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We have seen that the saints, the Buddhist monks, and the Jain [spoken of in the previous chapter] teachers all describe the ultimate goal of the spiritual journey as liberation.
After attaining this state the Buddha proclaimed in ecstasy:
O builder of the house! I have seen you and you will not build the house again. Your rafters are broken, your ridgepole is destroyed! The mind established in nirvana has extinguished all past karmas, and all selfish cravings have been destroyed. (Dhammapada, Jaravaggo)
The Mahopanishad tells of a sage who was immersed in the holy river of wisdom, devotion, and meditation. This sage cries out in similar manner:
Having seen the transcendent (beyond), the knot of the heart (ignorance) is disentangled, all doubts have disappeared, and all karmas have been destroyed!
This is a brief discourse on Lord Buddha's teachings on nirvana and sadhana (the meditation practice).
Was Buddha an Atheist?
In the following section we try to address the claim made by many, including scholars, that since the Buddha did not explicitly speak of God he was a nastika or non-theistic.
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