beating their drums!  The loud peal of their instruments, mingled with the blare of conchs, is frightful to the ear and borne by the winds, is filling all the points of the compass.  Loud also is the din made by their neighing steeds and grunting elephants and roaring warriors!  That deafening noise made by the rejoicing warriors as they are marching to their quarters, as also the frightful clatter of their car-wheels, comes to us from the east.  So great hath been the havoc made by the Pandavas on the Dhartarashtras that we three are the only survivors of that great carnage!  Some were endued with the might of a hundred elephants, and some were masters of all weapons.  Yet have they been slain by the sons of Pandu!  I regard this to be an instance of the reverses brought about by Time!  Truly, this is the end to which such an act leads!  Truly, although the Pandavas have achieved such difficult feats, even this should be the result of those feats!  If your wisdom hath not been driven away by stupefaction, then say what is proper for us to do in view of this calamitous and grave affair.’”

2

Kripa said, “We have heard all that thou hast said, O puissant one!  Listen, however, to a few words of mine, O mighty armed one!  All men are subjected to and governed by these two forces, Destiny and Exertion.  There is nothing higher than these two.  Our acts do not become successful in consequence of destiny alone, nor of exertion alone, O best of men!  Success springs from the union of the two.  All purposes, high and low, are dependent on a union of those two.  In the whole world, it is through these two that men are seen to act as also to abstain.  What result is produced by the clouds pouring upon a mountain?  What results are not produced by them pouring upon a cultivated field?  Exertion, where destiny is not auspicious, and absence of exertion where destiny is auspicious, both these are fruitless!  What I have said before (about the union of the two) is the truth.  If the rains properly moisten a well-tilled soil, the seed produces great results.  Human success is of this nature.

Sometimes, Destiny, having settled a course of events, acts of itself (without waiting for exertion).  For all that, the wise, aided by skill have recourse to exertion.  All the purposes of human acts, O bull among men, are accomplished by the aid of those two together.  Influenced by these two, men are seen to strive or abstain.  Recourse may be had to exertion.  But exertion succeeds through destiny.  It is in consequence also of destiny that one who sets himself to work, depending on exertion, attains to success.  The exertion, however, of even a competent man, even when well directed, is without the concurrence of destiny, seen in the world to be unproductive of fruit.  Those, therefore, among men, that are idle and without intelligence, disapprove of exertion.  This however, is not the opinion of the wise.