________________
ON BUDDHIST NIR YAŅA
41
that burned because of fuel consisting of straw and wood, has consumed this and not been given anything else is, therefore, called 'extinguished (nibbuto) through lack of fuel (upādāna).'
Buddha - Similarly, the form by which the Tathāgata is being recognised (by the people as 'He is Gotama'), that recognisable (and hence name-bearing) form of Tathāgata is annihilated, its roots cut off, uprooted, like a palm tree, from further growth and rebirth in future. Tathāgata is free from form and name, he is deep, immeasurable, unfathomable just as a deep ocean.
To understand the above discussion we should first study the Buddhist conception of matter. According to Buddhism, all material bodies consist of the same molecules (rūpaparamāņu). And a molecule (rūpaparamāņu) consists of eight atoms, four primary and four secondary. Primary atoms are the solid atom (prthivyanu), the liquid atom (jalāņu), the hot atom (tejasānu) and the moving atom (vāyvaņu). The secondary are the atoms of colour, smell, taste and touch. Primary or secondary atoms are not found outside a molecule (rūpaparamānu). This means that in their original state all rūpaparamāņus are absolutely alike. They are homogeneous; there is lack of differentiation. But the upādānas (conditions like fuel) impart them different forms, viz. fire-form, water-form, etc. So, when the upādānas are removed, destroyed or consumed the different forms disappear and rūpaparamāņus attain their homogeneous state. When the fire is extinguished, the fire-form imparted to rūpaparamāņus by the fuel (upādāna) is annihilated and not the rūpaparamāņus. Thus the analogy is complete; the fuel corresponds to personality factors (skandhas), the fire-form to personality (pudgala), rūpaparamāņus divested of fire-form to the citta-continuum free from personality. As the fireform is annihilated in the event of its extinction, the question as to where the fireform goes is wrong; the fireform simply does not exist then. So there arises no question of its going to some place.
This explanation is in harmony with the words of Buddha : “Similarly, the form by which the Tathāgata is being recognised (by the people, say, as Gotama), that recognisable (and hence namebearing) form of Tathāgata is annihilated, its roots cut off,.... Tathāgata is free from form and name...” By the term 'form' is meant personality (pudgala), by the phrase 'its roots' the five personality factors (skandhas) which give rise to personality and by the phrase
