Saṃsāra
Saṃsāra is a Sanskrit word that means "wandering" as well as "world," wherein the term connotes "cyclic change" or, less formally, "running around in circles." In the context of Indian religions and philosophies, saṃsāra is the concept of all beings experiencing an ongoing cycle of life, death, and rebirth. As a result, it can also be equated broadly with transmigration/reincarnation, the karmic cycle, the lesser-used term Punarjanman, or a "cycle of aimless drifting, wandering or mundane existence".
The "cyclicity of all life, matter, and existence" is a fundamental belief of most Indian religions. The concept of saṃsāra has roots in the post-Vedic literature; the theory is not discussed in the Vedas themselves. It appears in developed form, but without mechanistic details, in the early Upanishads. The full exposition of the saṃsāra doctrine is found in early Buddhism and Jainism, as well as in various schools of Hindu philosophy. The saṃsāra doctrine is tied to the karma theory of Hinduism, and the liberation from saṃsāra has been at the core of the spiritual quest of Indian traditions, as well as their internal disagreements. The liberation from saṃsāra is called Moksha, Nirvāṇa, Mukti, or Kaivalya.
Etymology and Definition
Saṃsāra means "wandering", as well as "world" wherein the term connotes "cyclic change". Saṃsāra, a fundamental concept in all Indian religions, is linked to the karma theory and refers to the belief that all living beings cyclically go through births and rebirths. The term is related to phrases such as "the cycle of successive existence", "transmigration", "karmic cycle", "the wheel of life", and "cyclicality of all life, matter, existence". Many scholarly texts spell saṃsāra as samsara.According to Monier-Williams, saṃsāra is derived from the verbal root sṛ with the prefix saṃ, Saṃsṛ, meaning "to go round, revolve, pass through a succession of states, to go towards or obtain, moving in a circuit". The prefix sam means samyak, or well, and sar means to move. A nominal derivative formed from this root appears in ancient texts as saṃsaraṇa, which means "going around through a succession of states, birth, rebirth of living beings and the world", without obstruction. Another nominal derivative from the same root is saṃsāra, referring to the same concept: a "passage through successive states of mundane existence", transmigration, metempsychosis, a circuit of living where one repeats previous states, from one body to another, a worldly life of constant change, that is rebirth, growth, decay and redeath. Saṃsāra is understood as opposite of moksha, also known as mukti, nirvāṇa, nibbāna or kaivalya, which refers to liberation from the cycle of birth and death.
The word saṃsāra is related to Saṃsṛti, the latter referring to the "course of mundane existence, transmigration, flow, circuit or stream".
The word literally means "wandering through, flowing on", states Stephen J. Laumakis, in the sense of "aimless and directionless wandering". The concept of saṃsāra is closely associated with the belief that the person continues to be born and reborn in various realms and forms.
The earliest layers of Vedic text incorporate the concept of life, followed by an afterlife in heaven and hell based on cumulative virtues or vices. However, the ancient Vedic Rishis challenged this idea of afterlife as simplistic, because people do not live an equally moral or immoral life. Between generally virtuous lives, some are more virtuous; while evil too has degrees, and the texts assert that it would be unfair for god Yama to judge and reward people with varying degrees of virtue or vices, in an "either or,” and disproportionate manner. They introduced the idea of an afterlife in heaven or hell in proportion to one's merit, and when this runs out, one returns and is reborn. This idea appears in ancient and medieval texts, as the cycle of life, death, rebirth and redeath, such as section 6:31 of the Mahabharata and section 6.10 of the Devi Bhagavata Purana.
History
The concept of saṃsāra developed in the post-Vedic times, and is traceable in the Samhita layers such as in sections 1.164, 4.55, 6.70 and 10.14 of the Rigveda. While the idea is mentioned in the Samhita layers of the Vedas, there is lack of clear exposition there, and the idea fully develops in the early Upanishads. Damien Keown states that the notion of "cyclic birth and death" appears around 800 BC. The word saṃsāra appears, along with Moksha, in several Principal Upanishads such as in verse 1.3.7 of the Katha Upanishad, verse 6.16 of the Shvetashvatara Upanishad, verses 1.4 and 6.34 of the Maitri Upanishad.The historical origins of the concept of reincarnation, or punarjanman, are obscure, but the idea appears in texts of both India and ancient Greece during the first millennium BCE. The idea of saṃsāra is hinted in the late Vedic texts such as the Rigveda, but the theory is absent. According to Sayers, the earliest layers of the Vedic literature show ancestor worship and rites such as sraddha. The later Vedic texts such as the Aranyakas and the Upanishads show a different soteriology based on reincarnation, they show little concern with ancestor rites, and they begin to philosophically interpret the earlier rituals, although the idea is not fully developed yet. It is in the early Upanishads where these ideas are more fully developed, but there too the discussion does not provide specific mechanistic details. The detailed doctrines flower with unique characteristics, starting around the mid 1st millennium BCE, in diverse traditions such as in Buddhism, Jainism and various schools of Hindu philosophy. The evidence for who influenced whom in the ancient times, is slim and speculative, and the odds are the historic development of the Saṃsāra theories likely happened in parallel with mutual influences.
