Mahabharata 35: If Karma Tree Bears No Fruits Poem by Aniruddha Pathak

Life would sink to its depth absolute
Were it to do karma no more,
So too, if karma were shorn of fruit,
World would no more grow here to fore.
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Here is the transliteration of the original verse:

utsīderan prajāh sarvāna kuryuh karma chet bhuvi |
tathā hi etāh na vardherankarma chet aphalam bhavet || vana 32-11

Let us understand a few words: utsīderan = would sink, fall into ruin, decay, annihilate; vardheran = would grow, progress, prosper.
Even destiny knows the need to motivate. The law of karma is based on this principle. One will see an echo of this sentiment in Bhagavad-Gita also when Krishna propounds the path of Karma: utsīdeyuh ime lokā, na kuryām karma chet aham | (See 3.24) . But for now, it is Draupadi who said this.

Topic: work, karma