that don’t be afraid of your death or the death of your loved ones because you all will get new bodies. In this case, the thrust of Vidura in speaking about Dhritarashtra is that actually this body is going to go away.
So there is no mention of the new body being got because the purpose of Vidura in speaking of Dhritarashtra is to inspire detachment and disengagement from the world. Krishna’s purpose in speaking to Arjuna was to inspire engagement in the world. So the Bhagavad Gita and Bhagavatam have the same messages but very different contexts.
And according to the messages customised to serve the purposes that are appropriate for those contexts. One who gives up all self-centred engagement, and then one gives up one’s body. One is freed from all attachments.
When one gives up one’s body in a place where no one knows that one has given up the body. सवईधी अधारता A person is considered sober. This is quite a radical definition of sobriety.
When they die, they plan their funeral. They plan the kind of coffin that they will be put in. So death style is also considered a lifestyle.
There is no style in which we die miserably. But people want to be buried in coffins which are stylish. So in contrast, with such obsession with the style of our death, an obsession that is actually going to be of no benefit to us at all, because we won’t be there to see what is being done.
So similarly, the point here is that Arjuna is not going to. Dhritarashtra is being stressed that completely detach yourself not only from the royal comforts, but also from any reputation. The moment of death is very important for us.
But it is important because where we go is determined by the consciousness we have at the time of death. It is not important so much that how we look when we die. In the world’s eyes, what is the appearance? That is hardly of any importance from the perspective of the next life.
Of course, if devotee dies in devotee association, that association can help the devotee to remember Krishna. In that sense, that association is auspicious. But what is auspicious there also is the assistance in the remembrance of Krishna, which that association brings.
But if it is just a large number of people coming and maybe offering their condolences and then not knowing what to do after that, because death is a subject which makes us profoundly uncomfortable, then often just talking with such people only increases our distraction and our distress and doesn’t actually help us prepare for death. So if you consider from the perspective of preparing for life’s final exam, then possibly it is best to not have this kind of distraction and to move forward in our journey towards Krishna through devotional focus and especially the Trashtra is not a devotee of Krishna and he is surrounded by, he has been surrounded for a long time by bad association and he is now, although he is surrounded by good association, he is not taking that good association. He is actually, in a sense, using the considerate association of the Pandavas to perpetuate his inconsiderate ways, to perpetuate his deadening of his conscience by which he could continue to live in unwholesome ways.
So in a material attached ways. So for such a person, if you consider three levels, to die remembering Krishna in devotee association, that is very positive, to die in mundane association, in lamentation and in thoughts of material attachment and material distress, that’s a lower extreme. So the middle would be to die in isolation without the distraction of appearance and fame when one dies, so that at least, even if there is no positive spiritual attachment to Krishna, at least there is no, there is less material distraction because of attachment and social image.
So to die in a secluded place is good at least so that there is no distraction in life at the moment of death and one can avoid mundane socialisation and strive to think of higher realities. Text 27 यस्वकात्परतोवेह That person by one’s own endeavour, स्वकात्परतोवाह or by hearing from others, by guidance from others, जातनिर्वेदात्मवान He becomes, in him it’s awakened, निर्वेदात्मवान निर्वेद is freedom from attachment, material attachment. पदिकृत्वाहरिंगेहात् And one takes up the Lord in one’s heart and one gives up one’s home.
प्रवरजेत्सनरोत्तमः And one who goes away, that person is नरोत्तमः is the best among human beings. We all live according to our definitions of success. If we think that living comfortably with the least of trouble and the most of luxury and comfort that is the success of life and to the extent we strive to achieve that and to the extent we are achieving that we think we are successful.
