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THE DOCTRINE OF LIBERATION IN INDIAN RELIGIONS
"Nirvana is called supreme goal. (2) supreme, (3) supreme Good (parama-artha), (4) best (aggam), (5) excellent (seyyo), (6) exalted (praṇīta), (7) utmost (an-uttaram), (8) the one and only consummation, (9) final release (apavagga). The finality of nirvana lies in that "for a disciple rightly delivered, whose thought is calm, there is nothing to be added to what has been done, and naught more remains for him to do. Just as a rock of one solid mass remains unshaken by the wind, even so forms, sounds, smells, tastes and contacts of any kind, no desired or undesired dharmas, can agitate such a one (pavedhenti tädino). Steadfast is his thought, gained is deliverance."20
A man who has realised the Truth or nirvana is called the "seer of Supreme Reality." He is known as the highest being in the world. He is totally free from all calamities, troubles, complexes, passions and worries of this world and beyond. He is joyful, elevated, enjoying the pure life, his faculties pleased, free from anxiety, serene and peaceful."1 Commenting on the nature of a liberated saint W. Rahula
states:
"As he is free from selfish desire, hatred, ignorance, conceit, pride and all such defilements, he is pure and gentle, full of universal love, compassion, kindness, sympathy, understanding and tolerance. His service to others is of the purest, for he has no thought of self. He gains nothing, accumulates nothing, not even anything spiritual, because he is free from the illusion of self, and the thirst for becoming."22
Nirvāņa is a real entity, permanent, pleasant experience, a level of ethical achievement, an impersonal state, a state of self-realization, knowing the absolute and merging into the absolute, a dimension of existence, ultimate truth and universal, super-individual consciousness.23 S.N. Dasgupta rightly holds' the view that nirvana can be described as "a blissful state though there is no distinction here between the bliss and the enjoyer of bliss." He further states, "This state was rightfully called immortal and blissful because it was looked upon by the Buddhists as the end of all suffering, the goal of all spiritual striving and the culmination of spiritual perfection."24 Mrs. Rhys
20. E. Conze, Buddhist Thought in India, p. 76.
21. Majjhimanikāya, II (PTS), p. 121; W. Rahula, What The Buddha Taught, p. 43.
22.
Ibid.
R.E. Johansson, The Psychology of Nirvana, pp. 112-15,
23.
24. S.N. Dasgupta, Hindu Mysticism, p. 90.
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