Text 3] Vidura’s Talks with Maitreya 161

mitigation of distress. On the contrary, they are only aggravated by such
activities. Please, therefore, give us directions on how one should live for
real happiness.

PURPORT

Vidura asked Maitreya some common questions, which was not original-
ly his intention. Uddhava asked Vidura to approach Maitreya Muni and
inquire into all the truths concerning the Lord, His name, fame, quality,
form, pastimes, entourage, etc., and thus when Vidura approached
Maitreya, he should have asked only about the Lord. But out of natural
humility he did not immediately ask about the Lord, but inquired into a
subject which would be of great importance to the common man. A
common man cannot understand the Lord. He must first know the real
position of his life under the influence of the illusory energy. In illusion
one thinks that he can be happy only by fruitive activities, but what
actually happens is that one becomes more and more entangled in the
network of action and reaction and does not find any solution to the
problem of life. There is a nice song in this connection: “Because of a
great desire to have all happiness in life, I built this house. But unfortu-
nately the whole scheme has turned to ashes because the house was
unexpectedly set on fire.” The law of nature is like that. Everyone tries
to become happy by planning in the material world, but the law of nature
is so cruel that it sets fire to one’s schemes; the fruitive worker is not
happy in his schemes, nor is there any satiation of his continuous
hankering for happiness.

TEXT 3

qa Hong za-
aqaatae agifaret |
wameae | ated aed
qaia oaenfy sarere tt 3 Il

jJanasya krsnad-vimukhasya daivad
adharma-silasya suduhkhitasya

anugrahayeha caranti nunam
bhutani bhavyani janardanasya

Janasya—of the common man; krsnat—from the Supreme Lord Krsna;
vimukhasya—of the one who has turned his face against the Lord; daivat—
by the influence of external energy; adharma-silas ya—of one who is engaged
