Text 16
vidura uvāca
pracetasāṁ giritreṇa
yathāsīt pathi saṅgamaḥ
yad utāha haraḥ prītas
tan no brahman vadārthavat
viduraḥ uvāca — Vidura inquired; pracetasām — of all the Pracetās; giritreṇa — by Lord Śiva; yathā — just as; āsīt — it was; pathi — on the road; saṅgamaḥ — meeting; yat — which; uta āha — said; haraḥ — Lord Śiva; prītaḥ — being pleased; tat — that; naḥ — unto us; brahman — O great brāhmaṇa; vada — speak; artha-vat — with clear meaning.
Vidura asked Maitreya: My dear brāhmaṇa, why did the Pracetās meet Lord Śiva on the way? Please tell me how the meeting happened, how Lord Śiva became very pleased with them and how he instructed them. Certainly such talks are important, and I wish that you please be merciful upon me and describe them.
Whenever there are some important talks between a devotee and the Lord or between exalted devotees, one should be very much curious to hear them. At the meeting of Naimiṣāraṇya, where Sūta Gosvāmī spoke Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam to all the great sages, Sūta Gosvāmī was also asked about the talks between Mahārāja Parīkṣit and Śukadeva Gosvāmī, for the sages believed that the talks between Śukadeva Gosvāmī and Mahārāja Parīkṣit must have been as important as the talks between Lord Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna. As everyone is still eager to learn the subject of Bhagavad-gītā in order to become perfectly enlightened, Vidura was similarly eager to learn from the great sage Maitreya about the talks between Lord Śiva and the Pracetās.