In Bhagawati Sutra (Vyākhyā‑prajñapti), “saṃsār – saṃsthān – kāl” are important technical topics that are explained in detail through question–answer.

In very simple words:

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1. Saṃsār (Sansar) – संसार

• Meaning: The endless cycle of birth and death, wandering from one life to another under the influence of karma.
• In Jainism, every jiva (soul) that is not liberated is called saṃsārī jiva – moving through different gatis (hell, tiryanch, human, deva) because of its own karmas.
• Bhagawati Sutra explains:

- how jiva goes from one birth to another, - what types of bodies and lives it can get, - and how right faith, right knowledge and right conduct lead it out of saṃsār toward moksha.

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2. Saṃsthān (Sansthan) – संस्थान

• Meaning: Shape / configuration of the body.
• Jain texts (including explanations based on Bhagawati Sutra) describe six main saṃsthāns, such as:

- Samachaturasra saṃsthān – well‑proportioned, symmetrical body - Nyagrodha‑parimaṇḍala – top‑heavy, like a banyan tree - Svāti‑saṃsthāna – long and thin, like a sword - Kubja saṃsthāna – hunch‑backed - Vāmana saṃsthāna – dwarf‑like - Hunda saṃsthāna – very deformed, ugly mass of flesh

These are physical forms of pudgala (matter), not of the soul itself. Bhagawati Sutra uses such details to show:

• body and its form are results of karma,
• the soul is separate from all these changing forms.

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3. Kāl (Time) – काल

• Meaning: Dravya (substance) that assists change.
• Jain view:

- Real time (niścaya kāl) is a subtle, formless substance that helps all changes to occur in other dravyas. - Vyavahār kāl is the time we speak of in daily life – moments, hours, days, years.

• In the Āgams you repeatedly find the phrase like:

“teṇaṁ kāleṇaṁ teṇaṁ samayenaṁ” – “at that time, in that moment”.

• Bhagawati Sutra uses kāl to explain:

- durations of lives, - time cycles (utsarpiṇī–avasarpiṇī), - and how saṃsār continues anādi–ananta (beginningless and endless) until the soul destroys all karmas.

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In relation to Bhagawati Sutra

Bhagawati Sutra is the 5th Aṅga of the Śvetāmbara canon and discusses:

• Saṃsār – detailed descriptions of different births, karmas and transmigration.
• Saṃsthān – classifications of body-forms, strengths, etc., as results of past karmas.
• Kāl – how time and cycles operate in loka (universe) and in the lives of beings.

Digambar tradition does not accept Bhagawati Sutra as part of its own preserved canon in the same way as Śvetāmbaras do, but the meanings of saṃsār, saṃsthān and kāl as Jain tattvas are essentially the same in both traditions.

You can read a simple overview of Bhagawati Sutra on JainKnowledge.com here: