The importance of how birth could undermine your destiny in the culture of Vedic times, and perhaps even today, is best exemplified by the character of Vidur. Even more exemplary is what one does when the ovarian lottery doesn’t play in your favour.
The story of Vidur and his birth is fantastic. In a sense, his is quite an arbitrary birth even after considering the practice of Niyoga. Technically, Pandu and Dhritarashtra at least had their mother from the royal family, which protected their position in the line to the throne. But Vidur lost out on that simply because neither his father (who was surrogate) nor his mother (a maid servant of the queens) were who they were supposed to be. But despite that accident of birth, because of the inherent wise qualities of Ved Vyasa and the devotional attitude shown by the maid, Vidur turned out to be the wisest of all the living members of the Kuru dynasty.
There is a backstory to that wisdom too.
Backstory
Yama the Lord of death had got a curse from a sage Mandavya. It so happened that when the sage was in deep meditation, a bunch of thieves who had stolen some valuables came to his hermitage and were chased by the soldiers of the king of the land. Not only did they catch the thieves but also the sage and sentenced them all to death. It was at the last moment that the king intervened and recognised the sage and saved him from hanging. Now, the sage was angry, but not on the king or his soldiers, and approached Yama for an explanation. Yama told him that as a child, the sage had squeezed an ant, and as a karmic repayment, he had to go through this near death experience and come back. The sage got wild on hearing this and thought that this was grossly unfair and disproportionate. He told Yama that he has no idea how mortals live, and he can’t judge who deserves death, when and how, unless he himself lives among mortals. And so Yama had to have some kind of expansion form on earth, and Vidur was that, with all the wisdom intact.
It is because of this Yama connection that Vidur has a special affection for the wisest Pandava, Yudhishthira, who was the son of Dharma, another name for Yama. The two of them shared a common, or let’s say uncommon, trait of wisdom and virtue that made them amenable to each other. They also understood each other very well due to the same.
Varnavrat
This understanding was displayed during the great escape from Varnavat.
While Duryodhana assumed that he had sent the Pandavas to their death through the Lakshagraha fire at Varnavat, and the Pandavas were found to be alive much later, the question that is often overlooked is how did the Pandavas escape? Vidur was the man behind that great escape.
Vidur who operated as the Prime Minister for Dhritarashtra very well knew that something was amiss in the request that the king had made, when he asked the Pandavas to go to Varnavat. He found out the details but given the position he held, he could not directly tell Yudhishthira either not to go, or that they were in danger. At the same time, he had great love for the Pandavas and had made arrangements for their escape. But he could not tell anything to anyone, including the Pandavas without being suspected or being found out.
The wise Vidur found a way of speaking in code dialect to Yudhishthira. That code language wasn’t understood by Bhima or Kunti or anyone else, but Yudhishthira could sense that there was a message. The code spoke of a tunnel that would be dug out from the Lakshagraha palace. It spoke of a tunnel that would take one to a river. It also spoke of the great fire that Duryodhana’s Purnochan would light. Yudhishthira noted the code and realised that Vidur was trying to tell him something.
In Varnavat, Yudhishthira met people who spoke in the same at every step. From the digger of the tunnel to the boatman waiting for them at the river, the code language was repeated, so that Yudhishthira knew that they were appointed by Vidur. Yudhishthira unraveled the code to understand Duryodhana’s plan to put their palace on fire. He also unearthed the tunnel.
Therefore, a few months after staying in Varnavat, the Pandavas themselves put the fire, preempting Purnochan and escaped from the tunnel. The Nishad woman and her five sons burnt in the fire gave the impression of the Pandavas being dead.
It was the original great escape, scripted by Vidur.
Yudhishthira
Another instance where Vidur and his wisdom and diplomacy, as well as his special relationship with Yudhishthira were displayed was when he was sent as the envoy for the invitation for the gambling match. He communicated the invitation in the most restrained manner almost indicating to Yudhishthira that it is in his best interest not to take it up. Unfortunately, Yudhishthira cited Kshatriya duty and accepted it. At the match itself when things went out of hand, it was Vidur, who time and again, reminded Dhritarashtra of his duty as king to stop the game. Unfortunately he was put down by Duryodhana and Karna every time and Dhritarashtra didn’t act.
Dhritarashtra
His relationship with Dhritarashtra was special, to say the least. It was of a brother at times, and as a Prime Minister to the king often. Most of all, he was a friend whose wisdom Dhritarashtra relied on. In the role of a brother, minister or friend, Vidur provided his advice in the fairest, wisest and most impartial, non-attached manner. But Dhritarashtra never implemented Vidur’s advice, despite taking it and knowing that it was right everytime.
At most times, Vidur was the one who urged Dhritarashtra to break free from his attachments to Duryodhana and the throne of Hastinapur and do the right thing. It happened before, during and after the gambling match. It happened after the Pandavas returned from exile. It happened before the war at the last step when Krishna came as the peace messenger. And it happened after the war when despite losing everything, Dhritarashtra didn’t lose his attachments.
War
Vidur was trained like the others in using weapons but he was absent in the war. The reason for that turned out to be his last interaction with Dhritarashtra, when Duryodhana insulted him again and threw him out. Vidur didn’t feel any obligation to fight on the Kaurava side due to absence of attachment. At the same time, he could have chosen to fight on the side of Yudhishthira but he chose not to.
The reason was that while he knew that Dhritarashtra’s sons would perish, he knew Dhritarashtra won’t. He went on a pilgrimage during the war and kept track of it, only to return at the end to see Dhritarashtra still enjoying royal comforts. It was then that Vidur gave the last wise advice of his life telling him to not live on the alms given by the victorious Pandavas. He urged him to, at least now, give up his attachment to royal privileges and retire to the forests. That was when finally Dhritarashtra took Vidur’s advice. It led to the blind king’s eyes being finally opened.
The affectionate brother, the wise friend and the non-attached advisor, Vidur, had finally helped the blind king see the light.
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