yudhi·shthira said:
T
ell me, grandfather, are donations, sacrifices, severe austerities and obedience to one’s elders efficacious?
bhishma said:
If a person occupies himself with worthless things his mind will be drawn towards evil; by polluting his own duties, he is destined for a world of pain. Destitute, evil men will suffer from famine, distress, danger and death over and over again. But people who are faithful, restrained, wealthy and perform good deeds will likewise experience joy, heaven and bliss.
Heretics travel along the deviant left-hand path, in perilous areas full of vicious elephants and dangers such as snakes and thieves. What could be worse? But those who are munificent and devoted to the gods, their guests and mendicants, they follow the peaceful, right-hand path of holy men. Those men who are not motivated by religion are like rotten pieces of grain, or gnats among birds.
A person’s karmic destiny pursues him even if he runs off at great pace; even as he lies down to sleep, a deed lingers in a person just as he committed it. It is near him when he stands still, it follows him when he walks: karma acts on the person who performs it and follows him like a shadow.
181.10
Whoever has accumulated karma in the past experiences its result, no matter how it was done. One ordains it oneself: this fact never changes. All living beings are flung down by the results of their own karma, but their karmic destiny also protects them; time drags them away in all sorts of direction.