Punarmrityu: redeath
While saṃsāra is usually described as rebirth and reincarnation of living beings, the chronological development of the idea over its history began with the questions on what is the true nature of human existence and whether people die only once. This led first to the concepts of Punarmṛtyu and Punaravṛtti. These early theories asserted that the nature of human existence involves two realities, one unchanging absolute Atman which is somehow connected to the ultimate unchanging immortal reality and bliss called Brahman, and that the rest is the always-changing subject in a phenomenal world. Redeath, in the Vedic theosophical speculations, reflected the end of "blissful years spent in svarga or heaven", and it was followed by rebirth back in the phenomenal world. Saṃsāra developed into a foundational theory of the nature of existence, shared by all Indian religions.Rebirth as a human being, states John Bowker, was then presented as a "rare opportunity to break the sequence of rebirth, thus attaining Moksha, release". Each Indian spiritual tradition developed its own assumptions and paths for this spiritual release, with some developing the ideas of jivanmukti, while the others content with videhamukti.
The Sramanas traditions added novel ideas, starting about the 6th century BC. They emphasized human suffering in the larger context, placing rebirth, redeath and truth of pain at the center and the start of religious life. Sramanas view saṃsāra as a beginningless cyclical process with each birth and death as punctuations in that process, and spiritual liberation as freedom from rebirth and redeath. The saṃsāric rebirth and redeath ideas are discussed in these religions with various terms, such as Āgatigati in many early Pali Suttas of Buddhism.
Evolution of ideas
Across different religions, different soteriology were emphasized as the saṃsāra theories evolved in respective Indian traditions. These traditions posited the way out of samsara through stopping action or through realizing the true nature of existence.In their saṃsāra theories, the Hindu traditions accepted Ātman or Self exists and asserted it to be the unchanging essence of each living being, while Buddhist traditions denied such a soul exists and developed the concept of Anattā. Salvation in the Hindu traditions was described using the concepts of Ātman and Brahman, while in Buddhism it was described through the concept of Anattā and Śūnyatā.
The Ajivika tradition combined saṃsāra with the premise that there is no free will, while the Jainism tradition accepted the concept of soul with free will, but emphasized asceticism and cessation of action as a means of liberation from saṃsāra it calls bondage.
In Hinduism
In Hinduism, saṃsāra is a journey of the Ātman. The body dies but not the Ātman, which is eternal reality, indestructible, and bliss. Everything and all existence is connected, cyclical, and composed of two things: the Self, or Ātman, and the body, or matter. This eternal Self called Ātman never reincarnates, it does not change and cannot change in the Hindu belief. In contrast, the body and personality, can change, constantly changes, is born and dies. Current karma impacts the future circumstances in this life, as well as the future forms and realms of lives. Good intent and actions lead to good future, bad intent and actions lead to bad future, in the Hindu view of life. The journey of samsara allows the atman the opportunity to perform positive or negative karmas throughout each birth and make spiritual efforts to attain moksha.A virtuous life, actions consistent with dharma, are believed by Hindus to contribute to a better future, whether in this life or future lives. The aim of spiritual pursuits, whether it be through the path of bhakti, karma, jñāna, or raja is self-liberation from saṃsāra.
The Upanishads, part of the scriptures of the Hindu traditions, primarily focus on self-liberation from saṃsāra. The Bhagavad Gita discusses various paths to liberation. The Upanishads, states Harold Coward, offer a "very optimistic view regarding the perfectibility of human nature", and the goal of human effort in these texts is a continuous journey to self-perfection and self-knowledge so as to end saṃsāra. The aim of spiritual quest in the Upanishadic traditions is to find the true self within and to know one's Self, a state that it believes leads to blissful state of freedom, moksha.