Vidura’s Talks with Maitreya

Vidura meets Maitreya, who begins explaining the Lord’s activities and the unfolding of material creation.

Themes of SB 3.5Jñāna5 Dainya3 Śuddhi3 with indexed passages

Connected storiesLord NṛsiṁhadevaYaśodā binds DāmodaraBhīṣmadeva

Who is speakingSūta Gosvāmī → the sages at NaimiṣāraṇyaŚukadeva Gosvāmī → King ParīkṣitMaitreya Ṛṣi → ViduraEvery voice in this chapter ›

Turning points hereVidura· Questions to Maitreya

What this chapter speaks about · the ten subjects

In this chapter

Who · Vidura, Maitreya

The story · Vidura reached Hardwar, where the learned sage Maitreya was seated. He asked to hear the extraordinary activities of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Maitreya told him that the Lord had left instructions for his sake, then described the development of material creation and the universal form. Vidura continued asking about the soul, illusion, the planets, devotional service, and the duties of spiritual teachers and disciples.

What it teaches · Hearing and discussing the Lord’s activities is the highest perfectional gain of humanity. Through serious devotional hearing, knowledge and renunciation become complete.

SB 3.5.21 SB 3.5.46 SB 3.6.37 Read chapter 5 ›

Beyond this chapter

Connected stories across the Bhāgavatam

Stories told in other chapters that this chapter's verses or Śrīla Prabhupāda's purports bring in, the other Bhāgavatam verses the purports quote, and stories in other cantos with the same themes. Each link shows the sentence it comes from.

Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva

SB 7.8 · Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva appears

What it teaches · No one is equal to or greater than the Supreme Personality of Godhead. His unlimited power protects His devotee and ends Hiraṇyakaśipu’s oppression.

For example, the Lord came out of a pillar in His incarnation as Nṛsiṁhadeva, and by the Lord’s causeless mercy, Ahalyā came out of a stone by the touch of the lotus feet of His incarnation as Lord Śrī Rāma.
Śrīla Prabhupāda's purport · SB 3.5.50 (Text 50)

The Lord appears in this universe in different incarnations like Matsya, Kūrma, Varāha and Nṛsiṁha, and He manifests His different transcendental activities for the welfare of the twice-born, the cows and the demigods.
Śrīla Prabhupāda's purport · SB 3.5.7 (Text 7)

Read the story in SB 7.8

Yaśodā binds Dāmodara

SB 10.9–10 · Yaśodā’s ropes and the twin trees

What it teaches · Yaśodā received mercy unavailable even to great demigods. Wealth can bewilder the intelligence, while a devotee’s correction can lead one toward the Lord.

But the offenders Nalakūvara and Maṇigrīva, even though living amongst the demigods, had to undergo the punishment of becoming trees in their next lives, although by the grace of a devotee they were later delivered by the Lord.
Śrīla Prabhupāda's purport · SB 3.5.45 (Text 45)

Read the story in SB 10.9–10

Bhīṣmadeva

SB 1.9 · Bhīṣmadeva’s final attention

What it teaches · Even great thinkers cannot fully understand the Lord’s plan. Bhīṣmadeva’s final prayers show the goal of fixing the mind upon Śrī Kṛṣṇa.

Vyāsadeva is the son of Satyavatī by the great sage Parāśara, and Vicitravīrya is the son of the same Satyavatī by the great king Śantanu, the father of Bhīṣmadeva.
Śrīla Prabhupāda's purport · SB 3.5.20 (Text 20)

Read the story in SB 1.9

Other Bhāgavatam verses Śrīla Prabhupāda quotes here

Next in Learn · 4 of 11 · 5 minStudy a verseOne verse with its Sanskrit, word meanings, translation and three study points from the purport.Back · LearnPreface & Introduction