Editing Nirvana (section)

==Overview==
''Nirvāṇa'' is a term found in the texts of all major [[Indian religions]] – [[Hinduism]],{{sfn|Fowler|2012|p=48}} [[Jainism]],<ref name="Glasenapp1999p234">{{cite book|author=Helmuth von Glasenapp |title=Jainism: An Indian Religion of Salvation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WzEzXDk0v6sC |year=1999|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-1376-2|pages=234, 492}}</ref> [[Buddhism]],{{Sfn|Trainor|2004|p=68}} and [[Sikhism]].{{sfn|Pruthi|2004|p=200}}{{sfn|Duiker|Spielvogel|2008|pp=52–53}} It refers to the profound peace of mind that is acquired with ''moksha'', liberation from [[samsara]], or release from a state of [[Dukkha|suffering]], after respective spiritual practice or [[sādhanā]].{{refn|group=note|It is sometimes referred to as ''bhavana'', which refers to spiritual "development" or "cultivating" or "producing"<ref name="PED">{{cite web |page=503 |title=Bhāvanā |author=Pali Text Society |year=1921–1925 |work=The Pali Text Society's Pali-English dictionary |place=London |publisher=Chipstead |url=https://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/app/pali_query.py?page=503 |access-date=2022-01-27 |via=Digital Dictionaries of South Asia |archive-date=23 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210723091016/https://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/app/pali_query.py?page=503 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="MWD">{{cite web |last=Monier-Williams |year=1899 |page=755 |title=Bhāvana" and "Bhāvanā |access-date=9 Dec 2008 |via=U. Cologne |url=http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/MWScan/MWScanpdf/mw0755-bhAvodaya.pdf |archive-date=4 March 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090304063707/http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/MWScan/MWScanpdf/mw0755-bhAvodaya.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> in the sense of "calling into existence",{{sfn|Nyanatiloka|1980|p=67}}}}

The liberation from Saṃsāra developed as an ultimate goal and soteriological value in the Indian culture, and called by different terms such as nirvana, moksha, mukti and kaivalya. This basic scheme underlies Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism, where "the ultimate aim is the timeless state of ''moksa'', or, as the Buddhists first seem to have called it, nirvana."{{sfn|Collins|2010|p=31}} Although the term occurs in the literatures of a number of ancient Indian traditions, the concept is most commonly associated with Buddhism.<ref name="EB=Nirvana" /> Some writers believe the concept was adopted by other Indian religions after it became established in Buddhism, but with different meanings and description, for instance the use of (''Moksha'') in the Hindu text ''[[Bhagavad Gita]]'' of the ''[[Mahabharata]]''.{{sfn|Fowler|2012|p=48}}

The idea of ''moksha'' is connected to the Vedic culture, where it conveyed a notion of ''amrtam'', "immortality",{{sfn|Collins|2010|p=29}}{{sfn|Collins|1998|p=136}} and also a notion of a ''timeless'', "unborn", or "the still point of the turning world of time". It was also its timeless structure, the whole underlying "the spokes of the invariable but incessant wheel of time".{{refn|group=note|The wheel is a typical Vedic, or Indo-European, symbol, which is manifested in various symbols of the [[Historical vedic religion|Vedic religion]] and of Buddhism and Hinduism. See, for examples, [[Dharmacakra]], [[Chakra]], [[Chakravartin]], [[Kalachakra]], [[Dukkha]] and [[Mandala]].}} The hope for life after death started with notions of going to the worlds of the Fathers or Ancestors and/or the world of the Gods or Heaven.{{sfn|Collins|2010|p=29}}{{refn|group=note|See also [[Heaven (Christianity)]] and Walhalla}}