If on the other hand we think that adventurously venturing out into territories that nobody has gone into into as some people say discover new lands to do new things if that is our definition of success then we we strive for that. So here Vidura is giving Dhritarashtra a new definition of success he is telling that नरोत्तमः who is the best human being not just one who is called as the king by others that’s what Dhritarashtra is attached to being referred to as the king but Dhritarashtra is neither executing the responsibility of being the king he is blinded he is not actually taking up the anxiety and responsibility of administering the kingdom practically nor does he actually having the power of the king really speaking he is getting some nominal honour because Dhritarashtra the Yadishthira is offering Dhritarashtra that honour so he is giving him a new definition of success so detachment is meant to revise our definition of success and here Dhritarashtra is given the definition that if one becomes spiritually awakened be it by one’s own endeavour or by hearing from others if one becomes spiritually awakened चातनिर्वेदात्मवान one becomes detached and here there is an important combination of taking up and giving up so one takes up Hari in the heart and then one gives up worldly attachments so sometimes we focus only on giving up we feel deprived but when we focus on Krishna and we see giving up as a means of taking up more effectively we give up the world to take up the lord of the world the source of the world more firmly in our heart then that is auspicious that is what Vidura encourages Dhritarashtra to do the new definition of success is that you can become Narottama by renouncing the world and ultimately the origin of renunciation is not as important as the action of renunciation whether one becomes renounced by one’s own epiphany coming from within or by the strong words coming from without यह स्वकात परतोवी हो that doesn’t matter as much as whether one actually becomes renounced or not so here he does become renounced and that’s how and that’s what is laudable that’s what is encouraged text 28 अथोदिचिन्दिशिन्यातु अथ उदिचिन् उदिचिन् उत्तर related with the northern so now therefore go away Dashu go away in the northern direction स्वयिर अज्ञातगतिर्भवान without the knowledge of your relatives इतो अर्वाक प्रायश्यः कालः पुमसाम गुणविकरश्यः so you should go away immediately that will take time पुमसाम गुणविकरश्यः at certain times invoke certain effects just like you know when the morning is there the nature has just woken up in general we feel fresh in night especially if you have done a hard day’s work we feel tired so the time is related with our consciousness and here he is being told that actually your consciousness already you are attached and in future as Kali Yuga comes as the cosmic time goes becomes worse actually a circumstance is going to become difficult your own consciousness will go down the consciousness of other people will go down and you will become more entangled so better get out from this world before that negative time comes and that negative time decreases your consciousness and degrades you before that just get out of here पुमसाम गुणविकरश्यः गुणविकरश्यः so विकरश्यः करश्यः is grinding and विकरश्यः is grinding which leads to erode which leads to deteriorating which leads to decreasing so काल पुमसाम गुणविकरश्यः the whole Bhagavatam is spoken in the shadow of the advent of Kali Yuga and awareness that things are going to become terribly difficult in terms of the human consciousness and therefore it’s best to get out before the degraded human consciousness because of Kali Yuga makes life even more difficult by degrading one’s own actions and degrading the actions of those around us text 29 एवं राजा विदुरेणानुजेन राज्यचक्षुर्भोधित आजमीद्ह चित्वाश्वेशुस्नेहः पाशान धधिमिनो धधिम्नो चक्राम् भ्रातुर् संदर्शिताद्ध्वा एवं राजा विदुरेणानुजेन विदुरेणानुजेन So, in this way, the Raja when he heard his way from his younger brother Vidura अनुजेन प्रग्ञाचक्षुर्भोधित आजमीद्ह प्रग्ञाचक्षु प्रग्ञाचक्षु means Pragya is wisdom, Chakshu is Eyes and in this way the Eyes of wisdom were awakened भोधित आजमीद्ह So, Aajmeedha to the descendant of Ajamedha, you can refer to Dhritarashtra, who is being referred to that he becomes, his Jnana Chakshu becomes awakened, Prajna Chakshu becomes awakened, and then Bodhita, Chitva, Sveshu, Sneha, Pashyantra, Himno, so he gave up the Chitva, cut off, Sneha, Pashyantra, the knot, the noose of attachment, and Nishchakram, he got out by his brother’s indexes, Sandarshit Adva, he embraced the path of liberation, by the guidance of his younger brother. Normally, among two brothers, the elder brother is considered to be like a father, is equivalent to the father basically, and the younger brother is like a son, so normally it is the elder brother who instructs the younger brother, not the other way around.
But, the important thing is not just the age, for one’s maturity, it’s one’s consciousness. So Vidura, by his own devotion, by his own detachment, by his own learning, and then later, when he’d gone to the forest, by his association, saintly people, he’s actually gained an enormous sense of perspective. His own Prajna Chakshu is very strongly awakened, and by his association, he awakens the Prajna Chakshu of his brother.
So, and thus he gives up, he renounces, he moves in the north, so traditionally going in the northern direction, that is signified as, that is a signified detachment. If somebody is going in the northern direction, that means, they have recognised that there is a trouble, there is trouble which needs to be overcome, there is trouble in the material world in terms of detachment, and the northern direction is the Himalayas, and the northern direction is holy rivers. To renounce and go in the northern direction is considered auspicious, it’s a way of practically manifesting renunciation in one’s life, and that’s what we hear.
So, Prajna Chakshu, with age, our Marma Chakshu, with our eyes become weak, but if we have the association of the saintly, then our Prajna Chakshu, their eyes of wisdom, eyes open much stronger, irrespective of what we are doing,