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152 OUTLINES OF INDIAN PHILOSOPHY
The object to be attained by following this discipline is designated nirvāna. The word literally means 'blowing out' (p. 114) or 'becoming cool'; and signifies annihilation-the 'heaven of nothingness' as it has been described. When it is reached, the constant procession of the five-fold aggregate disappears once for all. This of course is the view which accords best with the theoretical position of Buddhism, and salvation then becomes literally 'the unmaking of ourselves.' But the extremely negative character of such an ideal unfits it to serve as an incentive to man for pursuing the course of discipline recommended for its attainment, and thus appears to defeat the very purpose of Buddha's teaching. So other interpretations have been suggested. Some have flatly denied that nirvana can be annihilation, and represented it as everlasting being or eternal felicity-an ideal hardly different from the Upanişadic mokşa. Others again have taken it as a condition of which nothing whatsoever can be predicated- not even whether it is or is not. All that the term means, according to them, is freedom from suffering: and positive descriptions of it—whatever the speculative interest attaching to them-are irrelevant from the practical standpoint. But it does not seem necessary to resort to such explanations to show that nirvāṇa as conceived in Buddhism is worth striving for, because it does not really signify, as seems to be commonly taken for granted, any state following death. It represents rather the condition which results after perfection is reached and while yet the 'individual continues to live. This would correspond to jivan-mukti, which, as we know, had been well recognized in India by Buddha's time. It is a state when the passions and the limited interests of common life have been extinguished and the person leads a life of perfect peace and equanimity. It connotes a certain habit of mind; and he that has succeeded in cultivating it is known as an arhant, which means 'worthy' or 'holy.' It is this perfect calm to be reached within the four corners of the present life that the Buddhist aims at + IP. vol. i. p. 418. * See e.g. Oldenberg: op. cit., pp. 267-285; Prof. Poussin: op. cit., PP. 115-18.
