Picture life as a cosmic conveyor belt already set in motion—every twist, turn and destination mapped out before a single step is taken. That’s the heart of the Ajivika take on saṃsāra. Rooted in the teachings of Makkhali Gosāla around the 6th century BCE, this school held that existence is governed by niyati, an iron‐clad destiny. Birth, death and rebirth aren’t influenced by moral choices or ascetic feats; they arrive on schedule, no ifs, ands or buts.

Instead of a dynamic interplay of karma and free will, Ajivikas saw karmic “seeds” as inert—more like a programmed playlist than a jukebox where one can shuffle tracks. Whether a being slides into a higher realm or tumbles into misery depends entirely on past imprints, with no human effort able to tilt the scales. Even liberation itself is predestined: if it’s in the script, it happens; if not, nothing—not meditation nor mortification—will rewrite the ending.

This rigid determinism made the Ajivikas the intellectual foil of early Buddhists and Jains, both of whom argued for ethical agency. Fast-forward to 2025, and the echoes still resonate in debates about AI ethics and genetic destiny. Just as some worry that algorithms leave no room for human creativity, Ajivika doctrine insisted there’s no backstage pass to tweak life’s performance. All that remains is acceptance—sit back, observe the cycle, and understand that the next rebirth has been queued long before the curtain ever rose.