2. Vasistha replied:—It is a man’s activity and no other, O Rághava, that is the cause of all his actions, and the recipient of their consequence, wherein destiny has nothing to do.
3. Destiny is a mere imaginary thing, which neither exists nor acts nor feels (their effects). It is neither seen nor regarded (by any body).
4. The good or bad result which proceeds from the accomplished acts of successful activity, is expressed by the word destiny.
5. The wished for and unwished for consequences resulting from the good and bad deeds of human activity, are termed the effects of destiny by people.
6. Human activity which is the only cause of some unavoidable future consequence, is called as destiny by the majority of mankind.
7. Truly, O Rághava! destiny though void as vacuity, appears as real to some body, who thinks it to be an active agent, while others know it to be inactive.
8. Again destiny is a mere saying uttered by men upon the result of some good or bad effect of their actual exertion, that “it is this which has produced the other.”
9. It is my belief and I have known it for certain that, destiny is no more than the word uttered by people upon their attainment of the object of their exertions.
10. Destiny is that word of consolation which is uttered by men, as significant of the good or evil which they meet with and which they call to be the effect of the other.
11. Ráma asked:—How is it sir, that you who are all wise, do now contradict your own assertion that destiny is the result of the stock of our former acts (of past life)?