quest and peace and holiness dwell, understand all these.  Therefore, though you mayst not see the fruits of virtue, thou shouldst not yet doubt religion or gods.  Thou must perform sacrifices with a will, and practise charity without insolence.  Acts in this world have their fruits, and virtue also is eternal.  Brahma himself told this unto his (spiritual) sons, as testified to by Kashyapa.  Let thy doubt, therefore, O Krishna, be dispelled like mist.  Reflecting upon all this, let thy scepticism give way to faith.  Slander not God, who is the lord of all creatures.  Learn how to know him.  Bow down unto him.  Let not thy mind be such.  And, O Krishna, never disregard that Supreme Being through whose grace mortal man, by piety, acquireth immortality!’”

SECTION XXXII

“Draupadi said, ’I do not ever disregard or slander religion, O son of Pritha!  Why should I disregard God, the lord of all creatures?  Afflicted with woe, know me, O Bharata, to be only raving I will once more indulge in lamentations; listen to me with attention O persecutor of all enemies, every conscious creature should certainly act in this world.  It is only the immobile, and not other creatures, that may live without acting.  The calf, immediately after its birth, sucketh the mothers’ teat.  Persons feel pain in consequence of incantations performed with their statues.  It seemeth, therefore, O Yudhishthira, that creatures derive the character of their lives from their acts of former lives.  Amongst mobile creatures man differeth in this respect that he aspireth, O bull of the Bharata race, to affect his course of life in this and the other world by means of his acts.  Impelled by the inspiration of a former life, all creatures visibly (reap) in this world the fruits of their acts.  Indeed, all creatures live according to the inspiration of a former life, even the Creator and the Ordainer of the universe, like a crane that liveth on the water (untaught by any one.) If a creature acteth not, its course of life is impossible.  In the case of a creature, therefore, there must be action and not inaction.  Thou also shouldest act, and not incur censure by abandoning action.  Cover thyself up, as with an armour, with action.  There may or may not be even one in a thousand who truly knoweth the utility of acts or work.  One must act for protecting as also increasing his wealth; for if without seeking to earn, one continueth to only spend, his wealth, even if it were a hoard huge as Himavat, would soon be exhausted.  All the creatures in the world would have been exterminated, if there were no action.  If also acts bore no fruits, creatures would never have multiplied.  It is even seen that creatures sometimes perform acts that have no fruits, for without acts the course of life itself would be impossible.  Those persons in the world who believe in destiny, and those again who believe in chance, are both the worst among men.