The Conception of Buddhist Nirvana — Th. Stcherbatsky (1927)
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The estrangement which befell many scholars at the idea of annihila¬ tion as the ultimate goal of a religion would perhaps never have been so strong if it had been known that Buddhism was by no means the only Indian system which had arrived at such conclusions. Besides a series of systems of a decidedly materialistic tinge, the orthodox Nyaya-Vaisesika system adhered to the conception of an absolutely lifeless Nirvana. 1 This annihila¬ tion of all life is here called Final Deliferance ( moksa ) or Absolute End (apavarga) and is characterized as a kind of «superbliss» (: ni1isreyasa )». 2 «Is it possible)), asks Vatsyayana, «that an enlightened man should favour a Final Release in which there is neither bliss nor consciousness))? And he answers by another question — «Is it possible that an enlightened man should not favour the idea of a Final Release where all turmoil of life is stopped for ever and where there is no consciousness about it!». «This Release)), he says, «is tranquility where everything is given up, everything has ceased to exist, and therefore a great deal of depression, horrors and sin are extinct». 3 Jayanta exclaims likewise, «is it possible that reasonable men should make efforts in order to reduce themselves to a stone-like (inanimate) condition?)) and gives the same reply. 4
All Indian philosophical systems professed to be doctrines of Salvation. They therefore start from the conception of a whole ( sarvam ) 5 which is then
1 Cf. S. N. Dasgupta’s History of Indian Philosophy, p. 362 ff.
2 Nyayasutra, I, 1, 2 and 22.
8 Nyayabhasya, p. 9 (Vizian.).
4 Nyayamanjarl, p. 509 (Vizian.).
5 That sarvam , in its technical sense, does not include nirvana, as M. delaVallee Poussin asserts, op. cit. p. 139, is quite wrong. Sarvam means sarvam jheyam which is but an
XX. NYAYA-VAISESIKA split in two halves, Phenomenal life and the Absolute (samsdra and nirvana). The phenomenal part is further divided into an analysis of its actual condi¬ tion ( duhkha ), its driving forces ( duhkha-samudaya ) and their gradual extinction ( mdrga ). When this extinction (nirodha) is reached, life merges into the Absolute about whose essence a variety of constructions exist. These four topics, — the four « noble truths », as the term has been very inadequately translated and represented as a fundamental principle of Buddhism, — contain, in reality, no doctrine at all. 1 It is only a scheme for philosophical con¬ structions and is accepted as such by all Indian systems without exception. They cover, indeed, the Indian conception of philosophy. Uddyotakara says, «these are the four topics which are investigated by every philosopher in every system of metaphysics)). 2 Accordingly every philosophical system must contain an analysis of the elements of life, a doctrine about its driving forces, a doctrine of the Absolute and a doctrine about the method to be followed in order to escape out of phenomenal life and become merged in the Absolute. Phenomenal life receives in the Nyaya-Vaisesika system the designation of duhkha , just as in Buddhism. It is very inadequate to translate this term by suffering, misery, pain etc., since it covers such items as ina¬ nimate matter, the five objects of sense, colours, sounds, tastes and tactile phenomena. 3 These are not the objects to which the term suffering can be other name for the 12 ayatanas (corresponding to the 12 prameyas of Nyayasutra I, 1, 9), nirvana is included in ayatana JV? 12 ( dhammd ), cf. my Central Conception, appendix II, p.106, the elements E. 2—3. This is also clear from Samyutta IV, 15 where sabba is used in its technical sense, sabba-vaggo, sabbam vo bhikkhave desissami. The passage in Majjhima I, 3 contains no statement about this topic at all. The classification of the elements into 12 ayatanas and into 16 dhatus includes nirvana, the one into skandhas (VI th classification) does not. Cp. also Triipsika, p. 36, sarvam iti traidhatukam asamskrtam ca.
1 This clearly appears from the fact that the «truths* are explicitly admitted in the Sankhya, Yoga, Nyaya and Vaise§ika systems and implicitly in all the others. Within the pale of Buddhism they cover two opposite theories, the dharma — pudgala-nairatmya theory of the Hinayana and the Sunyatd = dharma-nairatmya theory of Mahayana, cf. above p. 41. They are a classification of the elements in four stages as viewed by the saint, the arya, cf. Madh. vptti, p. 127, arydndm eva tat satyam, and Ab. Kosa, VI, 2, and the tables appended to my Central Conception. The editors of the P. T. S. Pali Diet, think that arya has a a racial* meaning, aryapudgala would then mean, not the same as anasrava-dharmdh or marga-satya, but something like «a noble gentleman*; but T. W. Rhys Davids rightly translates it «Arhat» in D. N., i, 37, cf. Dialogues, I, 51.
2 Nyayavart, ed. B. I., p. 13, etani catvary arthapaddni sarvasv adhyatmavidyasu sarvacaryair varnyanta iti.