Text 1: Sūta said: Having learned about Kṛṣṇa, the goal of the jīva, from Maitreya while on pilgrimage, Vidura came to Hastināpura with a desire to teach that.

Text 2: Having asked sufficient questions to Maitreya, Vidura, ceased asking any more when he heard about pure devotion to Govinda.

Text 3-5: Seeing that their friend had returned, Yudhiṣṭhira and his brothers, Dhṛtarāṣtṛa, Yuyutsu, Sañjaya, Kṛpācārya, Kuntī, Gāndhārī, Draupadī, Subhadrā, Uttarā, Kṛpī, the rest of the relatives of Pāṇḍu and their wives and sons became revived, as if their life airs had returned to their limbs, and according to suitability, joyfully mixed with his company, greeted and embraced him.

Text* 6: Agitated by the longing created by separation, they shed tears of love. The king had him accept a seat and worshipped him.

Text* 7: After feeding him, letting him rest and sitting him down, the king with humility spoke to Vidura for all to hear.

Text 8: Yudhiṣṭhira said: Do you remember us, because we, along with our mother, growing up under the shade of your wings, were saved by you from the poison and the fire and other dangers?

Text 9: As you wandered over the earth, what did you do for maintenance? What major holy places did you serve on the earth?

Text 10: O master! Devotees like you are holy places incarnate. You purify the holy places because the Lord is situated within you.

Text* 11-12: O father! Did you see or hear about our relatives and friends, devotees of Kṛṣṇa, the Yadus. Are they residing happily in Dvārakā? When Yudhiṣṭhira had thus spoken, Vidura then gradually described everything he had experienced, except for the destruction of the Yadu dynasty.

Text 13: A merciful person, unable to see others suffer, should not reveal an inauspicious event arising on its own which no human can tolerate.

Text 14: Respected as a god, Vidura stayed there for some time, pleasing all and giving the highest benefit to Dhṛtarāṣṭra.

Text 15: As long as Yama passed his life for a hundred years as a śūdra because of a curse, Aryamā performed his duties of punishing the sinful in an appropriate way.

Text* 16: Having attained his kingdom, and seeing the heir to the dynasty, Yudhiṣṭhira along with his brothers who were like protecting devatās, became overjoyed with the greatest splendor.

Text 17: Insurmountable time overtook those attached to their houses and intoxicated with household affairs without their knowledge.

Text* 18: Knowing that his time was approaching, Vidura spoke to Dhṛtarāṣṭra. “O king! You should leave immediately. See! Fearful time is approaching!”

Text 19: O master! The supremely powerful time which no one can stop has approached us all.

Text 20: Attacked by time, a person is separated immediately from his beloved life airs, what to speak of other things like wealth.

Text 21: Your father, brothers, friends, and sons have been killed. Youth has departed. The body is afflicted by old age. You are living in another person’s house.

Text* 22: You were blind from birth. You are now deaf, and feeble witted. Your teeth are broken, your digestion is weak, and your body is full of mucus. Still you are attached.

Text 23: So strong is the desire to live among all creatures that, like a dog, you take the food given by Bhīma!

Text 24: What is the use of life maintained by food given by those whom you tried to burn, poison, whose wife you insulted, and whose land and wealth you stole?

Text 25: Though wanting to live and not give the body up, your body, worn out with old age, is dying, beyond your will, like two pieces of cloth.

Text 26: He is called wise who gives up this body which has not been used to worship Kṛṣṇa, after rejecting wealth and sons and going where no one can find him, while practicing bhakti.

Text 27: He is the best of men who gives up the house after developing discrimination by self-endeavor or inspiration of others and becoming detached, while concentrating the mind on the Lord.

Text 28: Therefore, go to the north, somewhere unknown to your relatives. Then time, the destroyer of most of man’s qualities, will come.

Text 29: The King, born of Ajamīḍha’s dynasty, with eyes of knowledge, enlightened by his younger brother Vidura, possessing the path shown by his brother, cutting the ropes of affection because of determination, left the house.

Text 30: Chaste Gāndhārī, daughter of Subala, having good qualities and dedicated to her husband, followed him as he went to the Himālayas, which gives joy to those who have given up violence. She took the challenge like a warrior enjoying a good battle.

Text 31: Yudhiṣṭhira after performing sandhya rites, offering oblations in the fire and offering respects to the brāhmaṇas by giving sesame, cows, land and gold, entered the house to offer respects to his elders. But he did not see Vidura, Dhṛtarāṣṭra or Gāndhārī.

