The Seba library treats Sasra in 8 passages, across 5 authors (including Zimmer, Heinrich, Armstrong, Karen, Easwaran, Eknath).
Who Seeks Nirvāṇa? 2. The Lamb, the Hero, and the Man-God 3. All the Gods within Us
Zimmer’s table of contents foregrounds the question of who seeks liberation from cyclic existence, situating saṃsāra implicitly as the condition motivating the entire philosophical enterprise surveyed.
, Philosophies of India, 1951supporting
the sanyāsī is what the Ṣūfīs call ‘a dead man walking.’ Funeral rites are performed for one who becomes an ‘Abandoner’
Zimmer, via Coomaraswamy’s annotations, frames the renunciant’s departure from worldly life as a symbolic death that enacts severance from the saṃsāric round.
, Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization, 1946supporting
Gotama was born in Sakka, the most northerly of these republics… times were changing… Sakka felt threatened by the two new monarchies
Armstrong locates the Buddha’s origins within a world of political flux and impermanence, the historical-social correlate of the saṃsāric condition his teaching seeks to address.
, Buddha, 2000supporting
Ceto-vimutti: The ‘release of the mind’; a synonym for enlightenment and the achievement of Nibbana.
Armstrong’s glossary defines liberation as release from conditioned mental bondage, presupposing saṃsāra as the state from which Nibbāna offers escape.
, Buddha, 2000supporting
Maya Illusion; appearance, as contrasted with Reality; the creative power of the Lord. moksha Liberation
Easwaran’s glossary pairs māyā with mokṣa in a framework where saṃsāric existence is constituted by illusion and liberation is its overcoming.
, The Bhagavad Gita for Daily Living: A Verse-by-Verse Commentary, 1975supporting
nirodha, 316… nirvāṇa, 183n, 473n… nirvṛ tti, 41… nivṛtti, 41
The Sanskrit index of Zimmer’s compendium clusters terminological markers of cessation and return that collectively map the conceptual field surrounding saṃsāra.
, Philosophies of India, 1951aside
Pratiprasava Return to the original state; when the yogī’s mind has fulfilled its purpose (nirbīja-samādhi), it dissolves back into prakṛti.
Bryant’s glossary implicitly positions the entire Yoga system as a technology for ending the yogī’s participation in the cycle of conditioned existence that saṃsāra names.
, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: A New Edition, Translation, and Commentary, 2009aside
niraya, 239… nirvana… aya, 179, 204, 213, 220 ff., 233 f.
Govinda’s index juxtaposes the hell-realms (niraya) with nirvāṇa, marking the soteriological poles between which saṃsāric existence is traversed in Tibetan Buddhist cosmology.
, Foundations of Tibetan Mysticism, 1960aside