Effort

sastraih sadacara vijrmbhita desadharmair yatkalpitam phalam ativa cira prarudham
tasmin hrdi sphurati copanam eti cittam angavali tad anu paurusam etad ahuh 

Vasistha began the second day's discourse:

As is the effort, so is the fruit, O Rama.This is the meaning of self-effort, and it is also known as fate (divine).When afflicted by suffering people cry "Alas, what tragedy" or "Alas, look at my fate", both of which mean the same thing. What is called fate or divine will is nothing other than the action or self-effort of the past. The present is infinitely more potent than the past. They indeed are fools who are satisfied with the fruits of their past effort (which they regard as divine will), and do not engage themselves in self-effort now.

If you see that the present self-effort is sometimes thwarted by fate (or divine will), you should understand that the present self-effort is weak. A weak and dull-witted man sees the hand of providence when he is confronted by a strong and powerful adversary and succumbs to him.

Sometimes it happens that without effort someone makes a great gain.For example, the state elephant chooses (in accordance with an ancient practice) a mendicant as the ruler of a country whose king suddenly died without leaving an heir. This is certainly neither an accident nor some kind of divine act, but the fruit of the mendicant's self-effort in the past birth.

Sometimes it happens that a farmer's efforts are made fruitless by a hailstorm. Surely, the hailstorm's own power was greater than the farmer's effort, and the farmer should put forth greater effort now. He should not grieve over the inevitable loss.If such grief is justified, why should he not weep daily over the inevitability of death?

The wise man should of course know what is capable of attainment by self-effort, and what is not. It is, however, ignorance to attribute all this to an outside agency, and to say that "God sends me to heaven or to hell", or that "an outside agency makes me do this or that" - such an ignorant person should be shunned.One should free oneself from likes and dislikes, and engage oneself in righteous self-effort, and reach the supreme truth, knowing that self-effort alone is another name for divine will. We only ridicule the fatalist.That alone is self-effort which springs from right understanding, which manifests in one's heart, which has been exposed to the teachings of the scriptures, and the conduct of holy ones.