According to the teachings presented by the Buddha at his first sermon, Question 6 options: Because the individual’s soul is infected with bad karma, it transmigrates until a program of meditation is undertaken and nirvana is achieved. Life is fundamentally characterized by suffering, suffering is caused by a kind of unquenchable thirst, but there is a cure for this, and it is referred to as nirvana. A host of deities control the natural world and the good and bad that befalls the human race, but they can be appeased through rituals. Because they are ritually purer, only the Brahmin priests can attain nirvana in this lifetime.