संसार
Samsara
saṃsāra
In simple words
Samsara means 'wandering on': the idea that beings are born, die and are born again, again and again, shaped by their actions. Most Indian traditions see this cycle as something to be understood and finally left behind.
What is it?
Samsara is the continuous flow of lives in which beings experience the results of their actions. Its engine is described differently — ignorance, desire, karmic matter, craving — but traditions broadly agree that it is marked by impermanence and suffering, and that liberation ends it. The Gita compares rebirth to changing worn-out clothes and describes the world as an upside-down tree to be cut down with non-attachment.
Scholar’s note
The doctrine appears clearly in the Brihadaranyaka and Chandogya Upanishads (e.g. the 'five fires' and the paths of the gods and ancestors). Buddhist accounts explain rebirth without a transmigrating self, via dependent origination. Charvaka rejected rebirth entirely. Advaita treats samsara as empirically real but ultimately superimposed on the Self.How its meaning differs
The Upanishads describe beings returning according to their knowledge and deeds, and a path of no return for those who know.
Samsara is real at the empirical level but rests on ignorance of the Self; when the Self is known, one sees one was never bound.
Rebirth happens without a self passing over: a causal continuity of processes, driven by craving and ignorance, as set out in dependent origination.
The soul transmigrates through heavenly, human, animal and hell realms according to the karmic matter it carries.
The materialists denied rebirth: consciousness arises from the body and ends with it.
Where it appears in the Gita
As one changes worn-out clothes, the embodied changes bodies
जैसे पुराने कपड़े बदलते हैं, वैसे देही शरीर बदलता है
वासांसि जीर्णानि यथा विहाय नवानि गृह्णाति नरोऽपराणि।
Just as a person discards old clothes and puts on new ones, the embodied one leaves worn-out bodies and enters new ones.
जैसे मनुष्य पुराने कपड़े छोड़कर नये धारण कर लेता है, ऐसे ही देही पुराने शरीर छोड़कर नये शरीरोंमें चला जाता है।
2.27Death is certain for the born — do not grieve over the unavoidable
जन्मे हुएकी मृत्यु निश्चित—अपरिहार्यका शोक मत करो
जातस्य हि ध्रुवो मृत्युध्र्रुवं जन्म मृतस्य च।
Death is certain for whoever is born, and birth for whoever dies; since this flow cannot be stopped, you should not grieve.
पैदा हुएकी मृत्यु और मरे हुएका जन्म निश्चित है; इस प्रवाहका निवारण नहीं हो सकता, अतः शोक नहीं करना चाहिये।
8.16आब्रह्मभुवनाल्लोका:
हे अर्जुन! ब्रह्मलोकतक सभी लोक पुनरावर्तीवाले हैं अर्थात् वहाँ जानेपर पुन: लौटकर संसारमें आना पड़ता है; परन्तु हे कौन्तेय! मुझे प्राप्त होनेपर पुनर्जन्म नहीं होता।
9.21ते तं भुक्त्वा स्वर्गलोकं विशालं-
वे उस विशाल स्वर्गलोकके (भोगोंको) भोगकर पुण्य क्षीण होनेपर मृत्युलोकमें आ जाते हैं। इस प्रकार तीनों वेदोंमें कहे हुए सकाम धर्मका आश्रय लिये हुए भोगोंकी कामना करनेवाले मनुष्य आवागमनको प्राप्त होते हैं।
15.1The upside-down tree of the world
ऊर्ध्वमूल संसार-वृक्ष
ऊध्र्वमूलमध:शाखमश्वत्थं
The world is a peepal tree with its root above in God and its branches below; whoever truly knows this tree knows the Vedas.
संसार ऊपर परमात्मारूप मूल और नीचे शाखाओंवाला अश्वत्थ है; इसे यथार्थ जाननेवाला ही वेदवित् है।
15.3Cut the world-tree with the sword of non-attachment
असंगशस्त्रसे संसार-वृक्षका छेदन
न रूपमस्येह तथोपलभ्यते नान्तो न चादिर्न च सम्प्रतिष्ठा।
Looked at closely, the world has no beginning, end or real standing; its firm-looking roots are cut with the strong weapon of non-attachment.
विचार करनेपर संसारका न आदि मिलता है, न अन्त, न स्थिति; इसके दृढ़ दीखनेवाले मूल दृढ़ असंगतासे कट जाते हैं।
Where else it appears
Follow this idea
Trace the idea from one source to the next.
- 1Textकठोपनिषद्Katha UpanishadNachiketa asks what happens after death.
- 2Gita verseBhagavad Gita 2.22Rebirth likened to discarding old clothes for new.
- 3Gita verseBhagavad Gita 8.16All worlds are subject to return; on reaching the Lord there is no rebirth.
- 4Gita verseBhagavad Gita 15.3The world-tree whose roots are cut with the weapon of non-attachment.
- 5Conceptप्रतीत्यसमुत्पादPratityasamutpada — dependent originationThe Buddhist explanation of rebirth without a self.
- 6Traditionचार्वाक / लोकायतCharvaka / LokayataThe dissenting view: no rebirth at all.
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