BUDDHA'S CONCEPTION OF NIRVANA
All is impermanent, all is essence less and Nirvana is the only calm, this three-fold teaching is the foundation stone of the edifice of Buddhism. In the time of Buddha the speculative philosophy was too much emphasized in India. People used to waste their time in the metaphysical discussions ignoring the hard realities of life. The Herculeam task before him was to shift the emphasis from mere metaphysics to spiritual realization, from the metaphysical wrangling to the actual efforts to be free from the pains of life, from mere theory to practice.
Buddha saw that the cycle of birth and death is very painful and never ending. He preached the Dhamma to stop this cycle, to cross the ocean of samsara. The Dhamma is to flee from the evil and do the good, to be loving, true, patient and pure in life. He emphasized practice. He who has known the Dhamma but does not shape his life according to it is like a man who having read a book on cookery imagines that he has eaten the sweets described in it; or to use Buddha's own analogy, he is a cowherd who only counts the cows of others but has none of his own in them.
If the conditions which are helpful in the origination of suffering be removed, the suffering will be removed automatically. And the condition are removable. Buddha has shown the way to remove the suffering of the world. The way consists of eight steps. They are –
1.Right faith (samyak drsti)
2.Right resolve. (samyak samkalpa)
3.Right speech (samyak vak)
4.Right action (samyak karmanta)
5.Right living (samyak ajiva)
6.Right effort (samyak vyayama)
7.Right thought (samyak-smrti)
8.Right concentration (samyak-samadhi)
This path of eight-fold moral practices is known as the Arya-Astangika-marga. As the Ganges goes towards the East so the follower of the Astangika marga goes towards the Nirvana. This has been explained by Buddha again and again.
Upasiva asks the Lord about the one who attained Nirvana-
"Is he, Sir, reborn?"
"It does not fit in the case to say that he is reborn." Was the answer of the Lord.
"Is he, not reborn.
"That tooo does not fit in the case he is not reborn." Was the same answer of the Lord.
"Then, Sir, is he neither reborn nor not reborn?"
"That too does not fit in the case to say that he is neither reborn nor not reborn" was the same answer of the Lord.
This passage clearly maintains that the state of Nirvana is beyond the four categories of thougt- 'Is', 'Is no', 'Both Is and Is not', and 'Neither Is nor Is not'. The same thing is again explained on the classical Buddhist analogy of the extinction of fire. When the fie is extinguished that does not fit in the case that it has gone to the East. West or any other direction. It was burning because of the fuel, and when the fuel is exhausted, it has become calm simply. Similarly. When the yogi attains Nirvana, he does not go upward or downward but only becomes calm in the absence of fuel of cravings, hatred, lust and other passions.
No account of Mahayana Nirvana will be complete without giving some mention of the perfections (paramitas) which a Bodhisttava has to practice, and the different stages in his career. The paramitas are so called because" They are acquired during a long period of time and are supremely pure in their nature.
They are the means to reach the other shore, of Nirvana. There are six principle paramitas-
1. Dana Paramita :
Dana means giving, charity, A bodhisattava should practice to give every thing he has- his wealth, wife, children, life and even the punyas earned by him by performing meritorious actions. He should be happy and joyful while giving. There are nine kinds of Dana…
2. Sila Paramita:
Sila means morality. A bodhisttava should be perfectly moral in all his dealings with other living-being. We may like to point out that, unlike Hinayanists, for Mahaynists the morality is not simply negative, refraining from doing evil actions is not sufficient, positive good actions should be performed by a bodhisattava. A bodhisatta should bemerciful towards all living-being. He should even be prepared to sin for the sake of others. Thus, according to Mahayana, in certain cases the end justifies the means.
3. Ksanti Paramita :
Ksanti means forbearance, patience, not feeling dejected in the face of evils. It is "freedom from anger and axcitement", habit of enduring and pardoning injuries and insults." A bodhi sattva should never think to return evil by evil. He should check the evil thoughts coming in his mind. He should check the evil thoughts coming in his mind. He should realize that all troubles are due to certain causes. He should patiently try to eradicate the causes of a particular pain.
4. Virya Paramita :
Virya means energy, strength, courage etc. A bodhisattava should be strong spiritually. He should have a firm resolve to lead the living-being towards Nirvanas. "The bodhisattva of the Mahayana answers to the awakened of the Upanisads, the Saviour of Christianity, the super man of Nietzsche, for he helps the world, which is powerless to accomplish its end by itself."
5. Dhyana Paramita :
Dhyana means "concentration and stability or fixity of mind." Like a yogi, the bodhisattva should practice to concentrate his mind on any object and for any period of time.
6. Prajna Paramita :
Prajna Paramita is the Summun bonum of Mahayans Budhism. Prajna means "wisdom", "insight", "intuition", "perfect knowledge" etc. It is the realization of the svabhava-sunyata of the empirical world, or to understand the Law of Dependent Origination. It is to realize that there is not the least difference between the samsara and the Nirvana. The same thing viewed as a process is samsara, viewed as a whole it is Nirvana.
