If Dharmaraja could expand as Vidura and Yudhisthira, why did Aryama need to officiate in his place?
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It is said that Yamaraja was, who had expanded as Vidura, then Haryamma officiated in his absence. But then it is said that Bhattacharya Dharma Raj has come as Yudhishtira also.
So, if Yamaraja is already able to expand into two forms as Vidura and Yudhishtira, then why could he not also expand into a third form and stayed on as Yamaraja? Why was Haryamma needed to officiate? Answer? Actually, there is sometimes a confusion between the word Dharma Raj and the post of Dharma Raj. So, if you see, Krishna or rather Bhishma refers to Yudhishtira as Dharmasuta. Dharmasuta, that means Dharma is Yamaraja.
So, Yudhishtira is actually the son of Yamaraja. And that’s how it worked when Pandu asked his wife to invoke the various Devatas. So, he had first asked her to invoke the king of Dharma.
So, Yudhishtira is the son of Dharma Raj. Now, if we consider the presiding deity of Dharma, then that name, with that understanding of Dharma Raj, then Dharma Raj is Yamaraja. But Yudhishtira Maharaj is also referred to as Dharma Raj in a different sense.
Not that he is presiding deity of Dharma, but on earth, he was a very virtuous king. And that’s why he is called as Dharma Raj Yudhishtira. So, the word Dharma Raj has two different meanings here.
One is in terms of the universal administration, Dharma Raj is, that is a post and that is a post of the person who occupies, that is called a Dharma Raj. That is the officiating post of the lord of of Yamaraja basically. On the other hand, in terms of provisional designation in this world, Yudhishtira Maharaj, because of being extremely virtuous, was also called a Dharma Raj.
So, now the Devatas, if we look at overall the Puranic stories, they have certain capacities to expand, no doubt. At the same time, when they get cursed, it is almost as if they are removed from their post and along with that, they also lose their powers. Because the power, in the case of the Devatas, is not invested in the person, the power is invested in the post.
Just like if the head of state of a country is also the supreme commander of that country and he can order the armies to move around, army, navy, air force, whatever. But, if for some reason the head of the state is removed from power, impeached or whatever and he loses power and then only later on when he is elected or whatever he comes back to power, then he has that power of ordering the armed forces of the state. So, we see Indra also at one time when he is cursed, it’s such a degrading curse for him that he becomes a hog.
And at that time, we have someone else, we have Vyati, we have some other king who becomes Indra at that time. So, basically, if the Devatas or any of the presiding deities of the various departments in the universal administration, they are cursed and because of the curse, they have to assume some other identity. At that time, to a large extent, their demigod power also goes with them and that includes the power of expanding.
So, it is not that Vidura had expanded into two forms as Vidura himself and Yudhishthira. Rather, it was Vidura who was Dharmaraj, who had been cursed to be born as a Shudra and prior to that, he had given birth to a son through Kunti and he because of being virtuous was also called as