“Draupadi said, ‘I bow down unto Dhatri and Vidhatri who have thus
clouded thy sense! Regarding the burden (thou art to bear) thou thinkest
differently from the ways of thy fathers and grand-fathers! Influenced by
acts men are placed in different situations of life. Acts, therefore,
produce consequences that are inevitable; emancipation is desired from
mere folly. It seemeth that man can never attain prosperity in this world
by virtue, gentleness, forgiveness, straight-forwardness and fear of
censure! If this were not so, O Bharata, this insufferable calamity would
never have overtaken thee who art so undeserving of it, and these thy
brothers of great energy! Neither in those days of prosperity nor in
these days of thy adversity, thou, O Bharata, hath ever known anything so
dear to thee as virtue, which thou hast even regarded as dearer to thee
than life? That thy kingdom is for virtue alone, that thy life also is
for virtue alone, is known to Brahmanas and thy superiors and even the
celestials! I think thou canst abandon Bhimasena and Arjuna and these
twin sons of Madri along with myself but thou canst not abandon virtue! I
have heard that the king protecteth virtue; and virtue, protected by him,
protecteth him (in return)! I see, however, that virtue protecteth thee
not! Like the shadow pursuing a man, thy heart, O tiger among men, with
singleness of purpose, ever seeketh virtue. Thou hast never disregarded
thy equals, and inferiors and superiors. Obtaining even the entire world,
thy pride never increased! O son of Pritha, thou ever worshippest
Brahmanas, and gods, and the Pitris, with Swadhas, and other forms of
worship! O son of Pritha, thou hast ever gratified the Brahmanas by
fulfilling every wish of theirs! Yatis and Sannyasins and mendicants of
domestic lives have always been fed in thy house from off plates of gold
where I have distributed (food) amongst them. Unto the Vanaprasthas thou
always givest gold and food. There is nothing in thy house thou mayest
not give unto the Brahmanas! In the Viswadeva sacrifice, that is, for thy
peace, performed in thy house, the things consecrated are first offered
unto guests and all creatures while thou livest thyself with what
remaineth (after distribution)! Ishtis Pashubandhas, sacrifices for
obtaining fruition of desire, the religions rites of (ordinary)
domesticity, Paka sacrifices, and sacrifices of other kinds, are ever
performed in thy house. Even in this great forest, so solitary and
haunted by robbers, living in exile, divested of thy kingdom, thy virtue
hath sustained no diminution! The Aswamedha, the Rajasuya, the Pundarika,
and Gosava, these grand sacrifices requiring large gifts have all been
performed by thee! O monarch, impelled by a perverse sense during that
dire hour of a losing match at dice, thou didst yet stake and loss thy
kingdom, thy wealth, thy weapons, thy brothers, and myself! Simple,
gentle, liberal, modest, truthful, how, O king could thy mind be
attracted to the vice of gambling? I am almost deprived of my sense, O
king, and my heart is overwhelmed with grief, beholding this thy
distress, and this thy calamity! An old history is cited as an
illustration for the truth that men are subjects to the will of God and
never to their own wishes! The Supreme Lord and Ordainer of all ordaineth
everything in respect of the weal and woe, the happiness and misery, of
all creatures, even prior to their births guided by the acts of each,
which are even like a seed (destined to sprout forth into the tree of
life). O hero amongst men, as a wooden doll is made to move its limbs by
the wire-puller, so are creatures made to work by the Lord of all. O
Bharata, like space that covereth every object, God, pervading every
creature, ordaineth its weal or woe. Like a bird tied with a string,
every creature is dependent on God. Every one is subject to God and none
else. No one can be his own ordainer. Like a pearl on its string, or a
bull held fast by the cord passing through its nose, or a tree fallen
from the bank into the middle of the stream, every creature followeth the
command of the Creator, because imbued with His Spirit and because
established in Him. And man himself, dependent on the Universal Soul,
cannot pass a moment independently. Enveloped in darkness, creatures are
not masters of their own weal or woe. They go to heaven or hell urged by
God Himself. Like light straws dependent on strong winds, all creatures,
O Bharatas, are dependent on God! And God himself, pervading all
creatures and engaged in acts right and wrong, moveth in the universe,
though none can say This is God! This body with its physical attributes
is only the means by which God--the Supreme Lord of all maketh (every
creature) to reap fruits that are good or bad. Behold the power of
illusion that hath been spread by God, who confounding with his illusion,
maketh creatures slay their fellows! Truth-knowing Munis behold those
differently. They appear to them in a different light, even like the rays
of the Sun (which to ordinary eyes are only a pencil of light, while to
eyes more penetrating seem fraught with the germs of food and drink).
Ordinary men behold the things of the earth otherwise. It is God who
maketh them all, adopting different processes in their creation and
destruction. And, O Yudhishthira, the Self-create Grandsire, Almighty
God, spreading illusion, slayeth his creatures by the instrumentality of
his creatures, as one may break a piece of inert and senseless wood with
wood, or stone with stone, or iron with iron. And the Supreme Lord,
according to his pleasure, sporteth with His creatures, creating and
destroying them, like a child with his toy (of soft earth). O king, it
doth seem to me that God behaveth towards his creatures like a father or
mother unto them. Like a vicious person, He seemeth to bear himself
towards them in anger! Beholding superior and well-behaved and modest
persons persecuted, while the sinful are happy, I am sorely troubled.
Beholding this thy distress and the prosperity of Suyodhana, I do not
speak highly of the Great Ordainer who suffereth such inequality! O sir,
what fruits doth the Great Ordainer reap by granting prosperity to
Dhritarashtra’s son who transgresseth the ordinances, who is crooked and
covetous, and who injureth virtue and religion! If the act done pursueth
the doer and none else, then certainly it is God himself who is stained
with the sin of every act. If however, the sin of an act done doth not
attach to the doer, then (individual) might (and not God) is the true
cause of acts, and I grieve for those that have no might!’”