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THE DOCTRINE OF LIBERATION IN INDIAN RELIGIONS
uncreated, and yet it is not away from them'. 29 It is the Tathatā assisted by mahākaruņā and mahāprajñā.
Lord Buddha, affirming the sole reality of the truth, says : "There is only one Supreme Truth, O monks, and this is nirvāņa, the infallible dharma."'30 It is beyond the horizon of causes and conditions. It is the Ultimate Good and end of all strains and strivings. All the schools of Buddhism agree with śānta and asamskyta nature of nirvāņa. It means it is eternal and ineffable peace and by nature uncreated. CONCEPTION OF NIRVĀŅA IN ABHIDHARMA SCHOOLS
In the Milindapañho, niryāna is described as something positive, non-temporal and supremely beatific. It can be experienced though not described. Nirvāṇa is infinite bliss, absolutely beyond pains and sufferings. The author maintains that as the water of an ocean cannot be measured, so also the richness of nirvāṇa cannot be described through language. It is the cessation of craving, and consequently, cessation of grasping, becoming, birth, old age, death, lamentation etc.31 For Anuruddhācariya, Nibbāna is eternal, transcendental, supreme, realisable and unique. It is the ārammaņa of the maggaphalas. 32 As G.C. Pande states “Theravāda, thus, throughout its long history, consistently held nibbāna to be positive, experienceable, indescribable and supreme-the most worthwhile."33
Let us see the conception of nirvāņa according to the two main schools of Hinayāna Buddhism-Vaibhāșika and Sautrântika.
Nirvāna is conceived here as of eternal nature (dharma-svabhāva). It is real, everlasting and a positive state of existence. It is impersonal, noumenal and asamskrta-dharma. Pratisamkhyā-nirodha and Apratisamkhyā-nirodha are thus resolved in the concept of nirvāņa or nirodha. Satkari Mookerjee states :
"Pratisamkhyā-nirodha by the removal of kleśas directly unfolds the state of nirvana and the apratisamkhya-nirodha is necessary to ensure the non-emergence of the kleśas by the perpetual removal of the causes and conditions of the same."34
29. 30.
31.
D.T. Suzuki, Studies in the Lankavatārasūtra (London, 1968 reprint), p. 96. After L.M, Joshi, 'Truth: A Buddhist Perspective' in The Journal of Religious Studies, vol. IV (1972), p. 68. Milindapraśna, III. 4-6. Abhidhammattha-sangaho (ed. Kosambi), pp. 124-125. G.C. Pande, op. cit., p. 445. Satkari Mookerjee, Buddhist Philosophy of Universal Flux, p. 246.
33. 34.
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