Mahabharata Bibliomancy Reading
This oracle randomly points to a line from one of sacred books of Mahabharata. The surrounding lines are also provided for context.
Your passage is from BOOK 13 - ANUSASANA PARVA - SECTION VI.
Even as a fire of small proportions, when fanned by the wind, becomes of mighty power, so does Destiny, when joined with individual Exertion, increase greatly (in potentiality).
Surrounding Context from
BOOK 13 - ANUSASANA PARVA - SECTION VI
In olden times the royal sage Nriga became transmuted into a lizard.
He had made gifts of kine unto the Brahmanas at his great sacrifice, but this availed him not.
The royal sage Dhundhumara was overwhelmed with decrepitude even while engaged in performing his sacrifices, and foregoing all the merits thereof, he fell asleep at Girivraja.
The Pandavas too regained their lost kingdom, of which they had been deprived by the powerful sons of Dhritarashtra, not through the intercession of the fates, but by recourse to their own valour.
Do the Munis of rigid vows, and devoted to the practice of austere penances, denounce their curses with the aid of any supernatural power or by the exercise of their own puissance attained by individual acts?
All the good which is attained with difficulty in this world is possessed by the wicked, is soon lost to them.
Destiny does not help the man that is steeped in spiritual ignorance and avarice.
Even as a fire of small proportions, when fanned by the wind, becomes of mighty power, so does Destiny, when joined with individual Exertion, increase greatly (in potentiality).
As with the diminution of oil in the lamp its light is extinguished so does the influence of Destiny is lost if one's acts stop.
Having obtained vast wealth, and women and all the enjoyments of this world, the man without action is unable to enjoy them long, but the high-souled man, who is even diligent, is able to find riches buried deep in the Earth and watched over by the fates.
The good man who is prodigal (in religious charities and sacrifices) is sought by the gods for his good conduct, the celestial world being better than the world of men, but the house of the miser though abounding in wealth is looked upon by the gods as the house of dead.
The man that does not exert himself is never contented in this world nor can Destiny alter the course of a man that has gone wrong.
So there is no authority inherent in Destiny.
As the pupil follows one's own individual perception, so the Destiny follows Exertion.
The affairs in which one's own Exertion is put forth, there only Destiny shows its hand.
