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 253

Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
Buddhism
221
that the most exact and the most authoritative definition of Nirvāna is not annihilation, but ' unqualified deliverance', a deliverance of which we have no right to predicate anything."1 Nirvāṇa cannot be properly understood by vigorously continuing the various controversies as Nirvāna escapes them all; perhaps stopping thinking about it and stopping to put it in the rigid frames of thinking, it is the easier way to know the real nature of Nirvana.
The Mahāyānists refuse to remain fully content with the attainment of Nirvana only for the individual. They were the men who came ahead to help all the needy and helpless in their task of attaining the Nirvāna. As it is said in the Mahapadūna Sutta, one should look from above at the world which is drowned in the grief of birth and life by overcoming all passions, attachments and suffering with love and compassion for all as though one looks on the surrounding land standing on the peak of a high mountain. Thus, the individual completely forgets his own particular existence, relinquishes his limited personality and liquidates his separate existence. He no more exists as a particular individual. He completely negates himself. No more does he aspire anything for himself exist for his personal happiness. He is no more interested in his personal gains. He rises beyond his personal happiness and pain. He is no more pleased by his gains nor is he afflicted by his personal loss. Nothing remains for
1 Poussin D. L. V.: The Way to Nirvāṇa, p. 131. 2 Digha Nikya, Part II—Mahāpadana Sutta-7.
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