What is samsara?

The word samsara comes from the Sanskrit root sṛ, meaning “to flow,” and is often translated as “wandering” or “continuous flow.” It suggests movement without rest, a perpetual current of change that characterizes all of empirical existence. In this sense, samsara refers to the ever-shifting landscape of life—birth and death, pleasure and pain, gain and loss—all woven together in the tapestry of human experience.

Despite the many sensual pleasures the world offers, the term samsara carries a largely negative connotation within Eastern spiritual traditions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. Far from being a celebratory endorsement of worldly life, samsara is often portrayed as a kind of existential bondage—a cycle of birth and death driven by ignorance and karma. In these traditions, life in samsara is not viewed as an endless playground of delights but more like a prison in which beings are compelled to suffer, struggle, and repeat their mistakes until they awaken to the truth.

Samsara is not limited to physical rebirth. It also refers to a psychological and spiritual condition—a state of misidentification, restlessness, and delusion. According to Vedanta, samsara is the result of avidya, or ignorance of the Self. This ignorance gives rise to the mistaken belief that one is a limited being: a separate ego, dependent on external conditions for happiness and security. We imagine ourselves to be the doer of actions and the experiencer of their results, and in so doing, become entangled in the web of karma.

In this view, samsara is not something “out there” in the world—it is a condition of the mind. It arises every time we forget our true nature and look outside ourselves for fulfillment. The pursuit of status, wealth, relationships, or even spiritual experiences, when rooted in a sense of incompleteness, only reinforces the illusion of separation. As long as we continue to chase after fleeting things, believing that they will make us whole, the cycle continues.

Vedanta offers a radical solution: the way out of samsara is not through escaping the world but through right knowledge (jñana)—the direct recognition of one’s true identity as atman, the unchanging, limitless Self. This knowledge is not intellectual alone; it must be deeply assimilated and actualized through inquiry, contemplation, and lived insight. When the Self is known as non-different from Brahman—the infinite reality—samsara loses its grip. The mind is no longer bound by fear, desire, or misidentification. One may continue to live and act in the world, but without being entangled by it.

In this sense, samsara is not a place but a perspective. And liberation (moksha) is not a distant reward, but the recognition of what has always been true. The river of life may still flow, but the one who knows the Self no longer drowns in it. Instead, they stand free—awake in the midst of the dream.