The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hindusim vol 2

Samsara
Charles A. Moore (eds.), A Sourcebook in
Indian Philosophy, 1957; and Gerald
Larson and Ram Shankar Bhattacharya
(eds.), Samkhya, 1987.
Sampraday
(“tradition”) Literally, “that which is
handed down,” or the transmitted body
of teachings that distinguishes one religious
group from another. Belonging to
a particular sampraday is based on having
received teachings from one’s spiritual
preceptor (guru), thus becoming
part of a spiritual lineage, and continuing
the life of that sampraday by transmitting
the teachings to disciples.
Although the sampraday is often translated
as “sect,” this loses its sense of
uniqueness within particular theistic
traditions. For example, one can speak
of different sampradays among Tamil
Shaiva brahmins, by virtue of their differing
spiritual lineages, even though
they worship the same deity and share a
common cultural heritage.
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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