184 Srimad-Bhagavatam | Canto 3, Ch. 5

be an advantage for attaining devotional life. Vidura was given this chance
due to his previous greatness.

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bhavan bhagavato nityam
sammatah sanugasya ha

yasya jianopadesaya
madisgad bhagavan vrajan

bhavan—your good self; bhagavatah—of the Personality of Godhead;
nityam—eternal; sammatah— recognized; sdnugasya— one of the associates;
ha—have been; yasya—of whom; jfdna—knowledge; upadesaya—for in-
structing; md—unto me; ddisat—so ordered; bhagavan—the Personality of
Godhead; vrajan—while returning to His abode.

TRANSLATION

Your good self is one of the eternal associates of the Supreme Per-
sonality of Godhead for whose sake the Lord, while going back to His
abode, left instructions with me.

PURPORT

Yamaraja, the great controller of life after death, decides the living
entities’ destinies in their next lives. He is surely among the most con-
fidential 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 Vaikuntha, 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 saktyavesa
avataras, or incarnations invested with transcendental power of attorney.

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