In this world people enjoy and obtain food and raiment and other
acquisitions earned by their parents or themselves. This is the result of
the acts of past lives, for nothing can be had in this life which is not
the result of the past. All creatures live on the Earth, protected by
their own acts, and obtaining their food as the result of what is
ordained by Him who assigns the fruits of acts. A man is but a lump of
clay, and is always himself completely dependent on other forces. One,
therefore, being oneself so, in firm, what rational consideration can one
have for protecting and feeding one's relatives? When thy relatives are
carried away by Death in thy very sight and in spite of even thy utmost
efforts to save them, that circumstance alone should awaken thee. In the
every lifetime of thy relatives and before thy own duty is completed of
feeding and protecting them, thyself mayst meet with death and abandon
them. After thy relatives have been carried away from this world by
death, thou canst not know what becomes of them there,--that is, whether
they meet with happiness or misery. This circumstance ought to awaken
thee. When in consequence of the fruits of their own acts thy relatives
succeed in maintaining themselves in this world whether thou livest or
diest, reflecting on this thou shouldst do what is for thy own
good.[1484] When this is known to be the case, who in the world is to be
regarded as whose? Do thou, therefore, set thy heart on the attainment of
Emancipation.
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