Bhagavatapurana 3.1

English (machine translation) 3.1

Language: English

3.1.1

Śrī Śuka said: / Indeed, in this very way the venerable Maitreya was formerly questioned / by the chamberlain who had entered the forest, having abandoned his opulent home.

3.1.2

Or when that counselor of yours, the Lord and master of all, / left the house of the Kaurava lord and entered [Vidura's house], making it His own.

3.1.3

The king said: / Where was the meeting of the chamberlain with the venerable Maitreya, / or when was their conversation? Describe this to us, master.

3.1.4

For no slight outcome could come from that pure-souled Vidura's / inquiry of that exalted one, reinforced with wise sayings.

3.1.5

Sūta said: / Thus questioned by King Parīkṣit, this foremost of sages, / who knew very much, replied with a delighted heart: "Listen!"

3.1.6

Śrī Śuka said: / When the king, fostering his wicked sons, his vision ruined against dharma, / had the sons of his younger brother, who were without relatives, led into the lac house and burned;

When, in the assembly hall, the king did not prevent the reprehensible act of his son / touching the hair of the Kurus' queen, his daughter-in-law, who was washing away the saffron from her breasts with her own tears;

3.1.8

When Ajātaśatru, a virtuous man clinging to truth, was cheated by unrighteousness at dice and went to the forest, / and [the king], attached to darkness, did not give him his share when he begged for it at the appointed time;

3.1.9

And when Kṛṣṇa, the teacher of the world, sent by Pārtha into the assembly, spoke words / that are fountains of nectar for men, the king, the remnants of his merit destroyed, did not deem them worthy;

3.1.10

When, summoned and entering the palace, [Vidura] was questioned for counsel by his elder brother, / then he, the foremost among those who discern good counsel, spoke what ministers call "Vidura's advice":

3.1.11

"Give back his share to Ajātaśatru, who patiently endures your unbearable offense, / along with his younger brother, the Vṛkodara serpent, who is hissing in fury, of whom you are terribly afraid.

3.1.12

For the sons of Pṛthā are supported by the divine Lord Mukunda, the deity of the brāhmaṇas; / He, the god of the Yadu gods, who has conquered all kings of kings, dwells in His own city.

3.1.13

This flaw, full of hostility toward men, dwells having entered your home, whom, out of thinking him your son, / you nourish, turning your back on Kṛṣṇa, your fortune gone; quickly cast away this ill-omened one for the welfare of your family!"

3.1.14

When he spoke thus there, the chamberlain, of a character yearned for by the virtuous, / was insulted by Suyodhana, whose lip trembled with swelling anger, along with Karṇa, his younger brother, and the son of Subala:

3.1.15

"Who summoned this crooked son of a maidservant here, who is fed by the very sustenance [given by my father], / yet acts against him and does the enemy's bidding? Expel him from the city at once, while he still breathes!"

3.1.16

Leaving his bow at the gate, struck to the core in his brother's presence, / he, thus pierced by the terrible arrows of Karṇa's words, departed without distress, deeming [it] the Lord's creative power.

3.1.17

Departing from Gajāhvaya, attained by the Kauravas' merit, he wandered / over the earth to the sites of Him whose feet are places of pilgrimage, which the thousand-formed Lord occupied in His desire to perform pious deeds.

3.1.18

In cities, holy groves, mountain bowers, and rivers and lakes with clear waters, / adorned with the infinite symbols [of the Lord], he wandered to pilgrim shrines with undivided devotion.

3.1.19

Wandering the earth, his livelihood pure and secluded, bathing constantly, sleeping on the bare ground, an ascetic / unnoticed by his own people, in the dress of an avadhūta, he practiced vows that bring joy to Hari.

3.1.20

Thus travelling through Bhārata-varṣa, by the time he arrived at Prabhāsa, / Pārtha was ruling the earth with a single wheel of sovereignty, under one royal umbrella, aided by the invincible Lord.

3.1.21

There he then heard of the destruction of his kinsmen, like a forest burned down by fire born of rubbing bamboo / through mutual rivalry; grieving for them, he went silently west to the Sarasvatī.

3.1.22

On its banks he visited the sacred places of Trita, Uśanas, Manu, / and Pṛthu, of Agni, Asita, Vāyu, / of Sudās, Go-tīrtha, Guha, and that of Śrāddhadeva.

3.1.23

And other varied sanctuaries of Viṣṇu established here by the best of twice-born and gods, / whose temples were marked with His principal emblems, by the sight of which people remember Kṛṣṇa.

