Stories of the Great Bharata - A Retelling

Arc 2 - Vidhura Neeti Parva Chapter 8 - Self and Others

Vaiśampāyana said:

Then Vidura, master of discernment, recited ancient maxims—sharp as arrows yet healing as herbs—so the blind king might see with the mind what the eyes refused.

To clutch the sky or bend a cloud,

To seize the sun’s own ray—

So act the twenty-seven fools

Who throw their lives away.

Vidura recalls Manu’s seven-and-ten “empty-grasp” types: trying to control the uncontrollable; pride in small gains; flattering enemies; “curing” women by force; begging from the un-askable; boasting; high birth with low deeds; weak warring against the strong; talking to scoffers; craving the unattainable; shameless in-laws’ jest; indecencies; slandering one’s wife; denying received gifts; boasting of vows then reneging; striving to prove falsehood as truth. Such acts draw the nooses of Yama.

Pay straight with straight, and crooked, crook—

Thus polity runs its course;

But keep thy soul from pride and wrath,

For both consume their source.

Mirror others with prudence—be honest to the honest, wary to the deceitful—without letting anger or arrogance rule.

Age unthreads beauty; death ends breath;

Lust shames modesty’s grace;

Envy unseats righteousness,

And pride lays all to waste.

A quick ledger of erosions: pride, anger, envy, bad company—each destroys a virtue or treasure.

Six swords shorten mortal spans—

Loose tongue, pride’s overmeasure;

Glutton’s plate and anger’s flame,

Lust, and kin-strife’s pressure.

Dhṛtarāṣṭra asks why men die before “a hundred years.” Vidura: excess in speech, pride, eating, anger, sensuality, and family feuds cut life short.

Betrayal of entrusted beds,

The teacher’s couch defiled;

The drunk, the bribe, the slaughtered guest—

All stain the soul and line.

Vidura lists Brahma-hatyā-like transgressions (adultery, teacher’s bed, drunkard Brahmana, taking sacred lands, killing the supplicant, etc.). Atonement is required; avoid these utterly.

He hears the wise, and harms not life,

Gives, and offers first the share;

Truthful, humble, grateful, clean—

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Such men reach purer air.

Heavenward marks: learning from the wise, ahimsa, sacrificial sharing, truth, humility, gratitude, restraint.

Sweet words are common as the dust;

Rare is the healing tongue

That speaks unpleasant, saving truth—

The brace that straightens wrong.

A true minister puts virtue above flattery; the king grows strong by hearing bitter medicine.

For house, a limb; for village, house;

For realm, a village given;

But for the soul, resign the earth—

Thus climbs the path to heaven.

Prioritize rightly: protect the highest good (ātman) even at worldly cost.

With wealth guard wives; with both guard self;

Keep stores for coming rain;

For want and storm respect no crown—

Forethought is half the gain.

Practical order: protect wealth for calamity; with wealth protect family; with both protect oneself.

The dice ignite a smouldering feud—

I warned thee: “Turn aside.”

You scorned the draught that tasted bitter—

Now drink the floods that ride.

Vidura recalls warning at the match: gambling breeds quarrel; counsel spurned becomes fate.

Peacocks bright with righteous plumes—

The sons of Pāṇḍu stand;

Thy sons are crows about the court—

O king, forsake the band.

A stark image: choose virtue (peacocks) over schemers (crows)—or reap grief.

A lord who honors faithful toil

Binds hearts that will not flee;

But stint their wage and seize their grants—

They scatter, bitter, free.

Fair pay and regard secure loyalty; miserliness breeds treachery.

Fit wages to thy purse and plan,

Then weave thy bonds and ties;

A lucid, loyal, ready hand

Is truly king’s second “I.”

Make alliances with clear arithmetic; prize the officer who understands, obeys, and speaks for thy good.

The servant proud of private wit

Who spurns his master’s word—

Dismiss him swift, without delay,

Lest rank be overturned.

Insubordination poisons order—cut it cleanly.

No pride, yet able; swift, yet kind;

Clean hands, incorrupt vein;

Sound stock, and weighty measured speech—

Such men the realm sustain.

Vidura’s eight: humility, competence, promptness, kindness, cleanliness, incorruptibility, sound lineage, gravitas.

Go not by night to hostile doors,

Nor haunt another’s yard;

Touch not the fruit the monarch eyes—

Let prudence be thy guard.

Do not enter enemies’ houses at dusk, lurk in others’ yards, or pursue a woman the king desires.

Believe him not—nor say you don’t;

Dismiss with gentle art;

Send him away with reason veiled,

And keep him from thy heart.

With the low-company schemer, avoid open insult—deflect and distance.

Too-merciful king, the lustful dame,

The courtier, brother, son;

A widow with an infant babe,

The ruined, soldier—shun.

Avoid lending/borrowing with these—risk and resentment follow.

Wisdom, birth, and scripture’s lamp,

Restraint and valor’s power;

Few words, gifts within one’s means,

And thanks—the royal flower.

These eight shine—and royal favor gathers them like a clasp gathers gems.

Pure bathing makes the body bright—

Strength, voice, and grace increase;

And they who eat with measured hand

Win health and length and peace.

Ablutions refine ten bodily graces; moderate eating yields six: health, long life, ease, healthy progeny, and freedom from reproach.

Harbor not glutton, cruel, sly,

Or those indecent, base;

Beg not from scorners, misers, fools—

Keep dignity and grace.

Household purity and self-respect require choosing whom to host and from whom to ask.

Serve not the foe, the erring soul,

The liar, godless, cold;

Nor one unloving, arrogant—

Their hands will slip their hold.

Avoid service under hostile, habitually false, impious, unloving, and self-conceited men.

Ends lean on means, and means on ends;

Success is woven twin—

Choose right designs and fit devices,

And dharma’s cloth will win.

Ends and means are inter-dependent; both must be just and apt.

Beget and settle sons and brides,

Then to the forest go;

Seek Highest Good through good of all—

In selfless works we grow.

After household duties, retire to discipline. Seek the Supreme by benefit to all beings—root of success.

What want fears him whose hands are keen,

Whose heart is firm and fast?

With strength and speed and steadfast will,

He rides out want at last.

Where there is intelligence, vigor, prowess, and perseverance, livelihood finds its path.

Vaiśampāyana said:

Thus spake Vidura—numbered, needful, near to life. He set before the king a mirror bright enough to burn away illusion. Whether Dhṛtarāṣṭra would behold his face in it, or break the glass—on that, O Janamejaya, hung the night of the Kurus.