ut 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. Men's actions follow them; and
influenced by these, they are born again." The Brahmana enquired, "Why
does the spirit take its birth, and why does its nativity become sinful
or virtuous, and how, O good man, does it come to belong to a sinful or
virtuous race?" The fowler replied, "This mystery seems to belong to the
subject of procreation, but I shall briefly describe to you, O good
Brahmana, how the spirit is born again with its accumulated load of
_karma_, the righteous in a virtuous, and the wicked in a sinful
nativity. By the performance of virtuous actions it attains to the state
of the gods, and by a combination of good and evil, it acquires the
human state; by indulgence in sensuality and similar demoralising
practices it is born in the lower species of animals, and by sinful
acts, it goes to the infernal regions. Afflicted with the miseries of
birth and dotage, man is fated to rot here below from the evil
consequences of his own actions. Passing through thousands of births as
also the infernal regions, our spirits wander about, secured by the
fetters of their own _karma_. Animate beings become miserable in the
next world on account of these actions done by themselves and from the
reaction of those miseries, they