As a calf recognises and approaches its parent in the midst of
even a thousand kine, even so the acts of a past life recognise and visit
the doer in his new life. Washed in water a (dirty) piece of cloth
becomes clean. Similarly, men burning in repentance obtain endless
happiness by proper penances.[547] Those that can take up their residence
in the woods and by performing austerities for a long period can wash
themselves of their sins, succeed in obtaining the objects on which they
set their hearts. As no one can mark the track of birds in the sky or of
fishes in the water, similarly, the track of persons whose souls have
been cleansed by knowledge cannot be marked by any.[548] There is no need
of any more eloquence or any more reference to sinful acts. Suffice it to
say that one should, with proper judgment and as befits one best, do what
is for one's good. This is the means by which wisdom and high felicity
may be achieved.'"
SECTION CLXXXII
"Yudhishthira said, 'Whence has this universe consisting of mobile and
immobile creatures been created? Whom does it go to when destruction sets
in? Tell me this, O grandsire! Indeed, by whom has this universe with its
oceans, its firmament, its mountains, its clouds, its lands, its fire,
and its wind, been created. How were all objects created? Whence this
division into separate orders of existence? Whence are their purity and
impurity, and the ordinances about virtue and vice? Of what kind is the
life of living creatures? Where also do they go who die.
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