Nirvana

Lore & Background

In Indian religions, nirvana is sometimes used as a synonym of moksha and mukti. All Indian religions assert it to be a state of perfect quietude, freedom, and highest happiness; liberation from attachment and worldly suffering; and the ending of samsara, the cycle of existence. However, non-Buddhist and Buddhist traditions describe these terms for liberation differently. In Hindu philosophy, it is the union of or the realization of the identity of Atman with Brahman, depending on the Hindu tradition. In Jainism, nirvana is also the soteriological goal, representing the release of a soul from karmic bondage and samsara. The Buddhist concept of nirvana is the abandonment of the 10 fetters, marking the end of rebirth by stilling the 'fires' that keep the process of rebirth going.

Reader's Guide

The term nirvana in the soteriological sense of 'blown out, extinguished' state of liberation appears at many places in the Vedas and even more in the post-Buddhist Bhagavata Purana. Collins states, 'the Buddhists seem to have been the first to call it nirvana.' The word nirvāṇa is from the verbal root 'blow' in the form of past participle 'blown', prefixed with the preverb meaning 'out'. Hence the original meaning of the word is 'blown out, extinguished'. In popular usage nirvana was 'the goal of Buddhist discipline,... the final removal of the disturbing mental elements which obstruct a peaceful and clear state of mind, together with a state of awakening from the mental sleep which they induce.'

Did You Know?

• Nirvana is part of the Third Truth on 'cessation of dukkha' in the Four Noble Truths doctrine of Buddhism.
• The Buddha is believed in the Buddhist scholastic tradition to have realized two types of nirvana: one at awakening (nirvana with a remainder) and another at his death (parinirvana, or nirvana without remainder).
• In Buddhism, nirvana is described as the extinguishing of the 'three fires' or 'three poisons': raga (greed, sensuality), dvesha (aversion, hate), and avidyā or moha (ignorance, delusion).
• The earliest attestation of the term nirvana in Hindu texts is found in the Bhagavad Gita and the Nirvana Upanishad, likely composed in the post-Buddha era.