भ्रातुः क्षेत्रे भुजिष्यायां जातः सत्यवतीसुतात् ॥२०॥
mÄṇá¸avya-Å›ÄpÄd bhagavÄn
prajÄ-saá¹yamano yamaḥ
bhrÄtuḥ ká¹£etre bhujiá¹£yÄyÄá¹
jÄtaḥ satyavatÄ«-sutÄt
mÄṇá¸avya - the great ṛṣi MÄṇá¸avya Muni; Å›ÄpÄt - by his curse; bhagavÄn - the greatly powerful; prajÄ - one who is born; saá¹yamanaḥ - controller of death; yamaḥ - known as YamarÄja; bhrÄtuḥ - of the brother; ká¹£etre - in the wife; bhujiá¹£yÄyÄm - kept; jÄtaḥ - born; satyavatÄ« - SatyavatÄ« (the mother of both VicitravÄ«rya and VyÄsadeva); sutÄt - by the son (VyÄsadeva).
I know that you are now Vidura due to the cursing of MÄṇá¸avya Muni and that formerly you were King YamarÄja, the great controller of living entities after their death. You were begotten by the son of SatyavatÄ«, VyÄsadeva, in the kept wife of his brother.
MÄṇá¸avya Muni was a great sage (cf. BhÄg. 1.13.1), and Vidura was formerly the controller YamarÄja, 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, YamarÄja once tried MÄṇá¸avya Muni for his childhood profligacy and ordered him to be pierced with a lance. MÄṇá¸avya, being angry at YamarÄja for awarding him undue punishment, cursed him to become a śūdra (member of the less intelligent laborer class). Thus YamarÄja took birth in the womb of the kept wife of VicitravÄ«rya from the semen of VicitravÄ«rya’s brother, VyÄsadeva. VyÄsadeva is the son of SatyavatÄ« by the great sage ParÄÅ›ara, and VicitravÄ«rya is the son of the same SatyavatÄ« by the great king Åšantanu, the father of BhÄ«á¹£madeva. This mysterious history of Vidura was known to Maitreya Muni because he happened to be a contemporary friend of VyÄsadeva’s. In spite of Vidura’s birth from 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 be an advantage for attaining devotional life. Vidura was given this chance due to his previous greatness.
