Samsara

punarapi jananam punarapi maranam punarapi janani jathare sayanam, iha samsare bahudusare krpaya'pare pahi murare

Being born again, dying again, and again lying in the mother's womb; this samsara is extremely difficult to cross over.

This line, "punarapi jananam punarapi maraam", describes the process of samsara. Punarapi is again, jananam is birth. Punarapi jananam means being born again, punarapi nriaraa means dying again. When this line is repeated as a mantra it breaks the repeating cycle of bringing your past into your future; including your ancestral lineage.

Samsara is nothing but a repeated process of birth and death. Why does this cycle go on? It is because what one is pursuing or seeking is not fulfilled in the journey of this lifetime. Naturally, then, when one dies, there are unfulfilled desires one's heart, and those unfulfilled desires make one take another birth in a suitable environment so that one can fulfill one's desires.

If, again, the desires are not fulfilled, the journey is not concluded in that embodiment, and one gives it up only to acquire yet another new embodiment. This is the reason one talks of the process of repeated births and deaths. It is because a man is born incomplete, and he dies incomplete as well. The journey goes on until a total fulfilment is gained.

The description of this cyclic process also represents the pain and suffering that one constantly goes through in life because birth and death are also extremely painful. In between, of course, there is old age; there is disease, and all kinds of other afflictions. Thus, there is constant pain and sorrow.

Tags: samsara, reincarnation