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 222

Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
199
Atman and Moksa
(klesa) that stick to the souls in bondage are totally and irrevocably extinguished in Nirvāņa. Nirvāņa thus becomes blissful existence which simply consists in being entirely free from deprivation and suffering.
The second important Buddhist creed is known as Mahāyānism. The distinction between Hīnayānism and Mahāyānism is already pointed out. The Ma. hāyānists held that an individual could not reach Nirvana until all the human beings reached it. The Mahāyānists did not seek Nirvāņa only for the individual person but they sought for the whole of the humanity. The Mahāyānists did not mean by Nirvana a state of absolute void and nothingness but they gave a positive meaning to it. Mahāyānism did not preach the absolute annihilation of consciousness and life resulting into a mere insensible blank; on the contrary, Mahāyānism stood for enlightenment and illumination. As D. T. Suzuki describes it "..the Mahāyāna Nirvana is not the annihilation of life but its enlightenment; that it is not the nullification of human passions and aspirations but their purification and ennoblement. This world of eternal transmigration is not a place which should be shunned as the playground of evils but should be regarded as the place of ever present opportunities given to us for the purpose of unfolding all our spiritual possibilities and powers for the sake of universal welfare." Thus, Nirvāṇa received an altogether different turn in the hands of Mahāyānists. Nirvāna no more remained a state of absolute negation and
1 Suzuki D. T. ; Outlines of Mahāyāna Buddhism, p. 367,
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