Samsara
(Is Samsara pure)
The physical world exists. But the life we live in mentally is merely a projection of the mind. Our attachment, emotions, experiences and memories are projected on to living and non-living things. This mundane existence is called Samsara. The whole idea of liberation is to understand and get out of this mental projection called samsara. So it is the pure energy which is clouded by the mind. Samsara is the cloud which projects the veil on pure consciousness.
So I don't think anywhere samsara is called pure.
It is the selfish motive and not the work itself that binds a man to Samsara.
THE CHHANDOGYA UPANISHAD - SWAMI KRISHNANANDA
The philosophy of the Upanishads is that it is an ignorance of the way in which the Universe works that binds the individual to samsara,—the series of births and deaths. There is a coming and going, descending and ascending in this samsara-chakra, or the revolving wheel of bondage. The archiradi-marga, or the devayana, the Northern Path of the gods, of the celestials, the path of the liberation of the spirit from the bondage of samsara, is being described.
Thus is, therefore, the cycle or the rotation of the wheel of samsara, the going up and coming down in the circle of transmigration. With a view to expound a doctrine of freedom, or the liberation of the spirit from the bondage of samsara, the Upanishad embarks upon a new subject subsequent to the exposition of the Panchagni-Vidya.
Credit - COMMENTARY ON THE KATHA UPANISHAD ~ SWAMI KRISHNANANDA
When the light of the soul, bereft of intelligence, works through the mind and senses, there is samsara.
Intelligent Control of the Soul's Chariot Necessary
yas tv avijñānavān bhavaty amanaskas sadā’śuciḥ
na sa tat padam āpnoti saṁsāraṁ cādhigacchati. (7)
“If the driver of the chariot is bereft of understanding, his mind is ever impure, the goal is never reached and the chariot is hurled down. A person without self-control enters the womb of samsara.”
For the Atman to become anatman is samsara.
And so we are born and die, and we undergo samsara because we regard objects as ourselves, and our body as the most immediate one.
Likewise is this process of self-collection: while samsara is the movement of mind in the direction of objects, moksha would be the opposite, the reverse of it; the collection of consciousness and merging it into Consciousness.
This so-called tree of samsara has its roots struck in prakriti constituted of sattva, rajas and tamas, but it is ultimately made up of one substance, whatever be the variety of this vast creation. The absolutely pure Brahman is the Source of it, and also its Sustainer and Withdrawer.
Credit - NARADA-PARIVRAJAKA-UPANISAD
The Lord Brahma said that he becomes an emancipated person. He who knows Reality
is a Parivrat. Such a Parivrat roams about alone. Through fear, he is like a terrified deer. He
will not be opposed to going anywhere. Having given up all but his body, he will live like a
bee, and without considering others as foreign to himself; ever meditating upon Reality, he
attains liberation in himself. Such a Parivrat will be without delusion, without action or
causing other to act, being absolved from teacher, disciple, books, etc., and having
abandoned all samsara. Such a Parivrat roams about thus- without wealth, being happy,
able to get wealth (if wanted), having crossed jnana and ajnana as well as happiness and
grief, being Self-effulgence, being fit to be known by the Vedas, having known all, able to
confer siddhis and remaining himself as Brahman, the Lord. Such Parivrat attains the
supreme abode of Vishnu, from which a yogin that has gone to it does. not return, and where
the sun and moon do not shine. He does not return. Such is Kaivalya.
Credit MUKTIKOPANISAD
It is Manas that is the root of the tree of Samsara with its thousands of shoots, branches, tender, leaves and fruits. I think it to be Saiikalpa alone. In order that the trees of Samsara may wither soon, dry up its root through the quiescence of Sankalpa. There is only one means to control one's mind. That is to destroy the mind as soon as it rises.
You are able to extricate me (out of this Samsara). I am drowned like a frog in a
dry well. You are my refuge.