Ill-Motivated Dhrtarastra 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 Krsna, You are the supreme pure one, the Supersoul and the
master of all yogis. What can I say? I can simply offer my respectful
obeisances unto You. Accept me as Your fully surrendered devotee.”

Although Krsna was not present before her, Kunti 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 Kunti. Krsna 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 Kunti was
offering her prayers very feelingly to Krsna, she could not check herself
and began to cry loudly before Akrira. Vidura was also present, and both
Akrira and Vidura became very sympathetic to the mother of the
Pandavas. They began to solace her by glorifying her sons, Yudhisthira,
Arjuna and Bhima. They pacified her, saying that her sons were extra-
ordinarily powerful; she should not be perturbed about them, since they
were born of great demigods, Yamaraja, Indra and Vayu:

Akriira decided to return and report on the extreme circumstances in
which he found Kunti and her five sons. He first wanted to give good
advice to Dhrtarastra, who was so favorably inclined toward his own
son and unfavorably inclined toward the Pandavas. When Kunti and
Dhrtarastra were sitting among friends and relatives, Akriira began to
address him, calling him “Varcitravirya.” Varcitravirya means the son of
Vicitravirya. Vicitravirya was the name of the father of Dhrtarastra, but
Dhrtarastra was not actually the begotten sen of Vicitravirya. He was the
begotten son of Vyasadeva. 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. Akrira called
Dhrtarastra “‘Varcitravirya” sarcastically because he was not actually
begotten by his father. He was the son of Vyasadeva. 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 Dhrtarastra was falsely claiming the
throne on heriditary grounds. Actually the son of Pandu was the rightful
king, and in the presence of Pandu’s sons, the Pandavas, Dhrtarastra should
not have occupied the throne.

Akrura then said, “My dear son of Vicitravirya, you have unlawfully
usurped the throne of the Pandavas. Anyway, somehow or other you are
now on the throne. Therefore I beg to advise you to please rule the