Text* 32: Afflicted in mind, he asked Sañjaya who was sitting there, “O son of Gavalgaṇa, where is our father, my blind, aged uncle, his wife grieving for her slain children, and my uncle and friend Vidura?”

Text 33: Has he thrown himself in the Gaṅgā along with his wife, out of sorrow, with all his children dead, while contemplating my foolish offense?

Text* 34: When our father Pāṇḍu departed, these two protected all us children, who were their relatives, from dangers. From this place, where have they gone?

Text 35: Sūta said: Sañjaya, pained by the separation, and not seeing his lord, overcome with compassion and the bewilderment of affection, did not reply.

Text 36: Wiping his tears with his hands, making is mind steady by intelligence, remembering the feet of his master, he replied to Yudhiṣṭhira.

Text 37: Sañjaya said: O joy of the dynasty! I certainly do not know about your uncles and Gāndhārī. O mighty-armed warrior! They have cheated me.

Text 38: At that time, Lord Nārada, holding a vīṇa, arrived. Standing up, Yudhiṣṭhira, along with his brothers, after welcoming and worshipping him, spoke to him.

Text 39-40: Yudhiṣṭhira said: “O master! I do not know the destination of my uncles. Where did they go from there? Where did my austere aunt, grieving for her dead sons, go? You are like a pilot for crossing the ocean of grief; you can see the other side.” Then Lord Nārada the best of sages spoke.

Text 41: Nārada said: O King! Do not lament for anything, because this world is dependent on the Lord. The Lord to who even the devatās carry offerings joins and separates the living beings.

Text 42: Just as cows are bound by ropes to the nose and the ropes are all attached to one longer rope, all humans, bound by designations of varṇāśrama derived from the Vedas carry out the orders of the Lord.

Text 43: Just as the items used in playing are brought together and separated by the will of the player, humans are brought together and separated by the will of the Lord.

Text 44: If one considers oneself to be the soul, the body, neither or both, in all these cases, the person, situated with discernment beyond material affection, should not lament for himself or others.

Text 45: O King! Give up your agitation arising from ignorance, thinking “How will they, suffering and without protection, live without me?”

Text 46: This body of five elements is dependent on time, karma and the material ingredients. How can a person, as if bitten by a snake, protect others?

Text 47: The humans are maintained by the animals and the animals are maintained by the plants. The big are maintained by the small. One living being is the maintenance for another living being.

Text 48: O King! This universe is only the Lord. He is the one soul of all the jīvas. He is self manifesting, not dependent on others. He is the jīva and the objects of enjoyment for the jīva. See the one Lord manifested as many by his material energy.

Text 49: He, the Lord of Dvārakā, protector of all beings, has appeared in the form of time to destroy the demons.

Text 50: Having completed the actions for the devatās, he is waiting for the remaining activities. While he remains on earth, you should consider all things as objects of attachment.

Text 51: Dhṛtarāṣtṛa, with his wife Gāndhārī, and Vidura, has gone to a hermitage of sages on the south side of the Himālayas.

Text 52: That place where the Gaṅgā became seven by dividing into seven branches to please the seven sages is called Sapta-srota.

Text 53-54: At that place Dhṛtarāṣtṛa, bathing three times a day, performing sacrifice according to scriptural rules, drinking only water as food, controlling the mind, ridding himself of material desires, perfecting sitting postures and breathing, withdrawing the six senses, has destroyed the contamination of sattva, rajas and tamas by meditation on the Lord.

Text 55-56: Meditating on merging the false ego into the mahat-tattva, merging the mahat-tattva into the jīva, merging the jīva into the brahman, and merging the Paramātmā into Bhagavān, the supreme shelter, like merging the sky in the pot into the sky, he has destroyed the impressions arising from the guṇas of māyā, controlled the senses and mind. Stopping all enjoyment of the senses (or eating), he remains without movement like a pillar.

Text 57: Do not be an obstacle to Dhṛtarāṣṭra who has renounced all actions! O king! Five days from now he will give up his body. He will turn himself to ashes.

Text 58: While his body is being burned along with the cottage, the noble wife, situated outside, will enter the fire to follow her husband.

Text 59: O joy of the Kurus! Seeing this astonishing event, Vidura, with joy and lamentation, will depart to visit holy places.

Text 60: Saying this, Nārada with his vīṇa ascended to Svarga. Yudhiṣṭhira, taking those words in his heart, gave up his lamentation.