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