The series of incarnations, which the soul is impelled to take through karmic determination, has a tendency to become endless. Through innumerable lives an individual has come into contact with countless persons, and he has had all kinds of dealings of give-and-take with them. He is entangled in a web consisting of all sorts of debts to pay and dues to recover. According to karmic law, he can avoid neither the debts nor the dues, since both are the outcome of karma inspired by desire. He keeps incarnating in order to pay off his debts and to recover his dues; but even when he means to clear up the account, he is often unable to do so.
-Discourses 7th Ed., p334