Yudhishthira said: ‘Without doubt, O Sanjaya, this is true, that righteous deeds are the foremost of all our actions, as you say. Yet you must be assured that I first ascertain whether it is virtue or vice that I practice. When vice assumes the aspects of virtue, and virtue itself appears wholly as vice, and virtue reappears again in its natural form, those who are learned must discern it with their reason. And again, virtue and vice, which are at once eternal and absolute, exchange places in times of distress. A man should follow without deviation the duties prescribed by the order to which he belongs by birth. Know, O Sanjaya, that duties in times of distress are wholly different. Both, O Sanjaya, are at fault if they act as though the condition of each were the other’s. When the Creator ordained atonement for those brahmins who, not wishing their own destruction, undertake actions not sanctioned for them, this proves that in times of distress people may perform deeds not prescribed by the orders to which they belong.’