Vidura Reports Dhritarashtra's Rejection

After Vidura had rested, the Pandavas asked him directly: why have you come? He told them everything. "Dhritarashtra maintains me," Vidura began. "He summoned me and after showing his respects, told me, 'This is what has happened. Now impartially, tell me what is good for me and for them.'" So Vidura had spoken. He had told Dhritarashtra what was good for the Kouravas — for the entire Kuru clan, including the blind king's own sons. He had laid out a path that would bring welfare to everyone: reconciliation with the Pandavas, restoration of their share of the kingdom, an end to the enmity that was poisoning the house. "But he did not like what I said. I could not think of any other course that would bring welfare. O Pandavas! I told him what would bring supreme welfare. But Ambika's son did not listen to those words. Just as a sick man does not like medicine, my words did not find pleasure with him." Vidura's voice carried no bitterness — only the weariness of a man who had watched disaster coming and could not stop it. "O Ajatashatru! Like an unchaste woman cannot be brought to the house of one who is learned, he cannot be brought to well-being. The bull among the Bharata lineage did not like what I said, like a maiden does not like a husband who is sixty years old. O king! The destruction of the Kouravas is certain. Dhritarashtra will never find supreme well-being. Just as water on a lotus leaf does not stick there, my medicine did not stick to him." Then Dhritarashtra had grown angry. He had turned on the man who had served him faithfully for decades. "O descendant of the Bharata lineage! Go wherever your respect takes you. I do not desire you as an adviser any longer, to rule the earth or the city." Vidura had been dismissed. Cast out. Told to leave the court he had served all his life. "O Indra among men! Having been thus abandoned by King Dhritarashtra, I have now come here to give you good advice." And then Vidura did something remarkable. He repeated the very counsel he had given Dhritarashtra — the wisdom the blind king had rejected — and offered it to Yudhishthira instead. "The man who pardons the terrible miseries caused by his enemies and waits for his time, gradually extending himself like feeding a fire, that self-controlled man rules the entire earth alone. O king! If one shares one's riches with one's companions, the companions also share in one's adversity. That is the way to gather one's companions. It has been said that companions are the way to win the earth. O Pandava! Without any lamentations, truth is best. Food should be equally shared with one's companions. One should never hold oneself above others. Such conduct increases the prosperity of kings." Yudhishthira listened. Then he answered. "I will do what you advise me and, undisturbed by passion, follow your supreme intelligence. In every time and place, I will completely follow what you say."