KARMA X SAMSARA

Existence was a colossal recycling process in which the quality of the life that went through the door
marked ‘death’ affected the status of what emerged through the door on the other side marked ‘rebirth’.
They called the system ‘samsara’ or ‘wandering-through’, because souls were carried through it to their
next shape and the next and the one after that, far into the disappearing future. For good or ill, every action
the soul committed in its current life affected the quality of its next appearance. But they did not think of
karma as a punishment devised by a heavenly judge. It was an impersonal law like gravity, in which one
thing followed another as effect followed cause


In its wanderings, the soul might go through millions of lives before achieving escape into a state callednirvāna, from a word meaning to be blown out like a candle. How to escape from the wheel of existence
and be blown into nothingness was the ultimate purpose of Hindu religion. It is interesting that at its centre
is the idea that existence can become a burden and failure to die a torment.