Text 24] Questions by Vidura 25

tatra—there; uddhavam—Uddhava, one of the prominent Yadus;
bhagavatam—the great devotee of Lord Krsna; dadarsa—happened to see.

TRANSLATION

Thereafter he passed through very wealthy provinces like Surat, Sauvira
and Matsya and through western India, known as Kurujarigala. At last he
reached the bank of the Yamuna, where he happened to meet Uddhava,
the great devotee of Lord Krsna.

PURPORT

The tract of land comprising about one hundred square miles from
modern Delhi to the Mathura district in Uttar Pradesh, including a portion
of the Gurgaon district in Punjab (Fast India), is considered to be the
topmost place of pilgrimage in all of India. This land is sacred because
Lord Krsna traveled through it many times. From the very beginning of
His appearance, He was at Mathura in the house of His maternal uncle
Kamsa, and He was reared by His foster father Maharaja Nanda at
Vrndavana. There are still many devotees of the Lord lingering there in
ecstasy in search of Krsnaand His childhood associates, the gopis. It is not
that such devotees meet Krsna eye to eye in that tract of land, but a
devotee’s eagerly searching after Krsna is as good as his seeing Him per-
sonally. How this is so cannot be explained, but it is factually realized by
those who are pure devotees of the Lord. Philosophically, one can under-
stand that Lord Krsna and His remembrance are on the absolute plane and
that the very idea of searching for Him at Vrndavana in pure God
consciousness gives more pleasure to the devotee than seeing Him eye to
eye. Such devotees of the Lord see Him eye to eye at every moment, as is
confirmed in the Brahma-samhita:

premajnijana-cchurita-bhakti-vilocanena
santah sadaiva hrdayesu vilokayanti.
yam syamasundaram acintya-guna-svarupam
govindam adi-purusam tam aham bhajami _ (Bs. 5.38)

“Those who are in ecstasy of love with the Supreme Personality of
Godhead, Lord Syamasundara [Krsna], see Him always in their hearts due
to love and devotional service rendered to the Lord.” Both Vidura and
Uddhava were such elevated devotees, and therefore they both came to
the bank of the Yamuna and met each other.
