Saṃsāra (Hinduism)

The Katha Upanishad, a middle Upanishadic-era script dated to the second half of the first millennium BCE, is among the earliest expositions about saṃsāra and moksha.^[5] It gives an analogy of a tree in which Brahman is the root and the birds producing differentiated noise represent samsara.^[6]

In the Upanishads, samsara is not just an individual's cyclical movement, but the entire universe being in constant change.^[7] Through saṃsāra, the atman passes through different lives in various embodied forms.^[8] During the existence of one universe, a living being takes on 8,400,000 births.^[9] The concept of samsara is also rooted in the Shvetashvatara Upanishad, which describes the material world as impermanent. It also uses the analogy of a wheel to emphasize the endless and cyclical nature of samsara.^[2]

In the Bhagavata Purana, beings in samsara are real ontologically, but unreal in comparison to transcendent reality because they are temporary.^[10] It offers an analogy of merchants to compare to the self. The merchants travel through a dense forest to collect wood to sell. However, they get lost and face difficulties. Similarly, the self wanders in samsara looking to fulfill selfish desires.^[11]

Shankara compares suffering in samsara to being in a dream.^[12] Ramanuja sees the experience in samsara and once freed from samsara as the same for all beings. Freedom from samsara holds the same level of bliss for everyone.^[13] Madhva describes three types of beings in samsara: 1) those who will eventually be freed, 2) those who reincarnate forever, and 3) those destined for hell.^[14]

There are three categories of suffering in samsara.^[15]

1. ādhyātmika (related to the body)
   1. Example: disease and anxiety
2. ādibhautika (related to the elements)
   1. Example: extreme weather
3. ādidaivika (accidental; unknowable cause)

Miseries cannot be avoided, but they can be dissolved by removing ignorance.^[15]