Chapter 3 - What is Nirvana

The individual life in this earth is like a ceaseless struggle for existence. From the minutest animalcule up to the highest man, wherever there is manifestation of life, is to be found this tremendous struggle for life, or the fight for existence. In that constant battle of life thousands and thousands of living creatures are crushed out of existence, first to make room for the stronger, and the stronger for the still stronger, and so on. The weak are born, as it were, to suffer or perish and to make room for the strong. Every moment there exists this strong fight or struggle for life. Each individual is threatened with defeat and destruction. We are pressed by some unknown power into this vast battlefield of the world. We are first to fight against these obstacles, and then to continue that fight till the last breath leaves our bodies.

Such is the world in which we are living, but at the same time we expect to be happy by gaining a victory over the weaker ones. We expect that it will bring an end to that fight and bring peace to our souls, but, in the next moment, when we encounter with new enemies stronger and better equipped, our hearts tremble as they come from all sides to attack, defy and destroy us. So, how can we expect to get rest under such conditions? Where is the hope of those who expect to gain peace and happiness amidst this struggle for existence along with its constant accompaniments of diseases and sufferings? These existed in the past, and will continue in the future. As far back as we can go by turning the pages of history, in every page we read the accounts of the same fight, the same suffering and misery, and the same disease and death.

When we remember the indestructible nature of the germs of life, we understand that every germ of life has many times appeared and manifested itself on this material plane, and has had to struggle and meet the results of its own acts. Now, the wheel of evolution moves with a tremendous speed towards the invisible goal, conquering all the troubles and turmoils, and never stops at any station for comfort or rest. Cycle after cycle that wheel of evolution starts to carry the souls of the individual soldiers to the battlefield of this world, giving everyone an opportunity for the struggle or the fight. Such is the conception of the world and the struggle for existence among the best thinkers of India.

Long before the birth of Buddha, six centuries before Christ, the philosophers and the seers of truth recognized the nature of this wheel of evolution, having understood this ceaseless fight or struggle which defeated their energy and life, and tried to find a way out of it. Again and again they asked the question: “Is there a way out of this struggle for existence?” “Will it not be possible for an individual soul struggling in this gigantic wheel of evolution to stop?” “Will there ever be a time when the individual souls will gain permanent peace and happiness? And how can we get out of this constant change and also of this wheel of birth and death?” The questions were asked again and again, and the answers to them came like the revelations to the minds of those who were engaged in the search and solution of these problems. They understood the power which moves this wheel of evolution. They realized the real cause of this struggle for existence and came to know why there should be such suffering, disease and sorrow. They discovered a remedy and tried their best to give that remedy to the world. They described that state where there were no sorrow, no suffering,’ no pain, and no death, and they called that state the Nirvana which is the state of cessation of all sorrows and sufferings.

The general belief in the Western countries is that this word ‘Nirvana’ was used exclusively by Buddha and his followers. Some go so far as to say that it was Buddha who introduced it in India, but, on the other hand, we find frequent use of this word or expression in the ancient literature of India. The nature of Nirvana is explained and discussed by the vedic philosophers who flourished long before the birth of Buddha. It was also explained by the seers of Truth. Buddha took up this word and gave it only a new interpretation. He did not originate this ideal of Nirvana, nor did introduce it into India for the first time. Those who have read the Lalitavistara and the Light of Asia by Sir Edwin Arnold, will remember how deeply Buddha was impressed by the sight of the disease and death which follow the footsteps of every mortal in the career of his earthly existence. Born and brought up within the precincts of a royal palace and living from his childhood the life of an Eastern Prince, Buddha was confined within the palace walls, being attended by all the luxuries and comforts. He had no idea of the struggle that went on constantly outside the palace walls, nor did he realize that individual life was such a ceaseless struggle for existence. He did not also understand that the struggle for existence was accompanied by sorrow and misery. He looked at life from the standpoint of an optimist, but when he came face to face with the sufferings of humanity, his heart overflowed in tears of blood, his mind became restless and unhappy, and he determined to find out the source of that struggle for existence. He discovered the cause of sorrow and suffering and struggled to find out a method by which he could remedy the sufferings of humanity. And these attempts ended in his great renunciation.

Gautama Buddha renounced the comforts and luxuries of life, not for any selfish motive, but for his tremendous love for humanity at large. How could a great soul like that of Buddha care for the pleasure and comforts of a palace, when millions and millions were suffering before his eyes and were groaning under the burden of sorrow? How could he enjoy the delicious dishes that were presented to him when he knew that thousands were dying of hunger! How could he sleep comfortably on a soft bed when he found that the beds of the poor classes were the hard ground with stones for pillows! Do we feel in the same way? No, we cannot even imagine it. Do the needs of the poverty-stricken masses touch our hearts? No, very seldom do we think that the comforts which we have in our lives, are at the expense of the suffering masses; on the other hand, our thoughts and ideas are centred in ourselves; we are happy when we get the comforts of this body, or when we have family and children and claim to call them our own. Think of the difference that exists between these feelings and those of Buddha, the Enlightened.

