The Simple Meal - Krishna Visits Vidura

A knock at the door, late at night. Vidura opens it to find the ambassador of the Pandavas standing in the moonlight.

VIDURA (stunned): Lord Krishna? But... you are housed in the palace. Why are you here?

Krishna: "The palace has food for the body but nothing for the soul. I came seeking better nourishment."

Vidura: "I have nothing! My house is modest, my wife has only simple fare—banana peels and whatever we could gather—"

Krishna: "That sounds perfect. May I come in?"

Vidura steps aside, still disbelieving. Krishna enters the small home, looks around with genuine appreciation.

Krishna: "This is beautiful. Clean, peaceful, filled with love. The palace has a thousand rooms but none with this quality of air."

VIDURA'S WIFE (emerging, mortified): Lord, we were not expecting—I have nothing prepared—

Krishna: "Please, don't trouble yourself. Whatever you would have eaten tonight, share with me. That's all I ask."

She brings what she has—banana peels that she begins eating nervously, forgetting in her anxiety to give Krishna the fruit and offering only the peels.

Vidura notices, moves to correct her.

KRISHNA (stopping him): No. These are perfect.

He eats the banana peels with evident enjoyment, as if they were delicacies.

Vidura: "Lord, she's giving you the wrong—"

Krishna: "She's giving me what she has, prepared with love. Do you think I taste the peel? I taste her devotion. I taste your welcome. I taste the sincerity of this home. There is no wrong offering when the heart is right."

They sit together. The meal is meager but the conversation is rich.

Vidura: "Why did you really come here? I am no one—a servant's son, kept at court but never truly respected. Tomorrow you will negotiate with kings."

Krishna: "Tomorrow I will negotiate with pride, with ambition, with delusion. Tonight, I sit with wisdom. Tomorrow I will hear what people want to say. Tonight, I hear truth. Tell me, Vidura—what do you see coming?"

VIDURA (heavily): War. Destruction. Everything I've tried to prevent for decades. Duryodhana will not yield. His advisors fear him too much to speak truth. Bhishma is bound by his vows. Drona is bound by his obligations. I am the only one who speaks clearly, and I am dismissed as a servant speaking above his station.

Krishna: "That dismissal is their loss. Wisdom doesn't check birth certificates before it chooses its vessel."

Vidura: "I tried, Lord. I truly tried. I warned Dhritarashtra countless times. I told him the dice game would lead to ruin. I told him Draupadi's humiliation would demand vengeance. I told him every step along this path to destruction."

Krishna: "And he didn't listen."

Vidura: "He listened. He agreed. And then he did nothing. That's the tragedy—not blindness to truth, but paralysis in the face of it. He knows his son is wrong. He simply cannot bring himself to stop him."

Krishna: "A father's love, twisted into enabling destruction. It's common."

Vidura: "Can you stop it? Can you prevent the war?"

Krishna: "I will try. But Vidura, understand something: some destructions are necessary. This age is corrupt beyond saving. The warriors gathered on both sides have earned their fates through lifetimes of karma. The war will be terrible, but it will also be a cleansing."

Vidura: "And after?"

Krishna: "After, the Pandavas will rule. You will advise them. A new dharma will be established—imperfect, as all human attempts are, but better than what exists now. The age will decline, as all ages do, but seeds will be planted that will flower in ages to come."

Vidura: "You speak of centuries like I speak of tomorrow."

Krishna: "Time looks different from where I stand. But Vidura—from where you stand, you have done everything right. You spoke truth to power. You maintained your integrity in a corrupt court. You kept your dharma when everyone around you was losing theirs. That is heroism."

Vidura: "It doesn't feel heroic. It feels like failure."

Krishna: "Failure is when you stop trying. You haven't stopped. You're still here, still speaking truth, still hoping. That's not failure. That's faith."

VIDURA (eyes wet): I have served this dynasty my whole life. Watched it destroy itself. And you tell me that's faith?

Krishna: "I tell you that faith doesn't require success. It requires persistence. You persisted. You are persisting now. And when the war comes, you will persist through it. You will help Yudhishthira rebuild. You will see the seeds you planted begin to grow."

Vidura: "And you? Where will you be?"

Krishna: "Where I always am. Everywhere. Nowhere. In the heart of those who remember. In the teachings that outlive the teacher. In this moment, eating banana peels in the home of the wisest man in Hastinapura."

VIDURA (smiling despite himself): You're mocking me.

Krishna: "I'm honoring you. There's a difference. Now, tell me more about the court dynamics. I should know everything before tomorrow's negotiations."