Nirvana’s a beach. Karma’s a bitch. Guess which one you’re more likely to encounter?
FOR ALL HIS HUMAN EXISTENCE, Amir’s only goal was to free himself from samsara and enter nirvana, the state that transcends the endless cycle of reincarnation—a cycle that rarely bodes well for humans since their karma usually cycles them back as a lower life form.
Nor did it take much, since karma isn’t good or bad, it simply is.1 Only human actions are good or bad, and whether those actions are good or bad depends on how humans perceive them. Unfortunately, as hard as he tried, Amir attracted bad actions. Like the time he put rat poison in the pantry of his parent’s house after an infestation of rats. Only his mother mistook the rat arsenic for sugar and poisoned the entire family but Amir, who overslept that morning.
He explained his intentions to the police, who said it was an accident. But when he explained his intentions to his priest, the priest said, “But, Amir, don’t rats deserve to live as much as humans?”
As hard as he tried, Amir attracted bad actions. Like the time he put rat poison in the pantry of his parent’s house after an infestation of rats. Only his mother mistook the rat poison for sugar.
In the next life, Amir reincarnated as a rat. Determined to improve his karma, he did everything he could to protect humans. And rats. He drove rats away from human food to the garbage in the streets and patrolled the walls to stop rats from burrowing into houses. He even fended off a horde of rats infesting a community food shelter, biting, clawing, whatever it took to defend the people’s food.
Unfortunately, he’d contracted the plague while consuming garbage, as had the rats he drove into the streets. Those rats bit humans and caused another outbreak of the plague and killed hundreds, including Amir.
In his next cycle, Amir reincarnated as a cockroach. A cockroach that hid as far away from people and rats as possible until a centipede chased him into a little girl’s bedroom. The centipede stung the girl, causing a fatal allergic reaction. Amir hid in the kitchen, hoping to escape the house later. Unfortunately, when fleeing from the centipede, he’d scrambled across food scraps infected with botulism and salmonella. When he crept across the fruit on the parents’ counter, he transferred the bacteria to the surface, a surface the parents didn’t wash (having been distracted by the grief over their daughter’s death).
Unfortunately, Amir contracted the plague while consuming garbage, as had the rats he drove into the streets. Those rats bit humans and caused another outbreak of the plague and killed hundreds, including Amir.
As he prepared to entire the next cycle of life, he spotted Shiva passing through his corner of the universe. He called out, “Shiva! Why can’t I free myself from samsara and escape this endless cycle of transformation?”
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