Manava Dharmashastra 1.117

1.117

saṃsāragamanam | dharmeṇa dharmī lakṣyate, saṃsārī puruṣa ātmā, tasya gamanaṃ dehāddehāntaraprāptiḥ | athavā saṃsāraviṣayāḥ pṛthivyādayo lokā ucyante, tatra gamanam pūrvavat | trividham uttamādhamamadhyamam karmasambhavaṃ śubhāśubhakarmanimittam | niḥśreyasam na kevalaṃ karmanimittā gataya uktāḥ yāvadyataḥ paramanyacchreyo nāsti tadupāyo'pyadhyātmajñānamuktam | karmaṇāṃ ca vihitapratiṣiddhānāṃ guṇadoṣaparīkṣā |

The threefold transmigration of the Soul, arising from actions,—the highest good,—and the examination of the good and bad features of actions.—(117)

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
‘Saṃsāragamana,’—the property, ‘saṃsāra,’ ‘series of births and deaths,’ stands here for the possessor of the property, i.e., the personality or Soul, undergoing births and deaths;—the ‘gamana’ of that is its migration from one body to another.—Or, ‘saṃsāra’ may be taken as standing for the objects of the world, i.e., the three Regions of the Earth, etc.;—the ‘gamana’ is being born in those regions, as described before.—‘Threefold,’ high, low and middling.—‘Arising from actions’—brought about by good and bad deeds.

‘Highest good’—the work describes not only the conditions brought about by deeds, but also that higher than which there is nothing,—i.e., spiritual knowledge,—the means of attaining that also has been described.

‘Of actions’—i.e.. those that are enjoined and those that are prohibited,—‘the examination of the good and bad features.’—(117)