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 197

Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
165
proper understanding. The Nirvāṇa is described to be a state of quiescence and eternal unshakable peace. It consists in turning back upon all worldly pleasures and worldly attachments. It consists in not being entangled in the meshes of desires which are produced by ignorance. It is said in the Dhammapada, “Those who are slaves to passions, run down with the stream (of desires), as a spider runs down the web which he made himself; when they have cut this, at last, wise people have the world, free from canes, leaving off all affection behind."1 Nirvāṇa is not only cessation of desires in the present life but it consists also in the permanent release from the wheel of births and deaths, by means of exhausting the already accumulated Kamma and preventing its new generation by means of stopping all mental experienges. Nirvāṇa thus becomes a state of absolute extinction of all consciousness and experience. Sõgen describes it appropriately in the following words. "In its negative aspect, Nirvana is the extinction of the threefold fires of lust, malice and folly; that is to say, it conduces to the utter annihilation of all thoughts of selfishness, to the complete removal of suffering, and to absolute liberation from the round of birth and death."2
Buddhism, like other philosophical systems, emphasizes the need of attaining rigid control over the human passions and for that it also advocates
1 Max Müller (Tr.): Dhammapada, 347, p. 82.
2Sögen Yamakaini : Systems of Buddhistic Thought, p. 33 (latrd. ).
For Private And Personal