Page 120 - Wisdom Unfurled

priceless state of unending bliss? In the condition of release the soul attains the state of its fullest unfoldment or blossoming, manifesting its essential nature of knowledge and freedom from all evil and sin to the fullest degree. This nature had been obscured and contracted while in the state of bondage due to the effects of karma. The released soul possesses the power of beholding the Supreme person, enjoys the company of the Supreme and has its supreme delight in His service. While it enjoys uninterrupted Bliss in equal measure with the Supreme, this equality does not extend to the cosmic functions of the Supreme. Further the soul continues to be a dependent on the Supreme even in its final state of release, for it is ever the body of the Supreme Being. Having reached the abode of the Supreme, regarded as the Srivaikunta by the devout Viashnavites there is no return to the earthly plane of bondage, suffering and misery.
Buddhism and Jainism
The unorthodox and fundamentally atheistic religions, Jainism and Buddhism do not talk about God-realization. Buddha did not evince any interest in knowledge for the sake of knowledge, which according to him is mere idle speculation. Hence he did not entertain purely metaphysical questions relating to the ultimate origin of things, the self and God. He directed the attention to the practical problem of the existence of suffering, its cause and the way to get rid of suffering entirely and permanently. The bodhi or the Wisdom of the Buddha is the illumination concerning the issues connected with suffering and it consists of the Four Noble Truths, the Third of which is the extinction of suffering (nirodha) called Nirvana, while the Fourth Noble Truth comprising the eightfold path is pressed into the service of the total eradication of suffering. This blessed state of Nirvana is regarded as the complete cessation of suffering and extirpation of craving, tanha, cause of suffering. It is a state where the five aggregates (skandhas) viz., form, feeling, perception, karma volitions and consciousness itself and all that pertains to the aggregates have ceased. There is no more becoming and it is the supreme security from bondage. It is the state of release from the wheel of existence. It is beyond all relativity, is neither the effect of a cause nor it can give rise to any effect, it is neither the path nor the fruit, it is the supreme Truth, Absolute, Unconditioned and the Uncompounded. It has also been described as the state of absolute happiness, paramam sukham by the Buddha himself in the words, ‘A burden, indeed, are the five aggregates; Happy it is to lay down that burden’. In the state of Enlightenment, there is only joy arising out of the casting away of the burdens.
Nirvana experience cannot be communicated from one to another, it has to be experienced by each and every person for himself by following the eightfold