Samsara

(“wandering”) The cycle of reincarnation, one of the most fundamental
assumptions throughout all Indian religion. In the Indian worldview, reincarnation involves a series of births and
rebirths in different realms and forms,
all based on the quality and quantity of
karma, formed through previous
actions and patterns of thought. Beings
with good karma may be born into the
heavens, which are essentially realms of
pleasure and carefree enjoyment; those
with bad karma may be reborn as animals or as ghosts, or into realms of punishment, such as hells. Neither pleasure
nor punishment is eternal, although
they may last an extremely long time.
Beings in heaven enjoy the results of
their past actions, but when their good
karma is exhausted they must take
another, lower birth; beings in realms of
punishment are paying for their evil
deeds, but when this has been done they
will take another birth, presumably in
some higher status.
Between these two lies the human
realm, which comprises infinite possibilities, based on various factors—such
as high status or low, wealth or poverty,
health or disability, and the religious
piety of one’s natal family. Varying mixtures of good and bad karma combine
for many different human circumstances, and according to popular
belief one’s present life and body are a
record of one’s past. The notion that
people are, in life, where they deserve
to be because of karma can be seen as
the basis for the caste system.
Fulfilling one’s particular social role
(svadharma), no matter how humble,
not only upholds the social order but is
a means for individual spiritual
advancement.
The human realm is widely believed
to be the best of all for spiritual life,
partly because human beings can
make rational choices, including the
decision to take part in religious life. In
this humans are different from animals, which are driven mainly by their
instincts, and from ghosts or helldwellers, who are simply expiating
their past acts. At the same time
human life, unlike life in the heavens,
is full of reverses and sorrow continually reminding human beings about
the transience of life and possessions
and the need to engage in spiritual
development. Embodied existence is a
constant cycling from one realm to the
next, leaving one body and assuming
another, and the inherent uncertainty
of this condition has led to the search,
dating from the time of the speculative
texts known as the Upanishads, for an
unchanging state, completely out of
this cycle of rebirth. This unchanging
state is widely accepted as life’s
supreme goal, although in any generation very few actively seek it, with most
people content to relegate it to some
indefinite future lifetime. For further
information see Wendy Doniger
O’Flaherty (ed.), Karma and Rebirth in
Classical Indian Traditions, 1980.
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Samsara