Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Srimad Bhagavatam 1.13.24

agnir nisrishto dattas ca

garo daras ca dushitah

hritam kshetram dhanam yesham

tad-dattair asubhih kiyat

SYNONYMS

agnih -- fire; nisrishtah -- set; dattah -- given; ca -- and; garah -- poison; darah -- married wife; ca -- and; dushitah -- insulted; hritam -- usurped; kshetram -- kingdom; dhanam -- wealth; yesham -- of those; tat -- their; dattaih -- given by; asubhih -- subsisting; kiyat -- is unnecessary.

TRANSLATION

There is no need to live a degraded life and subsist on the charity of those whom you tried to kill by arson and poisoning. You also insulted one of their wives and usurped their kingdom and wealth.

PURPORT

The system of varnasrama religion sets aside a part of one's life completely for the purpose of self-realization and attainment of salvation in the human form of life. That is a routine division of life, but persons like Dhritarashtra, even at their weary ripened age, want to stay home, even in a degraded condition of accepting charity from enemies. Vidura wanted to point this out and impressed upon him that it was better to die like his sons than accept such humiliating charity. Five thousand years ago there was one Dhritarashtra, but at the present moment there are Dhritarashtras in every home. Politicians especially do not retire from political activities unless they are dragged by the cruel hand of death or killed by some opposing element. To stick to family life to the end of one's human life is the grossest type of degradation and there is an absolute need for the Viduras to educate such Dhritarashtras, even at the present moment.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder Acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness