Canto 3: The Status QuoChapter 1: Questions by Vidura

Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 3.1.6

śrī-śuka uvāca

yadā tu rājā sva-sutān asādhūn

puṣṇan na dharmeṇa vinaṣṭa-dṛṣṭiḥ

bhrātur yaviṣṭhasya sutān vibandhūn

praveśya lākṣā-bhavane dadāha

SYNONYMS

śrī-śukaḥ uvācaŚrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī said; yadā — when; tu — but; rājā — King Dhṛtarāṣṭra; sva-sutān — his own sons; asādhūn — dishonest; puṣṇan — nourishing; na — never; dharmeṇa — on the right path; vinaṣṭa-dṛṣṭiḥ — one who has lost his insight; bhrātuḥ — of his brother; yaviṣṭhasya — younger; sutān — sons; vibandhūn — having no guardian (father); praveśyamade to enter; lākṣā — lacquer; bhavanein the house; dadāha — set on fire.

TRANSLATION

Śrī Śukadeva Gosvāmī said: King Dhṛtarāṣṭra became blind under the influence of impious desires to nourish his dishonest sons, and thus he set fire to the lacquer house to burn his fatherless nephews, the Pāṇḍavas.

PURPORT

Dhṛtarāṣṭra was blind from birth, but his blindness in committing impious activities to support his dishonest sons was a greater blindness than his physical lack of eyesight. The physical lack of sight does not bar one from spiritual progress. But when one is blind spiritually, even though physically fit, that blindness is dangerously detrimental to the progressive path of human life.

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