Mahabharata 3.200.26

3.200.26

vyādha uvāca |
na jīvanāśo'sti hi dehabhede mithyaitadāhurmriyateti mūḍhāḥ |
jīvastu dehāntaritaḥ prayāti daśārdhataivāsya śarīrabhedaḥ || 26 ||

"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;