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ON BUDDHIST NIRVĀŅA
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2. Description of Nirvāna
Nirvāṇa is freedom from all misery. It is the highest peace.? On this account it is called the higest happiness. It is characterised by the destruction of all desires. Hence it is identical with the complete cessation of attachment (rāga).This seems to be the reason why the citta attaining nirvāṇa becomes 'cool'.11 Thus nirvāṇa is unemotional state. It is deliverance from all ties. It is freedom from obsessions of senuality (kāmāsava), of renewed existence (bhavāsava), of misconceptions about the world and about oneself (ditthāsava) and of ignorance or nescience (avijjāsava)'3. It is cessation of birth, old age and death. It is called purity (suddhi) and freedom from defilements (asamkilittha).16 This is the reason why it is identified with 'freedom from disease (abyādhi)'17 or health' (ārogya) 8. Buddhism aims at purifying citta. As soon as the process of purifying citta attains its completion, citta attains nirvāna i.e. pure state. This process consists of the cultivation of síla, samādhi and prajñā. It would be interesting to compare this description of nirvāṇa with that of sāntarasa given below.
na yatra duḥkham sukham na cintā na dveșa-rāgau na ca kācid icchā /
rasaḥ sa sāntaḥ kathito munindraiḥ
... sarveșu bhāveșu samapradhānaḥ || 3. Nirvāṇa is Extinction of Personality (Pudgala)
All pure citta-continuums, emancipated from all adventitious defiling elements, are absolutely alike. They have no distinguishing traits. They have no personality or individuality. But when they are not pure, they do have personality which is imparted to them by external factors. These factors are called skandhas (personality factors). They are five, viz. rūpa (body), vedanā (feelings of pleasure or pain), sañjñā (ideation, concepts, memory images, thoughts), samskāras (predispositions or tendencies generated by the impressio of past actions bodily, mental and vocal and experiences) and vijñāna (experiences, sensations, percepts). The term 'pudgala' denotes personality. An impure citta-continuum does have personality so long as it is not purified. Nirvāņa being a pure state of citta-continuum, in it there are no personality factors and hence no personality. Jainācārya Akalanka defines nirvāṇa as an absence of five personality factors. 19 Thus nirvāna is an extinction of personality. Personality is a mask that
