The conversation between Draupadi and Yudhishthira

Yudhishthira said : O Yajnaseni, your speech is sweet, clear and full of nice expressions; we have listened to it; you speak of atheism.

O princess, I never act being desirous of the fruits thereof; I distribute (a thing) which should be distributed and I perform a sacrifice which should be performed.

I perform, as best as I can, O Krishna, what a householder should do, not caring for the fruits (of my actions).

O fair-lady, I act piously not for getting the fruits of virtue but for not transgressing the Vedas and seeing the conduct of the pious.

My mind and nature, O Krishna, are naturally bent upon virtue; that vile trader of virtue, the worst of the virtuous, who wishes to reap the fruits of virtue, does never obtain them; nor does a vicious-minded person, for his scepticism, who doubts a virtuous act, having accomplished it.

From the evidence of the Vedas I say, “You should never doubt virtue; the person doubting virtue is destined to be born among the brutes."

A weak-minded man who doubts religion, virtue and the words of the Rishis, is precluded form the regions of immortality and bliss as the Shudras are from the Vedas.

O large-minded lady, one studying the Vedas, virtuous and born in a high race, (though young) is considered aged by the pious royal saints.

That vicious-minded one, who transgresses the scriptures and doubts virtue is regarded as lower even than the Shudras and robbers.

You have seen with your own eyes the great ascetic Markandeya of incomparable magnanimity come to us who has been rendered immortal by virtue.

Vyasa, Vasishtha, Maitreya, Narada Lomasha, Shuka and all other Rishis have become of pure souls by virtue.

You yourself see all these endued with celestials asceticism capable of cursing or blessing and superior even to the celestials,

O sinless lady, these sages, equal to the Rishis and who can see what is written in the Vedas, describe virtue as the foremost duty.

You should not, O blessed queen, with a foolish mind either doubt or censure the Providence or (His act).

The fool, who doubts religion and disregards virtue and being proud of the proof of his own reasoning, does not receive it from others, considers all these sages who look upon the future as present, like mad man. He considers the external world as conducive to the gratification of senses and is blind to everything else.

Whoever, doubts religion has no expatiation of his sin; that wretched and vile person feels anxicty (here) and does not attain to the regions (of bliss) hereafter.

That stupid person, who does not regard evidences, who vilifics the interpretation of the Vedic texts and who commits sin under the influence of lust and covetousness, is doomed to hell.

O blessed lady, he however, who, with faith and without any doubt follows religion, attains to eternal bliss in the next world.

That stupid person, who transgresses the evidences of the Rishis, who does not follow religion and who transgresses all the scriptures, never obtains bliss in any life.

For him, O fair lady, who disregards the words of the Rishis and does not care for the evidence of the pious, neither this world nor the next exists.

Doubt not, O Krishna, the ancient religion which is followed by the good and formulated by the omniscient and omnipotent Rishis.

O Draupadi, virtue is the only raft and nothingelse to those who wish to go to heaven, like a ship to the merchant wishing to cross the Ocean.

O blameless lady, if the pieties practised by the virtuous had no fruits then this world would been enshrouded by infamous darkness.

None would have followed emancipation, none would have cared for the acquisition of knowledge or even of wealth and people would have lived like beasts.

If devout penances, life of celibacy, sacrifice, the study of the Vedas, charity and honesty-these were fruitless then people would not have practised virtues, generation after generation. If all the action had been fruitless a terrible confusion would have set in. Why do the Rishis, the gods the Gandharvas, the Asuras and the Rakshasas who are lords of themselves, with love practise virtues?

Considering for certain that Providence is the giver of fruits in virtue, they practise virtues; O Krishna, for them is eternal bliss.

Whereas the fruits of knowledge and ascetic observances are seen, virtue and vice can never be devoid of fruits. Recollect, O Krishna, the circumstances of your birth, as you have heard and also the manner in which the powerful Dhristadyumna was born.

These are sufficient proofs, O you of sweet smiles; the self-controlled reap the fruits of acts and are satisfied with a little.

Ignorant and stupid persons are not satisfied even with much and they have no happiness begotten of virtue for them in the next world.

The fruits of the holy acts laid down in the Vedas as well as of sinful acts, the root and the destruction of actions, O fair lady, are mysteries even to the celestials,

These are not known to all; ordinary people are ignorant of these; he does not follow in a thousand Kalpa the well-being of the celestials.

These are kept (in secrecy) by the celestials for their illusive energy is mysterious; those Brahmanas that have conquered their aspirations, those that have built up their hopes, those whose sins have been burnt down by ascetic observances, those who have got contented minds, can observe these.

For not seeing the fruit you should not doubt religion or the gods; you should perform sacrifices assiduously and charities without any insolence.

Acts have their fruits in this world and virtue is eternal; as said by Kashyapa, Brahma told all this to his sons.

O Krishna, let your doubt be destroyed like dews meditating upon all this. Let your scepticism yield to faith.

Do not speak ill of God who is the lord of all creatures; learn to know him; bow to him; let not your understanding be such.

Never disregard that Supreme being, Krishna, by whose mercy the mortals, by pious observances, become immortals.