Why is half the religious literature of early India concerned with "crossing the ocean of saṃsāra," when crossing a real ocean was forbidden for twice-born members of society? Why that metaphor in particular?
Crossing fords, rivers, etc., makes metaphorical sense, and was allowed. But oceans?
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Professor Dominik Wujastyk*
Singhmar Chair in Classical Indian Society and Polity
University of Alberta, Canada