Many works on the great Sanskrit epic Mahābhārata invoke the famous axiom of the linguist, folklorist, and poet A.K. Ramanujan: “No Hindu ever reads the Mahābhārata for the first time.” Yet Ramanujan’s axiom is rarely explored with the critical interest that such a foundational claim deserves. I offer my talk as a response, addendum, and tribute to it. I propose that the Sanskrit Mahābhārata is inherently multiple—from the texture of the language to the major contours of the narrative. Sometimes the epic’s repetitions create stability: they cultivate a sense of resolution, return, and familiarity. Sometimes they do the opposite—unsettle, destabilize, estrange, and reveal differences. In this way, I suggest, the Mahābhārata’s apparatus of repetition invites us to alter our understanding of rebirth from an early South Asian literary perspective. What if repetitions—of words, phrases, stories, and lives—were not to be ended or transcended but, rather, appreciated and even embraced?