Mahabharata, Santi Parva Sec. XXXII

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The Mahabharata,Santi Parva Sec.XXXII,

Vyasa said:

Is the Supreme Being the doer, or is man the doer? Is everything the result of

Chance in this world, or are the fruits that we enjoy or suffer, the results of

previous actions? If man does all acts, good or bad, being urged thereto by the

Supreme Being, then the fruits of those acts should attach to the Supreme Being

Himself. If a person cuts down, with an axe, a tree in forest, it is the person

that incurs the sin and not the axe by any means. Or, if it be said that, the

axe being only the material cause, the consequence of the act (of cutting)

should attach to the animate agent (and to the inanimate tool), then the sin

may be said to belong to the person that has made the axe. This, however, can

scarcely be true. If this be not reasonable, that one man should incur the

consequence of an act done by another, then, guided by this, you should think

that the consequences of all acts must attach to the Supreme Being Himself, He

being the urger of us all.

If again, man be himself the agent of all his acts virtuous and sinful, then

Supreme Director is none, and therefore, there is no Supreme Being and no next

world. No one can ever turn away from that which is destined.

If again, Destiny be the result of the acts of former lives, then no sin can

attach to one in this life even as the sin of cutting down a tree cannot touch

the maker of the axe (no one being free in this life, all one's acts being the

result of previous acts, there can be no responsibility for the acts of this

life).

 

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