Saṃsāra

Saṃsāra (Devanagari: संसार) is a Sanskrit word that means "wandering"[1][2] as well as "world," wherein the term connotes "cyclic change"[3] or, less formally, "running around in circles."

[3] 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.

[6][19] According to Monier-Williams, saṃsāra is derived from the verbal root sṛ with the prefix saṃ, Saṃsṛ (संसृ), meaning "to go round, revolve, pass through a succession of states, to go towards or obtain, moving in a circuit".

[20] 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.

[5][20][21] 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.

[32] The earliest layers of Vedic text incorporate the concept of life, followed by an afterlife in heaven and hell based on cumulative virtues (merit) or vices (demerit).

[33] However, the ancient Vedic Rishis challenged this idea of afterlife as simplistic, because people do not live an equally moral or immoral life.

[34][18][22] 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 BC.

[24] The detailed doctrines flower with unique characteristics, starting around the mid 1st millennium BC, in diverse traditions such as in Buddhism, Jainism and various schools of Hindu philosophy.

[44] While saṃsāra is usually described as rebirth and reincarnation (Punarjanman) of living beings (Jiva), 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.

[49][50][51] 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.

[61] They emphasized human suffering in the larger context, placing rebirth, redeath and truth of pain at the center and the start of religious life.

[76] 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.

[78] The aim of spiritual pursuits, whether it be through the path of bhakti (devotion), karma (work), jñāna (knowledge), or raja (meditation) is self-liberation (moksha) from saṃsāra.

Perturbing, harming or killing any life form, including any human being, is considered a sin in Jainism, with negative karmic effects.

Jainism considers it a bad karma to injure plants and minor life forms with negative impact on a soul's saṃsāra.

Karma drives this permanent saṃsāra in Buddhist thought, states Paul Williams, and "short of attaining enlightenment, in each rebirth one is born and dies, to be reborn elsewhere in accordance with the completely impersonal causal nature of one's own karma; This endless cycle of birth, rebirth, and redeath is saṃsāra".

[115][116][117] Like Jainism, Buddhism developed its own saṃsāra theory, that evolved over time the mechanistic details on how the wheel of mundane existence works over the endless cycles of rebirth and redeath.

[111] This included hells (niraya), hungry ghosts (pretas), animals (tiryak), humans (manushya), and gods (devas, heavenly).

[111][121] The "hungry ghost, heavenly, hellish realms" respectively formulate the ritual, literary and moral spheres of many contemporary Buddhist traditions.

[122][124] Sikhism incorporates the concepts of saṃsāra (sometimes spelled as Saṅsāra in Sikh texts), karma and cyclical nature of time and existence.

Rather, it cherishes social engagement and householder's life combined with devotion to the One God as Guru, to be the path of liberation from saṅsāra.