The approach of the Nyaya-Vaisesika to liberation is a rational one. To the worldly man, who is busy with every day problems of life, liberation appears to be simply a word without meaning an ideal which can never be realized. He even thinks that it is absurd to speak about liberation.
The Nyaya-Vaisesika philosophers have anticipated certain doubts which can be raised by a worldly man against the possibility of liberation. While removing these doubts, they have maintained that liberation is not simply a pious wish', but a fact which can be realized. The doubts anticipated by them are as follows.
1. Rnanubandha :
According to Sruti, when a man takes birth, he comes with three debts which he has to pay during the life. They are the debts (a) of the saints and sages (Rsis), (b) of the ancestors (pitras) and (c) of the Gods (Devas). It is necessary that a man should be free from all theses debts. But, during the life time a man can hardly pay these debts. Then, how can he think to attain liberation? Does is not remain for him only a pious wish a utopia?
2. Klesanubandha :
There are hundreds of defects in man. It appears to him quite impossible to get rid of them. Then, where is the time with him to think of attaining liberation?
3. Pravrttyanubandha :
Activity is instinctive for man. He cannot remain inactive even for a moment. While doing actions, he is attached with the fruits of them, which cause the circuit of birth and death. Then, how can he attain liberation?
4. And lastly, it is a fact that every activity yields some fruits. These fruits can be exhausted only by experiencing them. The experience of the fruits of previous actions lead to another actions, and so on ad infinitum. How can the circuit of birth and death stop? Thus, it appears that the ideal of liberation will remain an ideal for ever.
Nyaya-Vaisesika philosopher have attempted to remove these doubts. Naiyayikas hold that the term debt in the above case is only secondary, what is important is to observer brahmacarya, the producing of children, and the performance of religions rites. Had liberation been impossible, there would have been no sense in mentioning a stage after grahasthsrama by the Sruti. The real significance of this stage of life lies in preparing one for liberation. As regards the defects, Nayayikas maintain that they are not irremovable. One can get rid of them by constantly thinking contrary to them. Besides this, it is only because of these defects that a man is disgusted with the worldly life. And naturally turns towards renunciation, which is a necessary prerequisite for the attainment of liberation, Regarding the third and the fourth doubts, cause of bondage, have been removed, the activity cannot help the continuity of the cycle of rebirth.
The Naiyayika definition of liberation is "the absolute freedom from all pains." The Vaisesikasutrakara explains it as "the non-existence of conjunction with the body, when there is at the same time no potential body existing, and consequently rebirth cannot take place." The Tarkadipika defines it as "the absolute destruction of all pains". Nyaya-Vartika defines it as "the absolute absence of all pains." In Nyaya-Kandali also, it has been defined similarly.
Prabhakara gives the following stages from the worldly man to the liberation. They are-
i) First of all, the man become disgusted with the troubles that he has to suffer during the life.
ii) Even the worldly pleasure cannot satisfy him because it is found that they are invariably followed by pains. Thus, he is disgusted with the worldly pains and pleasure both, with the world itself.
iii) Consequently, he starts the search of a thing which may be free from pains and pleasure both.
iv) In order to attain this goal he refrains from the prohibited actions (nisiddhakarma), and also from those actions which are done for some future happiness (kamyakarma), as asked by the Vedas.
V) He exhausts all fruits of merits (dharma) and demerits (adharma) by experiencing them.
vi) Thus, he destroys receptacle of all experience and attains the knowledge of the soul. Then the soul ceases to have the connection with the body. The soul is now free.
Thus, the seeker for liberation should refrain from doing the prohibited actions as well as desired actions; but he should perform the obligatory duties, because the non-performance of them will produce sin, and embodiment will again become necessary to exhaust the fruits of those sins. One must perform the duties for their own sake alone. Prabhakara emphasizes the realization of the ideal of duty for its own sake (Niyogasiddhi). This has been emphasized so much by Prabhakara that it is regarded as equivalent to liberation.
The yoga emphasizes that the ideal put forth by the Sankhya cannot be attained by any means except the pactices of astanga-yoga the eight-fold yogic practices. The eight fold practices of Yoga are as follows:
1. Forbearance (Yama): Forbearance consists in not killing, truthfulness, not stealing, continence and not coveting.
2. Religious observances (Niyama):- Religious observances are purification, contentment, austerity, inaudible mutterings and preserving to the Load
3. A posture is what is steady end pleasant.
4. Pranayama means the control of breath and deals with regulation etc. of breath.
5. Restraint of Pratyanara is the control of the senses and consists in withdrawing the senses from their objects.
6. Dharana is the fixing of the internal organ or mind on the object of meditation.
7. Dhyana means meditation, and consists in undisturbed flow of thought round the object of mediation. It is the steadfast contemplation without any break.
8. Samadhi means concentration. In this state, the mind is completely absorbed in the object of meditation. In the previous stage the object and meditation are separate, but in this stage both have become one. This is only a much higher stage of the previous one, viz., Dhyana.
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