WHO IS VIDURA?Vidura was half brother to Dhrithrashtra and Pandu. He was a son of a maid-servant who served the queens of Hastinapura, Ambika and Ambalika.
He was an incarnation of Yama or Dharma Raja.
Both queens were married to Vichitraveerya of Hastinapur, who died childless. Vichitraveerya's mother Sathyavathi was anxious to ensure that the royal line was carried on. She called upon her son Vyasa, to go to the beds of the two queens to father children. Vyasa was a hermit and came to the palace, unkempt as he was. He went to Ambika who closed her eyes when she saw him and to Ambalika who became pale in seeing Vyasa. Hence the children they bore were blind and weak.
When Sathyavathy asked Vyasa to go to Ambalika's bed again, to ensure that there would be children, Ambalika placed the maid servant instead in her bed. The maid-servant was not frightened. Hence her son was not born flawed like his half-brothers. Thus VIDURA was born who was raised as brother of Drithrashtra and Pandu.
His teacher was Bheeshma.
Because he was not born to the royal blood, he served as a minister to his brothers.
WHAT IS THE GREATNESS OF VIDURA?
Vidura is known for his bhakthi for Krishna. Both he and his wife loved Krishna very deeply. He is one among the seven people in Mahabharat who knew Krishna as the lord of the universe.
(When king Duryodhana offered Krishna a stay in his stately guest house, Krishna chose to be with Vidura in his house. When he entered Vidura's house , Vidura was not there. Vidura's wife seeing the lord standing at their door step, lost herself. She didn't know what to do. She offered him a seat and treated him with bananas. In total ecstacy, she peeled the banana, gave the skin to Krishna and was throwing the fruit down. Anything offered by a devotee with love is always accepted by lord (9th chapter Gita, patram pushpam phalam thoyam………) and our Krishna was happily eating the skin. When this was going on Vidura came in and saw the show. He looked at his wife and then only she realized what was happening. But Krishna didn't even consider this as a mistake but blessed them.)
Vidura always stood on the side of dharma. When the brother Drithrashtra was ready for a war in an adharmic way, and when Duryodhana insulted Vidura in the court, he took a strong decision of resigning the post of the minister and walked away.
WHAT IS NEETHI?
Neethi are civil codes or teachings that are applicable to any place and to any period. The neethis are eternally valid, because they are in line with our scriptures, based on the three purusharthas of dharma, artha and kama (duty, wealth and virtue)
There are many neethis given by the wise people…like manu neethi , vidura neethi.
WHY DO WE NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THIS?
TO WHOM AND WHEN WAS THIS VIDURA NEETHI GIVEN?
Neethis are nothing but our dharma. If we know the rules, then all our doubts about our actions get cleared. Neethi is very much needed when we are confused as to what to do/how to act/where I have gone wrong/why – it is a measuring stick to measure our purity in the actions as well as our motives behind the actions.
It is not only for the king or the rulers. It is for every one of us who would like to follow the path of dharma.
THE CONVERSATION BETWEEN THE KING DHRITHRASHTRA AND HIS MINISTER VIDURA IS THE VIDURA NEETHI.The Vidura Neethi is from the "udyoga parva" of the Mahabharatha.This Vidura neethi was given by the minister Vidura to his brother Dhrithrashtra at the palace in Hastinapura. Vidura was far younger in years to Dhrithrashtra though riper in wisdom and it must have been easy for him to give the direct advise to the elder. (if our present day politicians and other rulers start following this rules, ours will be again rama rajyam).
Sanjaya was sent as a messenger to the Pandavas to know the stand of Yudhishtra. Sanjaya took the reply and came to Dhrithrashtra. He spoke to the king …"I was so happy to be in the atmosphere of peace and righteousness there. I do not like your behavior or your words. I had a most unpleasant job to do because of you. You are unrighteous. Your sons are sinners. You like to enjoy this earth in spite of all this. I gave your message to Yudhishtra and the reply will be given to you in the court tomorrow. As I am physically and mentally tired, please grant me leave to go".
