Text 20] Vidura’s Talks with Maitreya 183
TEXT 20
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ASTM TA ATTA TA: |
MG: IF TTT TA: AETTMAMA Ro UI
mandavyasapad bhagavan
praja-saniyamano yamah
bhratuh ksetre bhujigyayam
Jatah satyavati-sutat
mandavya—the great rsi Mandavya Muni; sapat—by his curse; bhagavan—
the greatly powerful; praja—one who is born; sarryamanah—controller of
death; yamah—known as Yamaraja; bhratuh—of the brother; ksetre—in the
wife; bhujisyayam—kept; jatah—born; satyavati—Satyavati (the mother of
both Vicitravirya and Vyasadeva); sutat—hy the son (Vyasadeva).
TRANSLATION
| know that you are now Vidura due to the cursing of Mandavya Muni
and that formerly you were King Yamaraja, the great controller of living
entities after their death. You were begotten by the son of Satyavati,
Vyasadeva, in the kept wife of his brother.
PURPORT
Mandavya Muni was a great sage (Cf. Bhag. 1.13.1), and Vidura was
formerly the controller Yamaraja, who takes charge of the living entities
after death. Birth, maintenance and death are three conditional states of
the living entities who are within the material world. As the appointed
controller after death, Yamaraja once tried Mandavva Muni for his child-
hood profligacy and ordered him to be pierced with a lance. Mandavya,
being angry at Yamaraja for awarding him undue punishment, cursed him
to become a sudra (member of the less intelligent laborer class). Thus
Yamaraja took birth in the womb of the kept wife of Vicitravirya from
the semina of Vicitravirya’s brother, Vyasadeva. Vyasadeva is the son of
Satyavati by the great King Santanu, the father of Bhigsmadeva. This
mysterious history of Vidura was known to Maitreya Muni because he
happened to be a contemporary friend of Vyasadeva’s. In spite of Vidura’s
birth in the womb of a kept wife, because he had otherwise high parentage
and great connection, he inherited the highest talent of becoming a great
devotee of the Lord. To take birth in such a great family is understood to
