________________
80
THE DOCTRINE OF LIBERATION IN INDIAN RELIGIONS
samsaranam samsäraḥ parivartanam ityarthaḥ."0
The word samsaranam means transmigration, cycle of wandering, metem psychosis. The word parivartana means change. The beings go round and round in samsāra due to their attachment with the karmic particles. They are called transmigrating beings, beings going from birth to birth.
The text further states that the attainment of different states of existence of the self as a result of fruition of deeds is called samsāra."
The word samsarana is derived from the root sam-sri which means 'to follow together with'; 'going about', 'walking or wandering, through'; 'passing through a succssion of states'; 'birth and rebirth of living beings'. Thus the word samsāra means going or wandering undergoing transmigration; course, passage, passing through a sucession of states, circuit of mundane existence, transmigration, metempsychosis, the world, wordly illusion.22
The Kärttikeyānuprekșă states that the being or the self (jira) leaves one body and assumes another body, and afterwards leaves that body also. In this way the self takes and leaves body repeatedly. Thus the travelling of the self tied to false notions and impurities across numerous bodies is called samsära. 73
The existence in samsāra is the extence in bondage, the very opposite of liberation. The concept of samsāra, therefore, forms an essential strand in the theory of rebirth and karma.
The jiva in samsāra is engulfed by desire and a version; it is because of these desires and a version that karma clings to jīva and leads him through different states of existence (gatis). Entering into any state of existence, jīva assumes a physical body and gets the senses. Through the senses arise desire and aversion, and on account of desire the cycle of existence continues. Thus desire produces karma and karma leads to four states of existence.
According to the Dhavalā, samsāra is the bundle of such deeds as overwhelm the real nature of the self ; the beings travel in the four states of existence because of diverse kinds of of evil deeds.75
70. 71.
72. 73. 74. 75.
Sarvärthasiddhi, 11.10.275 Ibid., IX.7.801; Rajavarttika, 11.10.1.124.15. Monier Monier-Williams, A Sanskrit-English Dictionary, p. 119 Kärttikeyònupreksa, 32-32. Pañcāstikāya-samayasära, 135-37. Dhavalā, 13.5.4: 17.44.10
Jain Education International 2010_03
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org