Within the Ajivika tradition, the destiny of the soul is conceived as entirely governed by niyati, an inexorable cosmic fate. The soul is understood to move through a fixed and finite sequence of births, joys, and sorrows, all of which are predetermined and cannot be altered by personal effort, moral discipline, or spiritual practice. Human striving, in this view, does not hasten or delay the unfolding of this sequence; it simply plays out as part of what has already been ordained. The path is not something to be chosen or shaped, but something to be undergone in its entirety.

From this standpoint, the culmination of existence lies in the inevitable completion of the soul’s predetermined journey through samsara. After the fixed number of rebirths has been exhausted and all destined experiences have been lived through, the cycle of rebirth comes to an end. This final state can be described as the soul’s natural purity or rest, a condition in which the bonds that kept it moving through birth and death no longer operate. Liberation, therefore, is not a reward for effort but the automatic outcome of a cosmic schedule that unfolds with absolute necessity.

In Ajivika thought, then, the “goal” is less a target to be attained and more a destiny to be fulfilled. The soul’s release from the cycle of rebirth is certain, but it arrives only when the total measure of predetermined experiences has run its course. Spiritual insight, in this framework, consists in recognizing the futility of attempting to alter fate and in understanding that all beings are already on an unchangeable trajectory toward the eventual cessation of rebirth.