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Wellsprings
hindu-cosmosfeatured in 3 works

The Round of Rebirth (Saṃsāra)

The beginningless wheel of birth and death — the predicament every path aims to end.

Saṃsāra is the wheel of worldly existence — the beginningless round of birth, death, and rebirth through which beings keep passing, life after life. Driven by past action and by ignorance of one's true nature, it is the condition liberation aims to end. Almost every Hindu school takes saṃsāra for granted as the predicament and treats its own path as the way out.

How it traveled

  1. Upadeśasāhasrī
    Kālaḍi (Kaladi) · 710
    explains
  2. Vivekacūḍāmaṇi
    Śṛṅgeri (Sringeri) · 1400
    explains
  3. Aṣṭāvakra-gītā
    Kāśī (Varanasi) · 1450
    applies

Key passages(20)

Vivekacūḍāmaṇi · Śaṅkara (traditionally ascribed; authorship doubted)

Very high

Aṣṭāvakra-gītā · Aṣṭāvakra

Very high

Upadeśasāhasrī · Ādi Śaṅkara

Very high

Upadeśasāhasrī · Ādi Śaṅkara

Very high

Vivekacūḍāmaṇi · Śaṅkara (traditionally ascribed; authorship doubted)

Very high

Aitareya Upaniṣad · Vedic Revelation (śruti)

High

Aṣṭāvakra-gītā · Aṣṭāvakra

High

Bhagavad-gītā · Vyāsa (Yoga-bhāṣya commentator)

High

Bhagavad-gītā · Vyāsa (Yoga-bhāṣya commentator)

High

Śiva-stotrāvalī · Utpaladeva

High

Paramārthasāra · Abhinavagupta

High

Kaṭha Upaniṣad · Vedic Revelation (śruti)

High

Spanda-kārikā · Bhaṭṭa Kallaṭa

High

Tantrasāra · Abhinavagupta

High

Yoga-sūtra · Patañjali

High

Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad · Vedic Revelation (śruti)

High

Gheraṇḍa-saṃhitā · (attributed to Gheraṇḍa)

High

Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad · Vedic Revelation (śruti)

High

Kaṭha Upaniṣad · Vedic Revelation (śruti)

High

Stotraratna · Yāmunācārya (Ālavandār)

High