Jain Journal 1980 01

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 30

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JAIN JOURNAL
with pitcher or any other pot. But in spite of the inadmissibility of this suggestion, the move here is in the right direction. It is better to err in this direction than to severe "nivvāņa” from its most general and accepted denotation of extinction.
Dictionaries give two etymologies of the word “nirvāņa”-nir tv vā= to blow and nir + Vv= to cover up. But from the abundant usages of the term "niyvāņa" in the Pali literature one concludes that it rather means going out of fire by itself than its being put out by some external means like blowing or covering up. Its metaphorical usages suggest that the fuel of the karmas being consumed to the last bit, “nirvāņa” or going out of the fire of birth and death follows. Its other meanings like “health” and “spiritual well-being” are rooted in this metaphor. A state of health or physical well-being may result from the passing away of restlessness, of the feverish condition. Similarly a state of spiritual well-being may follow from the dying out, in the heart, of the three-fold fire of rāga (lust), dveşa (ill-will) and moha (stupidity). Thus one may conclude that in all its usages the term “nirvāņa" is associated with the idea of extinction, going out of a lamp or fire. Hence to dissociate it from this meaning is unwarranted.
Now a state of extinction or going out by itself, in case of fire, may come quickly if fuel to be consumed is in a small quantity or the fire which consumes, is somehow incited. A weak fire may go out by itself without consuming the fuels in their entirety. In this case the extinction will not be the final one for the unburnt or half burnt fuels will retain the potentiality of a second ignition thus bringing into existence the fire for a second time. The state of final extinction may come quicklier if the fuel is reduced or the fire is incited. A line quoted in the Pali Dictionary of Rhys Davids to illustrate the meaning of "pariniyvāņa”, final extinction, mentions both the conditions - "khināsavā jutimanto loke parinibbutā.” The idea that a total combustion of all existing fuels will be hastened and also doubly insured if the fire is somehow incited, is too plain to need much elaboration. Phrases such as "parama nirvāņa” or "nitya nirvana” denote final extinction in which state the entire fuel the cause of cobustion - being consumed to the last bit, there remains in them no potentiality for any further combustion. The idea of an absolute and permanent extinction following from a complete combustion of all fuels in a strong fire, is expressed in the following verse of the Garuda Purāņa
yogāgni dagdhasamasta kleša samcayah nirvāņam paramam nityam prāpnotyeva na samsayah.