Section XXVIII

"Vaisampayana said, 'After the high-souled Pandavas had all been seated, Satyavati’s son Vyasa said,—O Dhritarashtra of mighty arms, hast you been able to achieve penances? Is your mind, O king, pleased with your residence in the woods? Has the grief that was thine, born of the slaughter of your sons in battle, disappeared from your heart? Are all your perceptions, O sinless one, now clear? Dost you practise the ordinances of forest life after having made your heart firm? Does my daughter-in-law, Gandhari, allow herself to be overwhelmed by grief? She is possessed of great wisdom. Endued with intelligence, that queen understands both Religion and Wealth. She is well conversant with the truths that relate to both prosperity and adversity. Does she still grieve? Does Kunti, O king, who in consequence of her devotion to the service of her seniors, left her children, attend to your wants and serve you with all humility? Have the high-minded and high-souled king, Yudhishthira, the son of Dharma and Bhima and Arjuna and the twins been sufficiently comforted? Dost you feet delight at seeing them? Has your mind become freed from every stain? Has your disposition, O king, become pure in consequence of the increase of your knowledge? This aggregate of three, O king, is the foremost of all concerns, O Bharata, viz., abstension from injury to any creature, truth, and freedom from anger. Does your forest life any longer prove painful to you? Art you able to earn with your own exertions the products of the wilderness for your food? Do fasts give you any pain now? Hast you learnt, O king, how the high-souled Vidura, who was Dharma’s self, left this world? Through the curse of Mandavya, the deity of Righteousness became born as Vidura. He was possessed of great intelligence. Endued with high penances, he was high-souled and high-minded. Even Vrihaspati among the celestials, and Sukra among the Asuras, was not possessed of such intelligence as that foremost of persons. The eternal deity of Righteousness was stupefied by the Rishi Mandavya with an expenditure of his penances earned for a long time with great care.^[1] At the command of the Grandsire, and through my own energy, Vidura of great intelligence was procreated by me upon a soil owned by Vicitravirya. A deity of deities, and eternal, he was, O king, your brother. The learned know him to be Dharma in consequence of his practices of Dharana and Dhyana.^[2] He grows with (the growth of) truth, self-restraint, tranquillity of heart, compassion, and gifts. He is always engaged in penances, and is eternal. From that deity of Righteousness, through Yoga-puissance, the Kuru king Yudhishthira also took his birth. Yudhishthira, therefore, O king, is Dharma of great wisdom and immeasurable intelligence. Dharma exists both here and hereafter, and is like fire or wind or water or earth or space. He is, O king of kings, capable of going everywhere and exists, pervading the whole universe. He is capable of being beheld by only those that are the foremost of the deities and those that are cleansed of every sin and crowned with ascetic success. He that is Dharma is Vidura; and he that is Vidura is the (eldest) son of Pandu. That son of Pandu. O king, is capable of being perceived by you. He stays before you as your servitor. Endued with great Yoga-puissance, your high-souled brother, that foremost of intelligent men, seeing the high-souled Yudhishthira, the son of Kunti, has entered into his person. These also, O chief of Bharata’s race, I shall unite with great benefit. Know, O son, that I am come here for dispelling your doubts. Some feat that has never been accomplished before by any of the great Rishis, some wonderful effect of my penances,—I shall show you. What object is that, O king, whose accomplishment you desirest from me? Tell me what is that which you wishest to see or ask or hear? O sinless one, I shall accomplish it.'