Samsara

“Flowing together”, “wandering”. The cycle of birth, death, and rebirth in which souls transmigrate.

Characteristics:

• Anādi: Without known beginning
• Duḥkhātmaka: Of a suffering nature
• Continuous: Turns ceaselessly driven by karma

Mechanism:

1. Actions (karma) create impressions (saṃskāras)
2. Saṃskāras generate desires (vāsanās)
3. Desires drive new actions
4. Upon death, the jīva is reborn according to its karma
5. The cycle continues indefinitely

The goal of yoga is mokṣa — liberation from saṃsāra. This does not mean escaping the physical world but the mechanism of forced rebirth.

The Bhagavad Gītā and the Upaniṣads teach that saṃsāra is like a dream from which one awakens upon realizing the ātman.