The earliest [[Vedas|Vedic texts]] incorporate the concept of life, followed by an afterlife in heaven and hell based on cumulative virtues (merit) or vices (demerit).<ref>{{cite book|author1=James Hastings |author2=John Alexander Selbie|author3=Louis Herbert Gray|title=Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UD8TAAAAYAAJ |year=1922|publisher=T. & T. Clark|pages=616–618 |isbn=9780567065124}}</ref> However, the ancient Vedic [[Rishi]]s challenged this idea of afterlife as simplistic, because people do not live an equally moral or immoral life. Between generally virtuous lives, some are more virtuous; while evil too has degrees, and either permanent heaven or permanent hell is disproportionate. The Vedic thinkers introduced the idea of an afterlife in heaven or hell in proportion to one's merit, and when this runs out, one returns and is reborn.{{Sfn|Frazier|2011|pp=84–86}}<ref>{{cite book|author=Atsushi Hayakawa|title=Circulation of Fire in the Veda|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w7LtAgAAQBAJ |year=2014|publisher=LIT Verlag Münster|isbn=978-3-643-90472-0|pages=101–103 with footnote 262 |quote=The concept of punarmrtyu appeared, which conveys that even those who participated in rituals die again in the life after death when the merit of the ritual runs out.}}</ref><ref name="Krishan1997p17">{{cite book|last1=Krishan|first1=Yuvraj|title=The Doctrine of Karma: Its Origin and Development in Brāhmaṇical, Buddhist, and Jaina Traditions|date=1997|publisher=Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan|isbn=9788120812338|pages=17–27|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_Bi6FWX1NOgC&q=The%20Doctrine%20of%20Karma%3A%20Its%20Origin%20and%20Development%20in%20Br%C4%81hma%E1%B9%87ical%2C%20Buddhist%2C%20and%20Jaina%20Traditions&pg=PA17|access-date=3 October 2020|archive-date=13 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210413214453/https://books.google.com/books?id=_Bi6FWX1NOgC&q=The%20Doctrine%20of%20Karma%3A%20Its%20Origin%20and%20Development%20in%20Br%C4%81hma%E1%B9%87ical%2C%20Buddhist%2C%20and%20Jaina%20Traditions&pg=PA17|url-status=live}};<br />{{cite book|title=The New Encyclopædia Britannica|volume=8|year=1998|publisher=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]|isbn=978-0-85229-633-2|page=533|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UZAxAQAAIAAJ|quote=[These Upanishadic texts] record the traditions of sages (Rishis) of the period, notably Yajnavalkya, who was a pioneer of new religious ideas. [...] Throughout the Vedic period, the idea that the world of heaven was not the end – and that even in heaven death was inevitable – had been growing. [...] This doctrine of samsara (reincarnation) is attributed to sage Uddalaka Aruni, [...] In the same text, the doctrine of karma (actions) is attributed to Yajnavalkya...}}</ref> The idea of rebirth following "running out of merit" appears in Buddhist texts as well.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Patrul Rinpoche|title=The Words of My Perfect Teacher|date=1998 |publisher=Shambhala|location=Boston|isbn=978-0-7619-9027-7|pages=95–96 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=40i38mGQ6aAC|quote=After enjoying the happiness of a celestial realm, when his merit runs out he will be reborn here.}}<br/>{{cite web |author=Patrul Rinpoche |year=1998 |title=The Words of My Perfect Teacher |url=http://padmasambhavagururinpoche.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Patrul-Rinpoche-Words-Of-My-Perfect-Teacher.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170510105749/http://padmasambhavagururinpoche.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Patrul-Rinpoche-Words-Of-My-Perfect-Teacher.pdf|archive-date=2017-05-10|url-status=dead}}</ref> This idea appears in many ancient and medieval texts, as  ''[[Saṃsāra]]'', or the endless cycle of life, death, rebirth and redeath, such as section 6:31 of the ''[[Mahabharata]]''{{Sfn|Frazier|2011|pp=84–86, Quote: "They reach the holy world of Indra and enjoy the celestial pleasures of the gods in heaven; but having enjoyed the vast world of heaven, they come back to the world of mortals when their merit runs out. So, by following the injunctions of the three Vedas with a desire for pleasures, they get to travel to and fro. (Mahābhārata 6.31:20–1)"}} and verse 9.21 of the ''Bhagavad Gita''.<ref>{{cite book |translator=Winthrop Sargeant |editor=Christopher Key Chapple |title=The Bhagavad Gita: Twenty-fifth–Anniversary Edition |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=COuy5CDAqt4C |year=2010 |publisher=State University of New York Press |isbn=978-1-4384-2840-6 |page=397 |quote=Having enjoyed the vast world of heaven, they enter the world of mortals when their merit is exhausted. Thus conforming to the law of the three Vedas, Desiring enjoyments, they obtain the state of going and returning. |access-date=5 October 2016 |archive-date=21 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230721075137/https://books.google.com/books?id=COuy5CDAqt4C |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="ykrishanp24">Yuvraj Krishan (1988), Is Karma Evolutionary?, Journal of Indian Council of Philosophical Research, Volume 6, pages 24–26</ref>{{Refn|Many texts discuss this theory of rebirth with the concepts of Devayana (path of gods) and Pitryana (path of fathers).<ref>{{cite book|author=Surendranath Dasgupta|title=A History of Indian Philosophy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NjI9AAAAIAAJ |year=1956 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=520–522 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Paul Deussen|year=2015|title=The System of the Vedanta: According to Badarayana's Brahma-Sutras and Shankara's Commentary thereon |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DI7cCgAAQBAJ|publisher=KB Classics |isbn=978-1-5191-1778-6|pages=357–359}}</ref>|group=note}} The Saṃsara, the life after death, and what impacts rebirth came to be seen as dependent on [[karma]].{{sfn|Collins|2010|p=30}}