Prabhupāda:
- bhavad-vidhā bhāgavatās
- tīrtha-bhūtāḥ svayaṁ vibho
- tīrthī-kurvanti tīrthāni
- svāntaḥ-sthena gadābhṛtā
- (SB 1.13.10)
So tīrthī, tīrtha. Tīrtha means holy place of pilgrimage. In every religion there is the system that the followers, they go to the holy place of pilgrimage. Just like in India, there are many holy places: Gayā, Prayāga, Mathurā, Vṛndāvana, Haridwar, Rāmeśvaram, Jagannātha Purī, Navadvīpa. Many. Some of them are very prominent, and still there are many nonprominent. Similarly, the Muhammadans, they go Mecca, Medina. The Christians, they go Jordan . . . what is that?
Bhagavān: Jerusalem.
Prabhupāda: Jerusalem. So human society, there must be some religious process; otherwise, it is animal society. And in every religion there is recommendation to go to the place, holy places of pilgrimage. This is one set-up. Another set-up is that bhāgavatās tīrtha-bhūtāḥ. Those who are devotees, they are themselves mahā-bhāgavata. They are first-class devotee. They themselves are the holy place. Not only they are themselves holy place, but wherever they go, they make that place holy place, pilgrimage. This is the idea.
It was spoken by Mahārāja Yudhiṣṭhira when Vidura came back home . . . Vidura left home. Although he belonged to the royal family, his nephew Duryodhana behaved with him not very nicely, so he left home. Before the beginning of the Battle of Kurukṣetra, he was very fond of his eldest brother, Dhṛtarāṣṭra. So he was always giving him good counsel, "My dear elder brother, why you are intriguing against the Pāṇḍavas?" But he would not hear the younger brother's advice. So his son, Dhṛtarāṣṭra's son, Duryodhana, he understood it that, "This my uncle is always instigating my father not to take part in the matter of vanquishing the Pāṇḍavas." So he used very harsh word, harsh word, because Vidura, although he was the son of king, but he was not born of the queen. He was born of a maidservant. Formerly, the queens had many maidservants, and they also sometimes begot children by the king. So they were called dāsī-putra. By legal significance, they were not inheritor. So Vidura was born like that. He was not born of the queen, but of the maidservant. But his elder brother, Dhṛtarāṣṭra, liked him very much. He got him raised—he was younger—very nicely. He got him married and gave him sufficient property. He was very kind upon him. And therefore Vidura was also very much obliged to his eldest brother, and he was always giving him good advice, and a great devotee.