VIDURA

Yudhishtira wanted to meet Vidura no matter what the difficulties. Just then somebody cried: "There goes Vidura! He was coming to this place; when he saw so many people in the hermitage, he walked away swiftly."

Yudhishtira turned and looked. He up at once and ran towards Vidura.

Vidura walked fast and entered a thick forest. Yudhishtira followed him. There were glimpses of Vidura now and then; sometimes he was seen in a cluster of trees and then disappeared. Yudhishtira did not want to lose sight of Vidura. So he followed him calling aloud: "Vidura! Vidura!l am Yudhishtira - Yudhishtira whom you loved. I have come here to meet you." As he thus went some distance he saw Vidura in an isolated place leaning against a tree. Yudhishtira went near and saw him. Vidura's body was emaciated. The veins were showing. His hair was matted. There was a splinter of wood in his mouth. He had no clothes on. His body was covered with dust.

Yudhishtira went closer and said: I am Yudhishtira." Vidura who had taken a vow not to speak to anybody, glanced at Yudhishtira and signalled to him to stop where he was. Then he began to look into Yudhishtira's eyes. As he stared it appeared to Yudhishtira that the extraordinary power earned by Vidura was entering his own body! He felt that new strength and radiance had entered his body.

Yudhishtira recovered from this trance and looked at Vidura. Vidura's body stood motionless. But life was extinct.

Among the colorful characters in the 'Mahabharatha' Vidura occupies a unique place. Vidura was a great man without a flaw. He was a perfectly pure man. He was the very embodiment of righteous conduct. He never did what was not righteous. He never hesitated to say, clearly and boldly, without fear or favor, what in his opinion was right and what was wrong. This was his greatness.

It was right that the essence of the righteous life of Vidura should, on his death, have been transmitted to Yudhishtira who was righteous like him; it signifies that the ancient tradition of righteousness has been flowing uninterrupted.