All persons desire to out distance their
neighbours (in the race of life), and they strive to do so to the utmost
of their power; but the result turns out otherwise. Many are the persons
born under the influence of the same star and the same auspices of good
luck; but a great diversity is observable in the maturity of their
actions. No person, O good Brahmana, can be the dispenser of his own
lot. The actions done in a previous existence are seen to fructify in
our present life. It is the immemorial tradition that the soul is
eternal and everlasting, but the corporeal frame of all creatures is
subject to destruction here (below). When therefore life is
extinguished, the body only is destroyed, but the spirit, wedded to its
actions, travels elsewhere."
"'The Brahmana replied, "O best of those versed in the doctrine of
_karma_, and in the delivery of discourses, I long to know accurately
how the soul becomes eternal." The fowler replied, "The spirit dies not,
there being simply a change of tenement. They are mistaken, who
foolishly say that all creatures die. The soul betakes itself to another
frame, and its change of habitation is called its death. In the world of
men, no man reaps the consequences of another man's _karma_. Whatever
one does, he is sure to reap the consequences thereof; for the
consequences of the _karma_ that is once done, can never be obviated.
The virtuous become endowed with great virtues, and sinful men become
the perpetrators of wicked deeds.
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