Shloka 7
Udyoga Parva, Adhyāya 40 — Vidura’s Ethical Counsel and Dhṛtarāṣṭra’s Fatalistic Turn
धृतराष्ट उवाच ब्रवीहि विदुर त्वं मे पुराणं तं सनातनम् | कथमेतेन देहेन स्यादिहैव समागम:,धृतराष्ट्रने कहा--विदुर! उन परम प्राचीन सनातन ऋषिका पता मुझे बताओ। भला, इसी देहसे यहाँ ही उनका समागम कैसे हो सकता है?
dhṛtarāṣṭra uvāca | brūhi vidura tvaṃ me purāṇaṃ taṃ sanātanam | katham etena dehena syād ihaiva samāgamaḥ ||
Dhṛtarāṣṭra said: “Tell me, Vidura, that ancient, eternal account. How could there be a meeting with him here and now, in this very world, while still in this same body?”
धृतराष्ट उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames a dharmic inquiry: the king seeks an authoritative, time-tested (purāṇa, sanātana) teaching and questions the possibility of direct encounter or realization while embodied—highlighting the tension between worldly limitation and access to higher truth.
Dhṛtarāṣṭra addresses Vidura and asks him to recount an ancient, eternal tradition, then presses a practical doubt: how such a meeting/encounter could occur ‘here itself’ while one remains in the same physical body—setting up Vidura’s forthcoming explanation.