184
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 3, Ch. 5]
be an advantage for attaining devotional life. Vidura was given this chance due to his previous greatness.
TEXT 21
भवान् भगवतो नित्यं सम्मतः सानुगस्य ह । यस्य ज्ञानोपदेशाय माऽऽदिशद्भगवान् व्रजन् ॥२१॥
bhavān bhagavato nityam sammataḥ sānugasya ha yasya jñānopadeśāya mādiśad bhagavān vrajan
bhavān—your good self; bhagavataḥ—of the Personality of Godhead; nityam—eternal; sammataḥ—recognized; sānugasya—one of the associates; ha—have been; yasya—of whom; jñāna—knowledge; upadeśāya—for instructing; mā—unto me; ādiśat—so ordered; bhagavān—the Personality of Godhead; vrajan—while returning to His abode.
TRANSLATION
Your good self is one of the eternal associates of the Supreme Personality of Godhead for whose sake the Lord, while going back to His abode, left instructions with me.
PURPORT
Yamarāja, the great controller of life after death, decides the living entities' destinies in their next lives. He is surely among the most confidential representatives of the Lord. Such confidential posts are offered to great devotees of the Lord who are as good as His eternal associates in the spiritual sky. And because Vidura happened to be among them, the Lord, while returning to Vaikuṇṭha, left instructions for Vidura with Maitreya Muni. Generally the eternal associates of the Lord in the spiritual sky do not come to the material world. Sometimes they come, however, by the order of the Lord—not to hold any administrative post, but to associate with the Lord in person or to propagate the message of God in human society. Such empowered representatives are called  śaktyāveśa avatāras , or incarnations invested with transcendental power of attorney.
TEXT 22
अथ ते भगवल्लीला योगमायोरुद्दृंहिताः । विश्वस्थित्युद्भवान्तार्था वर्णयाम्यनुर्धराः ॥२२॥