"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 religious 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 lose 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 wirepuller, 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!'"