The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c23.5

c23.5

The being that is now a god in heaven may be reborn in the course of aeons as an insect; and the insect, in its turn, may work up to the rank of a god. This belief, associated with the faith that the mode of rebirth is conditioned by the *karma*, the net ethical result, or balance of good or evil of the life of each creature at the moment of its termination, lies deep down at the roots of Indian thought, and is inseparably bound up with almost every form of Indian religion. Sometimes it is combined with theories which recognize the existence of a personal soul, but it is also firmly held by persons who utterly deny all forms of the soul theory.