3.1.24

Then, travelling past prosperous Surāṣṭra, Sauvīra, Matsya, and the Kurujāṅgala lands, / he reached the Yamunā in the course of time and there saw Uddhava, the servant of the Lord.

3.1.25

He embraced tightly with affection that calm attendant of Vāsudeva, / the renowned former pupil of Bṛhaspati, and inquired after the welfare / of his own kin, the subjects of the Lord:

3.1.26

"Are the two ancient Puruṣas, who descended here in accordance with the prayer of him born from the navel lotus, / having brought welfare to the earth, dwelling at ease in the house of Śūra, their purpose accomplished?

3.1.27

Does our foremost friend, the brother-in-law of the Kurus, Śauri, dwell happily, my dear friend? / For like a father he gives boons to his sisters, generous in satisfying their desires.

3.1.28

Does the commander of the Yadu forces, the heroic Pradyumna, dwell happily, my dear friend? / Whom Rukmiṇī obtained from the Lord, having propitiated the brāhmaṇas, as Smara in the beginning of creation.

3.1.29

Does the king of the Sātvatas, Vṛṣṇis, Bhojas, and Dāśārhas dwell happily? / Whom the lotus-eyed Lord consecrated, having cast aside from afar His own desire for the kingly throne.

3.1.30

Does the good Sāmba, Hari's worthy son and the foremost of chariot-warriors, dwell happily, gentle one? / Whom the highly vow-observant Jāmbavatī bore, the god Guha born previously from Ambikā.

3.1.31

Is that Yuyudhāna doing well, who learned the archery secrets from Arjuna, / and by service to Adhokṣaja easily attained His realm, so difficult for ascetics to reach?

3.1.32

Is the wise son of Śvaphalka well and free from illness, surrendered to the Lord, / who, his composure shattered by love, rolled in the dust of the path marked with Kṛṣṇa's footprints?

3.1.33

Is Devaka-Bhoja's daughter doing well, like the mother of the gods who has Viṣṇu for her offspring, / she who bore in her womb the Lord, just as the triple Veda bears the sacrificial ritual that yields the goal?

3.1.34

Is the Lord Aniruddha well, the wish-yielding cow of the Sātvatas, / whom they acknowledge as the origin of sacred sound, made of mind, and the fourth principle of pure sattva?

3.1.35

And are the others doing well, gentle friend—Hṛdīka, Satyabhāmā's son, Cārudeṣṇa, Gadā, and the rest— / who follow their own inner deity with undivided devotion?

3.1.36

Does Dharma protect the barrier of dharma by righteousness, with his two arms of Arjuna and Acyuta, / he in whose assembly Duryodhana burned with jealousy at his imperial splendor and Arjuna's devotion?

3.1.37

Or did Bhīma, highly unforgiving, unleash upon the wrongdoers his long-held wrath like a serpent, / he whose footfall the battlefield could not endure as he moved with the wondrous maneuvers of his mace?

3.1.38

Is Arjuna, the bowman of the Gāṇḍīva who brings renown to the charioteers, well, his enemies subdued, / he by the mass of whose arrows Śiva, disguised as an illusion-born Kirāta, was hidden unseen and delighted?

3.1.39

Are the twin sons of Pṛthā, sheltered by the sons of Pṛthā as eyes are by their eyelashes, / rejoicing having wrested their inheritance from the enemy in battle, like two eagles from the mouth of Indra?

3.1.40

Alas, Pṛthā also endures for the sake of her sons, even without that best of royal sages, / who alone, a supreme chariot-warrior with bow in hand, conquered the four quarters!

3.1.41

Gentle friend, I grieve for him who is falling low, who bore malice against his deceased brother, / and by whom I, a well-wisher, was driven from his city as he indulged his own sons.

3.1.42

Yet I, by the grace of Hari who through His human disguise bewilders the vision of men, / wander here unnoticed by others, beholding His course, free from delusion.

3.1.43

Surely, to destroy the kings gone astray from the threefold pride of power and shaking the earth with armies, / the Lord, wishing to remove the affliction of the surrendered, overlooked even the wickedness of the Kurus.

3.1.44

The birth of the Unborn is for the destruction of the astray; the deeds of the non-doer are for the redemption of men. / How else could the One beyond the qualities and beyond the web of karma take on embodiment?

3.1.45

Tell me the news, friend, of Him of holy fame, the Unborn born among the Yadus / for the sake of all the world-guardians who are surrendered and established in His command.

Translations (1)

The Srimad Bhagavatam — S. Subba Rau 1928, English

Linked texts (1)

Bhāgavatapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit