Editing Nirvana (section)

== Etymology ==
The ideas of spiritual liberation, with the concept of soul and Brahman, appear in Vedic texts and Upanishads, such as in verse 4.4.6 of the [[Brihadaranyaka Upanishad]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Max Müller |title=Theosophy Or Psychological Religion |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PjiD_XWea7cC |year=2011|publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-07326-4 |pages=307–310 }}</ref>

The term ''nirvana'' in the soteriological sense of "blown out, extinguished" state of liberation appears at many places in the Vedas and even more in the post-Buddhist [[Bhagavata Purana]], however populist opinion does not give credit to either the [[Veda]]s or the [[Upanishad]]s. Collins states, "the Buddhists seem to have been the first to call it ''nirvana''."{{sfn|Collins|1998|pp=137–138}} This may have been deliberate use of words in early Buddhism, suggests Collins, since Atman and Brahman were described in Vedic texts and Upanishads with the imagery of fire, as something good, desirable and liberating.{{sfn|Collins|1998|p=216–217}} Collins says the word ''nirvāṇa'' is from the verbal root {{Transliteration|sa|vā}} "blow" in the form of past participle {{Transliteration|sa|vāna}} "blown", prefixed with the preverb {{Transliteration|sa|nis}} meaning "out". Hence the original meaning of the word is "blown out, extinguished". ([[Sandhi]] changes the sounds: the ''v'' of {{Transliteration|sa|vāna}} causes {{Transliteration|sa|nis}} to become {{Transliteration|sa|nir}}, and then the ''r'' of {{Transliteration|sa|nir}} causes [[retroflexion]] of the following ''n'': ''{{Transliteration|sa|nis}}+{{Transliteration|sa|vāna}}'' > ''nirvāṇa'').{{sfn|Collins|2010|pp=63–64}} However the Buddhist meaning of nirvana also has other [[Nirvana (Buddhism)#Etymology|interpretations]].

[[L. S. Cousins]] said that in popular usage nirvana was "the goal of Buddhist discipline,... the final removal of the disturbing mental elements which obstruct a peaceful and clear state of mind, together with a state of awakening from the mental sleep which they induce."<ref>{{cite book |title=The Concise Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy |year=2000 |page=[https://archive.org/details/conciseroutledge00edwa/page/632/mode/2up?q=nirvana 632]}}</ref>