The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (2109 page)

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

(Skt., P
li, Prkt., ‘wandering’). Transmigration or rebirth; in Asian religions, the cycle of birth and death as a consequence of action (
karma
). Liberation (
mok
a
,
nirv
na
,
kaivalya
) is release from sams
ra, conceived as either going beyond sams
ra or realizing it to be an illusion (
m
y
). The idea of sams
ra, like karma, is possibly of non-Vedic or heterodox origin, though the matter is contentious.
The word
sams
ra
does not appear in the
Vedas
, but the idea of redeath (
punarm
tyu
) does, and the
r
ddha
and
sapindakarana
rites may have been to prevent the dissolution of the deceased in the next world, which is contrary to later Hindu views of the need to prevent rebirth.
The basic pattern of release or continued transmigration is found in later Hinduism, transmigration being regarded as undesirable. Indian theism such as
aiva
Siddh