Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 1.13.59

viduras tu tad āścaryam

niśāmya kuru-nandana

harsha-śoka-yutas tasmād

gantā tīrtha-nishevakah

SYNONYMS

vidurah — Vidura also; tu — but; tat — that incident; āścaryam — wonderful; niśāmya — seeing; kuru-nandana — O son of the Kuru dynasty; harsha — delight; śoka — grief; yutah — affected by; tasmāt — from that place; gantā — will go away; tīrtha — place of pilgrimage; nishevakah — for being enlivened.

TRANSLATION

Vidura, being affected with delight and grief, will then leave that place of sacred pilgrimage.

PURPORT

Vidura was astonished to see the marvelous departure of his brother Dhritarāshtra as a liberated yogī, for in his past life he was much attached to materialism. Of course it was only due to Vidura that his brother attained the desirable goal of life. Vidura was therefore glad to learn about it. But he was sorry that he could not make his brother turn into a pure devotee. This was not done by Vidura because of Dhritarāshtra's being inimical to the Pāndavas, who were all devotees of the Lord. An offense at the feet of a Vaishnava is more dangerous than an offense at the lotus feet of the Lord. Vidura was certainly very liberal to bestow mercy upon his brother Dhritarāshtra, whose past life was very materialistic. But ultimately the result of such mercy certainly depended on the will of the Supreme Lord in the present life; therefore Dhritarāshtra attained liberation only, and after many such liberated states of life one can attain to the stage of devotional service. Vidura was certainly very mortified by the death of his brother and sister-in-law, and the only remedy to mitigate such lamentation was to go out to pilgrimage. Thus Mahārāja Yudhishthira had no chance to call back Vidura, his surviving uncle.

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