n skilfully addressed himself again to that foremost of
Brahmanas, saying, 'It is the dictum of the aged that the ways of
righteousness are subtle, diverse and infinite. When life is at stake and
in the matter of marriage, it is proper to tell an untruth. Untruth
sometimes leads to the triumph of truth, and the latter dwindles into
untruth. Whichever conduces most to the good of all creatures is
considered to be truth. Virtue is thus perverted; mark thou its subtle
ways. O best of virtuous men, man's actions are either good or bad, and
he undoubtedly reaps their fruits. The ignorant man having attained to an
abject state, grossly abuses the gods, not knowing that it is the
consequence of his own evil karma. The foolish, the designing and the
fickle, O good Brahmana, always attain the very reverse of happiness or
misery. Neither learning nor good morals, nor personal exertion can save
them. And if the fruits of our exertion were not dependent on anything
else, people would attain the object of their desire, by simply striving
to attain it.

It is seen that able, intelligent and diligent persons are baffled in
their efforts, and do not attain the fruits of their actions. On the
other hand, persons who are always active in injuring others and in
practising deception on the world, lead a happy life. There are some who
attain prosperity without any exertion. And there are others, who with
the utmost exertion, are unable to achieve their dues. Miserly persons
with the object of having sons born to them worship the gods, and
practise severe austerities, and those sons having remained in the womb
for ten months at length turn out to be very infamous issue of their
race; and others begotten under the same auspices, decently pass their
lives in luxury with heaps of riches and grain accumulated by their
ancestors. The diseases from which man suffer, are undoubtedly the result
of their own karma. They then behave like small deer at the hands of
hunters, and they are racked with mental troubles. And, O Brahmana, as
hunters intercept the flight of their game, the progress of those
diseases is checked by able and skilful physicians with their collections
of drugs. And, the best of the cherishers of religion, thou hast observed
that those who have it in their power to enjoy (the good things of this
earth), are prevented from doing so from the fact of their suffering from
chronic bowel-complaints, and that many others that are strong and