Literally, it means “flowing together (saṁ)” (from the Sanskrit root sṛ). This expresses the consistent order according to which everything appears to proceed. For an individual, life and the world are often complex, but for īśvara, everything follows a perfect logic.

In this way, saṁsāra, ironically enough, means something like the panta rhei “everything flows” of the Presocratic Greek philosopher Heraclitus (540-480 BC). Incidentally, through nomos (law), logos (insight, knowledge), and the description of a unity behind dialectical (dualistic) parts that resolve into their opposites, this was intuitively close to Vedānta. The major difference with Vedānta, of course, is that Heraclitus didn’t state so clearly that “all that flows” is but a mirage within consciousness. It does exist, but it is not what it appears to be, namely nothing other than consciousness itself, which “seems to take on” forms.

Saṁsāra, which is no more real than a dream, is the result of the puruṣa, the personification of consciousness, which (through ignorance) identifies itself with the modifications of the guṇas. This leads to the perception of the difference between an individual and īśvara. An individual desires, does, and chooses; īśvara lawfully gives what it asks for or deserves.

Saṁsāra is often characterized as a treacherous ocean that the jīva tries to cross with difficulty (tarati, he-she crosses). Moksa is “arriving on the other side of the ocean of saṁsāra (saṁsāra sāgarasya pāragamanam).” This arrival is nothing more than knowledge having done its work, and everything is seen and experienced as non-dual consciousness itself, radiating as consciousness.

This attainment is, of course, self-knowledge, and proves to be effortless. It is the recognition itself of being the endless, effortless ocean of awareness. Therefore, crossing the ocean must be properly understood. The idea is that I must first be emotionally mature for knowledge to work. That is the most difficult part. Speaking of oceanic, we might better see ourselves as an ocean, in which the senses and sense objects swim. A sense is no more an object than the object it perceives. This expression comes closer to the ocean of consciousness.

Saṁsāra is also formally defined as śarīrādi upādānam eva lakṣaṇam yasya saḥ saṁsāraḥ – “Saṁsāra is that which is characterized by the assumption of bodies, etc.” The word ādi na śarīra (body), means “and so on.” That expresses precisely what saṁsāra is. It goes on and on, with no apparent end. One who remains ignorant and takes his personality and the world as real will (seemingly) endlessly assume bodies, will (seemingly) endlessly engage in actions, will (seemingly) have to bear the consequences of actions, and will (seemingly) endlessly encounter various worldly contexts, and in the process (seemingly) gain experiences that we call heavenly (svarga loka) or hellish (naraka loka). That saṁsāra is a real mess.

Freedom from saṁsāra consists solely of recognizing and fully realizing that everything is brahman: pure, absolute consciousness. And that I am that brahman. Then I see that I was never born and could never die. My body-mind, as the protagonist of the story called saṁsāra, was (apparently) born within me, and (apparently) continually dies within me, something we call change.