Argument:—Act, actor and action are one the same, the word Daiva and its explanation; oscillation of intellect is the cause of creation.
Ráma said:—Please sir, explain to me moreover regarding the acts of men, which become the causes of their repeated births, as seeds are sources of the germs of future trees; and those to which the word daiva or divian is applied, imply the Divine dispensation, destiny or fate.
2. Vasishtha replied:—The meaning of daiva or destiny, is as that of a potter in producing the pottery; it is the act of intelligence (samvid), and not of blind chance, nor of human effort or manliness.
3. How is it possible for any action to be done by manly exertion only, without some effort of the understanding directing human energy to action; it is this intelligent power that makes the world and all what it contains.
4. The prosperity of the world depends on the understanding, exerting itself with a desire to bring about some certain end; and it ceases with the course of the course of the world, upon the exertion of the understanding to no purpose.
5. The insouciance or want of desire in the mind, is called its negative act, and the mind that merely moves on without engaging in any pursuit, is as a current stream without its undulation. (So mere living is no life without its action).
6. There is no difference between a thinking and unthinking soul, unless the mind of one is actuated by its imagination, to the invention of some manly art or work.
7. As there is no essential duality or difference in the water and its waves, and between desire and its result; so there is no distinction betwixt the intellect and its function, nor is there any difference in the actions from the person of their agent.
8. Know Ráma, the action as the agent, and the actor the same with his action; both these are quite alike as the ice and coldness. (i.e. Man is known by his act, and the actions bespoke the man).
9. As the frost is cold and coldness the same with frost, so the deed is the same as its doer, and the doer is alike the deed done by him. (Every one is accountable for his deed, and the deed recurs to the doer of it).