III-Motivated Dhṛtarāṣṭra
323
there is no shelter or protection. Your lotus feet can deliver all aggrieved souls because You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead. One can be safe from the clutches of repeated birth and death by Your mercy only. My dear Kṛṣṇa, You are the supreme pure one, the Supersoul and the master of all  yogīs . What can I say? I can simply offer my respectful obeisances unto You. Accept me as Your fully surrendered devotee.”
Although Kṛṣṇa was not present before her, Kuntī offered her prayers to Him as if she were in His presence face to face. This is possible for anyone following in the footsteps of Kuntī. Kṛṣṇa does not have to be physically present everywhere. He is actually present everywhere by spiritual potency, and one simply has to surrender unto Him sincerely. When Kuntī was offering her prayers very feelingly to Kṛṣṇa, she could not check herself and began to cry loudly before Akrūra. Vidura was also present, and both Akrūra and Vidura became very sympathetic to the mother of the Pāṇḍavas. They began to solace her by glorifying her sons, Yudhiṣṭhira, Arjuna and Bhīma. They pacified her, saying that her sons were extraordinarily powerful; she should not be perturbed about them, since they were born of great demigods, Yamarāja, Indra and Vāyu.
Akrūra decided to return and report on the extreme circumstances in which he found Kuntī and her five sons. He first wanted to give good advice to Dhṛtarāṣṭra, who was so favorably inclined toward his own son and unfavorably inclined toward the Pāṇḍavas. When Kuntī and Dhṛtarāṣṭra were sitting among friends and relatives, Akrūra began to address him, calling him “Vārcitravīrya.”  Vārcitravīrya  means the son of Vicitravīrya. Vicitravīrya was the name of the father of Dhṛtarāṣṭra, but Dhṛtarāṣṭra was not actually the begotten son of Vicitravīrya. He was the begotten son of Vyāsadeva. Formerly it was the system that if a man were unable to beget a child, his brother could beget a child in the womb of his wife. That system is now forbidden in this age of Kali. Akrūra called Dhṛtarāṣṭra “Vārcitravīrya” sarcastically because he was not actually begotten by his father. He was the son of Vyāsadeva. When a child was begotten in the wife by the husband’s brother, the child was claimed by the husband, but of course the child was not begotten by the husband. This sarcastic remark pointed out that Dhṛtarāṣṭra was falsely claiming the throne on heriditary grounds. Actually the son of Pāṇḍu was the rightful king, and in the presence of Pāṇḍu’s sons, the Pāṇḍavas, Dhṛtarāṣṭra should not have occupied the throne.
Akrūra then said, “My dear son of Vicitravīrya, you have unlawfully usurped the throne of the Pāṇḍavas. Anyway, somehow or other you are now on the throne. Therefore I beg to advise you to please rule the