Buddha spent the best part of his life in finding out the remedy for the suffering, disease and death, and he did finally give that remedy to all classes of people, so that everyone could enjoy that state where there was no sorrow, no suffering and no death, but where there was tranquil peace and rest. That state of peace and rest as well as the cessation of suffering and sorrow was meant by the word ‘Nirvana’. This word was used by Buddha in this sense, and he did not mean by it the annihilation of the Atta or Atman. He meant by the word ‘Nirvana’ the cessation of the tanha or trishna, which means the desire. Really the word ‘Nirvana’ connotes the idea of suchness or thatness (tathata), and, therefore, it is a positive state of perfection, and not the negative one as the void or the nothingness.

Buddha’s whole religion depends upon the four noble truths which lead to the path of Nirvana. Among the four noble truths: (1) The first is the existence of sorrow and suffering in this world. Buddha said: “Birth is sorrowful, enemies are sorrowful, death is sorrowful; and it is to be joined with that which we do not like; and sadder still is the separation from that which we love. Painful is the grieving for that which cannot be obtained”. (2) The second noble truth is the cause of suffering. Buddha said: “The cause of suffering is the lust. The surrounding objects affect our sensations and cause a craving which clamours for more, and is not satisfied; and that attempt to live a life for the enjoyment of sense pleasures, results in bitter pain. (3) The third noble truth is the cessation of sorrow. He who conquers the self, is free from sorrow and lust; and who does not conquer the flame of desire, is subject to sorrow and lust. (4) The fourth noble path is to extinguish the flames of fire for desires, sorrow and suffering. The desire is compared by Buddha to a flame of fire, and when that flame is extinguished, Nirvana is reached. The literal meaning of Nirvana is ‘flowing out’ or extinction; hence the extinction of the flame of desire, tanha or trishna, is the meaning of the word Nirvana, according to Buddha.

Again, these four noble truths are to be accompanied by the eightfold paths: the right comprehension, the right resolution, the right spirit, the right acts, the right state of the peaceful mind, etc. These are the fundamental principles of the religion of Buddha. It has already been said that he did not mean by Nirvana the extinction of the soul entity, but he meant by it the cessation of sorrow and suffering. The general belief in the Western countries is that this word ‘Nirvana’ always means the annihilation of the soul. This idea even existed among some of the extremely annihilistic Buddhist philosophers of later days, but Buddha never meant that. Buddha’s ideal was not the annihilation of the thought of the self. We read in one of Buddha’s sayings an answer to the question: “In what does Nirvana consist?” He said: “When the fire of lust is extinguished, that is Nirvana; when the fire of hatred and jealousy are extinguished, that is Nirvana; when the false’ belief and the passions are extinguished, that is Nirvana”. So, according to Buddha, this Nirvana could be accomplished by anyone, and when it is accomplished, the individual soul continues to exist impersonally without having any longing or particular incarnation or form; the individual soul continues to exist in a pure form of character without having any craving or longing for anything.

This idea already existed, but was very difficult for the followers of Buddha to understand, and so many of them did not grasp its real meaning. Really Buddha said that Nirvana is to be attained by one who has comprehended that which is eternal, birthless and deathless, that which is without beginning and end, and that which is fearless, birthless and deathless. It is something and this something is not an entity, nor a personal deity; and it has no particular locality and no celestial abode. He said to his disciples: “There is a state where there is neither earth, nor water, nor air; neither the sun, nor the moon; neither coming, nor going, nor standing; but it is without wideness, without sensation and without position; and there is no sorrow or suffering; and that is Nirvana”.

But how many have truly grasped the meaning of these words of Buddha? The Western philosophers failed to grasp and comprehend what Buddha meant by such a statement. It has already been said that many of his disciples could not understand it. Some thought that it was a state of the absolute negation, and others thought that it was a state of the absolute annihilation of everything that existed in the universe. Some thought that it was the absolute voidness, and others thought that it was the absolute non-existence. After the death of Buddha and his direct disciples, the difficulty of this understanding was felt more keenly than before. Then arose different schools of philosophy amongst the Buddhists. The first of these schools was of the extreme conception or belief. They understood the absolute extinction of everything that was in the world and in the end of this life. The other schools of philosophy maintained the annihilation of the self and the universe. These Buddhists maintained the permanence of the abstract thought without any thinker.

Here we should not forget that Buddha kept perfect silence about the questions of the permanence of the individual soul, i.e. whether the atta or the soul was permanent or not, he did not answer. When he was asked about God, he kept silence, and did not answer. This reticence created a great confusion in the minds of his followers and disciples, and it was the cause of all the guess-work of all the followers those came later. They did not understand the meaning of it, but took a certain conception of Nirvana according to their own powers of comprehension. So when there was so much dispute amongst the followers of Buddha, why should we wonder, when we see that the majority of the Western minds cannot truly understand the meaning of Nirvana?