Sanjaya left the place. The mind of Dhrithrashtra was totally upset by the words of Sanjaya. He didn't know what was the reply of Yudhishtra.
The whole body of the king Dhrithrashtra burned as if with fever. He tried to sleep but he could not.
In despair he sent for his minister Vidura. Vidura was there within seconds to serve the king. The king told him the details of what Sanjaya spoke. The king was in a pitiable condition. He told vidura," You are my friend. You have loved me with all my faults. You must console me and put me to sleep. I cannot sleep".
Vidura spoke in the consoling way and at the same time making the dharma very clear.
SLOKAS 1 – 3:
REASONS FOR NOT GETTING SLEEP:
Vidura says: five kinds of people are unable to sleep.
- A man who lusts after the wife of another.
- A thief (the thing does not belong to him so the thief is always under the insecurity that the things will be taken away)
- A man who has lost all his wealth (attachment is still going on. Before he was identifying himself with his wealth and now he is identifying himself with the lost wealth. Shankaracharya's bhaja govindam says "maa kuru dhana jaya youvana gharvam harthi nimesha kaala: sarvam….all are impermanent. The time is ruthless and it takes away everything from you in no time) OR one who thinks all his wealth will be lost. (srila prabhupada says that the man is always lamenting about two things : 1) what he do not have 2) what was lost. All of us have an opinion that if we have more money we will be happy. But if we interview any rich man, we can clearly see the insecurity in him, even with his own son. All the time he sees the keys are safe. Documents are safe. Vigilant about who is coming and who is going. Then when he can sleep? Ambani brothers are fighting now…for what? Will they have a peaceful sleep?)
- An unsuccessful man (all the time working with the winning strategies. Not alike in success and failure…attached to the fruit of actions).
- A weak man oppressed by a strong man. (fear of losing. Fear of body created by the mind. Buddhi doesn't work for this people).
Vidura said:
It is not today that you did not sleep. I think it is going on for so many years from the moment the pandavas came to Hastinapura after their father's death or even before Pandu had a son who was elder to Duryodhana.
Since that day the jealousy has lodged in your heart.
You are not righteous. You are a sinful person. You are responsible for the sufferings of the Pandavas. How can a sinful person like you get sleep? (if somebody is suffering because of our actions intentionally, can we sleep? If we have punished our child for our own selfishness, can we sleep? If we are using other person's pen without his knowledge can we be peaceful? I have excess luggage. I want to escape by paying a bribe to the airport guy. What is the mental state at that time? We have our own experiences as examples to these slokas.)
Vidura further says to Dhrithrashtra, "Yudishtra always considers you as father and pays due respect to you. But because you have an eye for the kingdom and want your son to rule over the kingdom, you always behave like a thief to him. No surprise you are suffering from sleeplessness". (9th chapter – asuric and raakshasik act. Eye on mohini…eye on glamorous things…lost focus…MOHAA CAPTURED DHRITHRASHTRA)
Lastly vidura says
GIVE THE KINGDOM TO YUDHISHTRA, YOU WILL SLEEP LIKE A CHILD.
YOU ARE NOT WISE. YOU ARE FOOLISH.
The next slokas talk about who is wise and who is foolish. We will see it in the next week.
What do we learn from these slokas?
- LEAD A RIGHTEOUS LIFE.
- BE IN THE PATH OF DHARMA.
- IF WE ARE IN DHARMA, WE ARE WITH THE LORD.
- IF WE DO NOT HAVE JEALOUSY, COVETEOUSNESS, HATRED WHICH COMES TO ONE BECAUSE OF TOO MUCH OF ATTACHMENT, WE ARE ASSURED OF A GOOD SLEEP.
WE WILL CONTINUE IN THE NEXT WEEK.
HARI OM.
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