Those only that believe in the efficacy of acts are laudable.  He that lieth at ease, without activity, believing in destiny alone, is soon destroyed like an unburnt earthen pot in water.  So also he that believeth in chance, i.e., sitteth inactive though capable of activity liveth not long, for his life is one of weakness and helplessness.  If any person accidentally acquireth any wealth, it is said he deriveth it from chance, for no one’s effort hath brought about the result.  And, O son of Pritha, whatever of good fortune a person obtaineth in consequence of religious rites, that is called providential.  The fruit, however that a person obtaineth by acting himself, and which is the direct result of those acts of his, is regarded as proof of personal ability.  And, O best of men, know that the wealth one obtaineth spontaneously and without cause is said to be a spontaneous acquisition.  Whatever is thus obtained by chance, by providential dispensation, spontaneously, of as the result of one’s acts is, however, the consequence of the acts of a former life.  And God, the Ordainer of the universe, judging according to the acts of former lives, distributeth among men their portions in this world.  Whatever acts, good or bad, a person performeth, know that they are the result of God’s, arrangements agreeably to the acts of a former life.  This body is only the instruments in the hands of God, for doing the acts that are done.  Itself, inert, it doth as God urgeth it to do.  O son of Kunti, it is the Supreme Lord of all who maketh all creatures do what they do.  The creatures themselves are inert.  O hero, man, having first settled some purpose in his mind, accomplisheth it, himself working with the aid of his intelligence.  We, therefore, say that man is himself the cause (of what he doeth).  O bull among men, it is impossible to number the acts of men, for mansions and towns are the result of man’s acts.  Intelligent men know, by help of their intellect, that oil may be had from sesame, curds from milk, and that food may be cooked by means of igniting fuel.  They know also the means for accomplishing all these.  And knowing them, they afterwards set themselves, with proper appliances, to accomplish them.  And creatures support their lives by the results achieved in these directions by their own acts.  If a work is executed by a skilled workman, it is executed well.  From differences (in characteristics), another work may be said to be that of an unskilful hand.  If a person were not, in the matter of his acts, himself the cause thereof, then sacrifices would not bear any fruits in his case nor would any body be a disciple or a master.  It is because a person is himself the cause of his work that he is applauded when he achieved success.  So the doer is censured if he faileth.  If a man were not himself the cause of his acts, how would all this be justified?  Some say that everything is the result of Providential dispensation; others again, that this is not so, but