tman_and_moksa

SR No.: 020053
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: G N Joshi
Publisher: Gujarat University
Publication Year: 1965
Total Pages: 901
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 12 MB

Page 196

Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
164
Atman and Mala
which causes grief and sorrow.' It is a psychological causal chain in which the preceding experience causes the succeeding one.
Nirvana in Pali means 'blowing off' or 'to existinguish'. Nirvāņa consists in the complete cessation of sorrow, and it would not become possible unless the very causes of serrow are uprooted. Buddhism advocates the eradication of all passions and lust which are supposed to be caused by ignorance. Desires, not being always uniformly satisfied, bring in their train a sense of frustration, disappointment, deprivation and suffering. Therefore, naturally, it becomes necessary to uproot them. It is said in the Dhamma pada “As a tree, even though it has been cut down, is firm so long as its root is safe, and grows again, thus, unless the feeders of thirst are destroyed, this pain (of life) will return again and again."? It is not sufficient, according to Buddha, to overcome and suppress some particular desires here and there; but he advocated the complete eradication of lust itself which acts as the source of all desires. It is said "Cut down the whole forest (of lust), not a tree only; Danger comes out of the förest (of lust), when its undergrowth, then, Bhikshus, you will be rid of the forest and free."$ This becomes possible only by undertaking austere moral penance. The seekers of Nirvāņa are advised not to indulge in any kind of passion and desire but to weed out all the passions by means of enlightenment and
1 Digha Nikaya, Part II : Maha nidãna Sutta. 15. 2. Max Müller (Tr.) : Dhammapada, 338, p. 80. 3 Ibid., 283, p.68.
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