Puranas & Scriptures

How karma weaves lifetimes together

The Puranas and Upanishads describe rebirth not as a punishment, but as a patient education of the soul — one choice, one lifetime at a time.

The mechanism of karma

A simple map, drawn from the Yoga Vasistha and the Bhagavad Gita.

1
Intention
Every act begins as a thought. The Puranas say the seed of karma is not the deed but the intention behind it.
2
Action
The intention is expressed — in speech, in the body, in the world. This is when the seed enters the soil.
3
Impression
Each action leaves a subtle mark (samskara) on the soul, shaping preferences, fears, and desires.
4
Ripening
In time — this life or another — the impression becomes an experience returning to us. This is prarabdha.
5
Choice
When the fruit arrives, we meet it with a new intention — and the cycle begins again. Awareness is where it can end.

A great king renounces his kingdom, but his attachment to a fawn binds him to be reborn as a deer — and finally as a wise brahmin who never forgets.

A fallen man calls out his son's name — Narayana — at death, and is liberated from lifetimes of accumulated karma.

A boy sent to Yama, the lord of death, refuses wealth and long life and asks instead: what happens after we die?

A devoted wife follows Yama into the forest and, through wisdom and love, wins back her husband's life.

Two birds sit on the same tree. One eats the fruit — sweet and bitter. The other simply watches.

A king takes his son's youth to keep chasing pleasure, and after a thousand years discovers desire is never full.

Every act plants a seed — sanchita (stored), prarabdha (ripening now), and kriyamana (being made). Together they weave what we call fate.

At the end of an age, a young sage sees a divine child holding all worlds within — and understands that death, too, is held.