n 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 are not masters of their own weal or woe. They go to heaven or
hell urged by God Himself. Like light straws dependent on strong winds,
all creatures, O Bharatas, are dependent on God! And God himself,
pervading all creatures and engaged in acts right and wrong, moveth in
the universe, though none can say _This is God!_ This body with its
physical attributes is only the means by which God--the Supreme Lord of
all maketh (every creature) to reap fruits that are good or bad. Behold
the power of illusion that hath been spread by God, who confounding with
his illusion, maketh creatures slay their fellows! Truth-knowing _Munis_
behold those differently. They appear to them in a different light, even
like the rays of the Sun (which to ordinary eyes are only a pencil of
light, while to eyes more penetrating seem fraught with the germs of
food and drink). Ordinary men behold the things of the earth otherwise.
It is God who maketh them all, adopting different processes in their
creation and destruction. And, O Yudhishthira, the Self-create Grandsire,
Almighty God, spreading illusion, slayeth his creatures by the
instrumentality of his creatures, as one may break a piece of inert and
senseless wood with wood, or stone with stone, or iron with iron. And
the Supreme Lord, according to his pleasure, sporteth with His
creatures, creating and destroying them, li