![]() ![]() 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. 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. However, the ancient Vedic Rishis challenged this idea of afterlife as simplistic, because people do not live an equally moral or immoral life. 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). The concept of saṃsāra is closely associated with the belief that the person continues to be born and reborn in various realms and forms. Laumakis, in the sense of "aimless and directionless wandering". The word literally means "wandering through, flowing on", states Stephen J. The word saṃsāra is related to Saṃsṛti, the latter referring to the "course of mundane existence, transmigration, flow, circuit or stream". 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. Damien Keown states that the notion of "cyclic birth and death" appears around 800 BC. 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. 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. The concept is then contrasted with the concept of moksha, also known as mukti, nirvāṇa, nibbāna or kaivalya, which refers to liberation from this cycle of aimless wandering. The term shortens to saṃsāra, referring to the same concept, as a "passage through successive states of mundane existence", a 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. A conceptual form 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. Īccording to Monier-Williams, saṃsāra is rooted in the term Saṃsṛ (संसृ), which means "to go round, revolve, pass through a succession of states, to go towards or obtain, moving in a circuit". Many scholarly texts spell saṃsāra as samsara. 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". 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. Saṃsāra ( Devanagari: संसार) means "wandering", as well as "world" wherein the term connotes "cyclic change". The liberation from saṃsāra is called Moksha, Nirvāṇa, Mukti, or Kaivalya. 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 full exposition of the saṃsāra doctrine is found in Śramaṇic movements such as early Buddhism and Jainism, as well as various schools of Hindu philosophy after about the mid-1st millennium BCE. ![]() It appears in developed form, but without mechanistic details, in the early Upanishads. ![]() The concept of saṃsāra has roots in the post- Vedic literature the theory is not discussed in the Vedas themselves. Saṃsāra is sometimes referred to with terms or phrases such as transmigration/reincarnation, karmic cycle, or Punarjanman, and "cycle of aimless drifting, wandering or mundane existence". Popularly, it is the cycle of death and rebirth. It is also the concept of rebirth and "cyclicality of all life, matter, existence", a fundamental belief of most Indian religions. Saṃsāra ( Devanagari: संसार) is a Pali/ Sanskrit word that means "world". The outer rim shows the Twelve Nidānas doctrine. Yama, the god of death, is at the top of the outer rim. Bhavachakra describing the cycle of saṃsāra: illustrated in the wheel are six realms of existence in which a sentient being can reincarnate, according to the rebirth doctrine of Buddhism. ![]()
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