thy disposition, O king, become pure in consequence of the increase of thy knowledge?  This aggregate of three, O king, is the foremost of all concerns, O Bharata, viz., abstension from injury to any creature, truth, and freedom from anger.  Does thy forest life any longer prove painful to thee?  Art thou able to earn with thy own exertions the products of the wilderness for thy food?  Do fasts give thee any pain now?  Hast thou learnt, O king, how the high-souled Vidura, who was Dharma’s self, left this world?  Through the curse of Mandavya, the deity of Righteousness became born as Vidura.  He was possessed of great intelligence.  Endued with high penances, he was high-souled and high-minded.  Even Vrihaspati among the celestials, and Sukra among the Asuras, was not possessed of such intelligence as that foremost of persons.  The eternal deity of Righteousness was stupefied by the Rishi Mandavya with an expenditure of his penances earned for a long time with great care.[45] At the command of the Grandsire, and through my own energy, Vidura of great intelligence was procreated by me upon a soil owned by Vichitraviryya.  A deity of deities, and eternal, he was, O king, thy brother.  The learned know him to be Dharma in consequence of his practices of Dharana and Dhyana.[46] He grows with (the growth of) truth, self-restraint, tranquillity of heart, compassion, and gifts.  He is always engaged in penances, and is eternal.  From that deity of Righteousness, through Yoga-puissance, the Kuru king Yudhishthira also took his birth.  Yudhishthira, therefore, O king, is Dharma of great wisdom and immeasurable intelligence.  Dharma exists both here and hereafter, and is like fire or wind or water or earth or space.  He is, O king of kings, capable of going everywhere and exists, pervading the whole universe.  He is capable of being beheld by only those that are the foremost of the deities and those that are cleansed of every sin and crowned with ascetic success.  He that is Dharma is Vidura; and he that is Vidura is the (eldest) son of Pandu.  That son of Pandu.  O king, is capable of being perceived by thee.  He stays before thee as thy servitor.  Endued with great Yoga-puissance, thy high-souled brother, that foremost of intelligent men, seeing the high-souled Yudhishthira, the son of Kunti, has entered into his person.  These also, O chief of Bharata’s race, I shall unite with great benefit.  Know, O son, that I am come here for dispelling thy doubts.  Some feat that has never been accomplished before by any of the great Rishis, some wonderful effect of my penances,—­I shall show thee.  What object is that, O king, whose accomplishment thou desirest from me?  Tell me what is that which thou wishest to see or ask or hear?  O sinless one, I shall accomplish it.’

SECTION XXIX

(Putradarsana Parva)