Samsara
Also called: Transmigration, Rebirth, Punarjanma · Topic: Buddhism, Jainism and Heterodox Traditions · NCERT: Class 6, Ch 7 "India's Cultural Roots"; Class 12, Ch 4 "Thinkers, Beliefs and Buildings"
Meaning
Samsara is the endless cycle of birth, death and rebirth. From about the sixth century BCE, thinkers in the Upaniṣhads, Jainism and Buddhism all accepted it. They asked how a person could escape it. Most said a person's karma (their actions) shapes their next life. Liberation means breaking free of the cycle for good.
Example
Jainism taught that asceticism and penance free a person from the karma that drives rebirth. The Buddha taught nibbāna, the blowing out of ego and desire, as the end of the cycle. The Ājīvika teacher Makkhali Gosāla disagreed with both. He said pleasure and pain in samsara are fixed in advance and no effort can change them.
Don't confuse with
- Moksha / nibbāna: These are the goals: freedom from samsara. Samsara is the cycle people want to escape.