SAṂSĀRA is a Sanskrit word meaning "to wander or pass through a series of states or conditions." It is the name for the theory of rebirth in the three major indigenous Indian religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. Saṃsāra is the beginningless cycle of birth, death, and rebirth, a process impelled by karman. Taken together, Saṃsāra and karman provide Indian religions with both a causal explanation of human differences and an ethical theory of moral retribution.

The term saṃsāra is also applied to phenomenal existence in general to indicate its transient and cyclical nature. Saṃsāra is the conditioned and ever changing universe as contrasted to an unconditioned, eternal, and transcendent state (mokṣa or nirvāṇa). In all three Indian religions, the soteriological goal is defined as liberation from...