Whether Buddha meant a positive or negative state, is still unsettled and undecided amongst many of the followers of Buddha. The Northern school of the Buddhists of Tibet believed in the positive state whereas some of the Southern schools believed in the negative state. These arguments of the followers, who lived five dr six centuries after Buddha, produced a confusion, and that was the cause of all the doubts and false conceptions that grew around the lake of truth covering its surface and making it invisible for the time being. That have enabled the seekers after truth to discover where that lake was and to grasp the true meaning of Nirvana. This resulted in the revival of the vedantic conception of Nirvana. The Buddhist conception, as has been stated before, was something positive, as was conceived by the sages and the vedantic philosophers who lived in ancient times.

In Vedanta, Nirvana means that blissful state of supreme peace where there is no sorrow, no suffering, no pain, no disease, and no death, and where the individual soul regains the consciousness of his infinite and immortal nature and becomes free from the bondages of ignorance, lust and selfishness. That state is the highest ideal of all the individuals. We are all seeking after that blissful state, consciously or unconsciously. We are moving onward towards that realization, and nothing can satisfy us till we have gained it. We may have wealth, property, position, name and fame, and comforts of life, still there is something for which they are longing. They are not happy and cannot be happy, and it is impossible to be so. All religions try to describe that supreme state. It is rather the goal of all religions, and it is also the ideal of all scriptures. Again, this state of Nirvana is not the same as the Christian Paradise, but it is much higher than that, because in that state of Nirvana the individual soul becomes one with the universal Spirit. The universal Spirit is called the Brahman in Vedanta. That is the eternal abode of the absolute Existence, Knowledge, and Bliss, and that is the infinite source of wisdom or knowledge.

When the soul realizes the oneness with the absolute Brahman, it becomes conscious of the unity with the Brahman, when Vedanta also says: brahmavid brahmaiva bhavati. The individual soul then loses its entire existence into the ocean of the Brahman. This state is also known as the state of Nirvana which is free from the bindings of sorrow, suffering, disease, and death. Buddha meant the same state as was expressed in Vedanta, i.e. that which Buddha called the absolute thought, was the same as the Brahman of the Vedanta philosophers, though some of the Buddha’s followers interpreted it differently. As for example, Buddha said that when the flame of lust and fire of desire are extinguished, Nirvana is attained. And Vedanta teaches that when the light of the eternal wisdom dawns upon the soul, it dispels the darkness of ignorance or maya and that very moment the clinging to the material body and its pleasure ceases forever, and the individual soul becomes no longer subject to the movements of the wheel of evolution. Therefore Nirvana means the realization of the oneness with the supreme Spirit^[1], and that Spirit is an immediate awareness of the absolute Brahman as described in Vedanta. Therefore how can there be any more sorrow in one who sees Divinity everywhere, rather wherever he casts his eyes, he sees the manifestation of the divine Absolute.

In fact, the idea of Nirvana excludes the wrong idea of the extinction or annihilation of the soul entity, or the absorption of the soul into some other substances. These questions do not rise in the Vedanta philosophy.^[2] The soul cannot be annihilated or cannot be reduced to non-existence, because the absolute Truth is indestructible; it is immortal; and so, how can it be annihilated? Similarly there cannot be any question of absorption of the individual soul into any other substance, because it has never been separated from the Brahman which is one without the second. The status of Nirvana is the same. Therefore, we should attain to Nirvana. And it should be remembered that we should not have to search for this Nirvana in the mountains or caves, but would search for it in our heart and realize it with its fulness.

This Nirvana is to be accomplished in this life. It can be accomplished in the twinkling of an eye if we have that self-confidence, absolute faith and sincerity. The moment an individual soul realizes his divine nature and his oneness with the supreme Being, that very moment he becomes free from all bondages, and does not have to wait until the Day of Judgment.

When the divine realization or Nirvana comes, even the soul of the greatest sinner will be purified by the fire of the divine Light, and instantly that soul will be transformed or rather be transfigured into pure consciousness (shuddha chaitanya).

Now, the happiness, which comes in the state of Nirvana, cannot be compared with any other happiness. It is much higher, much deeper, and more greater than the happiness of any other realm of existence. He who attains to Nirvana, transcends all realms and rises above all the relative planes. He is free from all kinds of desire, passion and lust. It is said in one of the Upanishads: “He whose ideal is the realization of the Atman, or of the divine nature, his desires are fulfilled, and he is free from birth and death”. Such a soul is not subject to the law of reincarnation any more, but he is above and beyond the wheel of evolution, and he enters into the domain of Nirvana and enjoys the eternal peace forever and ever.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

But some of the Buddhist schools do not admit this theory.

[2]:

In the non-dualistic school of Vedanta.