History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c95.239
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c95.239
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There is one word, namely 'saṁsāra', which occurs frequently in the comparatively later literature on Vedānta and Dharmaśāstra but rarely in the Upaniṣads It means 'passing through a succession or a round or a cycle of births and deaths'. The Kathopanisad says²⁵³⁶ 'that person who has no understanding, who has not controlled his mind, who is always impure, does not attain that (highest) state and undergoes *saṁsāra* (births and deaths)'. The Śv. Up. VI. 16 speaks of the Supreme Spirit as the 'creator and knower of the universe, as self-born, the knower, the destroyer of time, possessing (all) qualities, knowing everything, Lord of Pradhāna, individual souls and the gunas (sattva, rajas, tamas) and as the cause of release from saṁsāra, of sustaining it and of bondage.' The Maitrāyaṇī Up. I 4. says 'such being the nature of saṁsāra what is the use of the enjoyment (of pleasures)'. The Muktikā-Up. (II. 37) states 'mind is established as the root of the tree of saṁsāra'. The word '*saṁsāra*' occurs in the Vedāntasūtra²⁵³⁷ IV. 2. 8. The Bhagavadgītā mentions the word several times e. g. 'men who have no faith in this way (of life) do not attain to me (Lord Kṛṣṇa) and return to the path of death and transmigration (IX. 3); those whose minds are fixed on me I deliver in no time from the ocean of death and transmigration' (XII. 7). The Manusmṛti employs the word *saṁsāra* frequently e. g.
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in the table of the subjects to be treated in the Smṛti 'the passing through saṁsāra' is mentioned (in I. 117) and the 12th chap. uses the word often. It is said (in XII. 51) 'the entire saṁsāra of three kinds due to three sorts of Karma affecting all beings has been expounded'. After describing the various characteristics of the three *guṇas, sattva, rajas* and *tamas* (in XII. 26-29), and the effects of these guṇas (XII. 30-38), Manu states that those in whom sattva, rajas or tamas preponderates respectively become gods, men or lower animals and again divides each of these three classes into lowest, middling and highest (XII. 40-50). Manu uses the word '*saṁsāra*' in the plural (in XII. 52, 54, 70) in the sense of '*gati*' or '*yoni*'. In chap. VI. 40-60 Manu first dilates at length on the daily routine of one who has entered on the stage of sannyāsa, what he should wear and carry, how he should maintain himself, how he should restrain his senses and give up love and hate and practise *ahiṁsā* and then proceeds 'he should ponder over the destinies of men due to bad deeds, falling in hell and the tortures of hell, separation from loved ones and contact with undesirable persons, the ravages of old age and the pains of diseases, the departing from the body and again lying in the womb and the passage of the soul through thousands of crores of births of all sorts.' It is entirely wrong to suppose (as done by Mr.
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Sanjana on p 10 of his 'Dogma of reincarnation') that Manu prescribes that 'each ego has to go through ten thousand millions of existences.' Manu nowhere says so. All that he means is that the Sannyāsin desirous of liberation should revolve in his mind the possibility of some souls having to migrate through millions of births. Yāj (in III. 169) employs the verb 'saṁsarati' in the sense of 'undergoes births' and states 'The fruition of actions done by some men results after death (in other bodies) or in this very life (as in the case of Kārīrī sacrifice) and in some cases either in this world or the next (i. e. there is no hard and fast śāstra rule that fruits of actions result immediately after they are done); it also states in a fine simile²⁵³⁸ 'just as an actor, when acting different parts, colours his body in different colours (fair, dark, brown), so the soul assumes various forms (as short, hunchback, &c.), assumes different bodies due to the various acts done by it. In Yāj III. 140 the word saṁsāra itself occurs 'The soul affected by (or under the influence of) *rajas* and *tamas*, wandering in this world and coming in contact with undesirable objects (or mental attitudes) goes through transmigration (i. e. assumes various bodies)'. This is in reply to the question in Yāj. III. 129 (Īśvaraḥ sa kathaṁ bhāvairanistaiḥ samprayujyate). The Śāntiparva²⁵³⁹ remarks 'there is no doubt that in life there is far more misery than happiness'.
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The Purāṇas often harp on the theme that saṁsāra is impermanent, abounds in sorrows and is fragile like a plantain leaf (e. g vide the Brahmapurāṇa 'saṁsāre..., anitye duḥkhabahule kadalīdalasannibhe' (178. 179) The present writer cannot help feeling that this view of the thorough miserableness of life has been so much and so persistently dinned into the ears of common people not only by much of Sanskrit literature but also by medieval saints like Tukaram (who says 'happiness is as little as a grain of barley while misery is as big as a mountain') that people have lost zest in life, are unable to put their heart and soul and serious efforts for improving their own lot and the lot of others. It cannot be denied that in India the doctrine of Karma, instead of being a powerful means of urging all men to put great efforts in doing good deeds and a gospel of hope, became in the minds of many confused with fatalism, which led men to become feeble, submissive and disinclined to work hard.