Krishna: Nirvana Defined

In the Bhagavad Gita, the Sanskrit terms nirvana is defined. This terms became popular in relation to Gautam Buddha who was reputed to attain nirvana but it is a Sanskrit term which was in usage in India long before Buddha. We must be careful however. The meaning of nirvana is not the same for one and all.

More or less in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna proclaimed himself as God and as being unlimited in reference to everyone else, in reference to fallible and infallible persons. Buddha on the other hand, did not say that he was God even though he tagged himself as the special enlightened one for many thousands of years after his birth. Hence to say that nirvana means the same to both of these persons is just to add more confusion in the name of over-simplification.

Nirvana means different states to different people. Thus we should not New-Age the term and assume that what it meant to Krishna is what it meant to Buddha. Even the term enlightenment means different accomplishments depending on who defined it. Running these terms together, being hasty to trace them as having the same meaning for one and all, merely adds to the confusion and contributes further to the lack of clarity about the various states of consciousness achieved by exceptional humans.

Here is one usage of the term nirvana by Lord Krishna (my English Translation):

लभन्ते ब्रह्मनिर्वाणम्

ऋषयः क्षीणकल्मषाः ।

छिन्नद्वैधा यतात्मानः

सर्वभूतहिते रताः ॥५.२५॥

labhante brahmanirvāṇam

ṛṣayaḥ kṣīṇakalmaṣāḥ

chinnadvaidhā yatātmānaḥ

sarvabhūtahite ratāḥ (5.25)

labhante — they attain; brahmanirvāṇaṁ — cessation of material existence and a simultaneous absorption in spirituality; ṛṣayaḥ — the seers; kṣīṇakalmaṣāḥ = kṣīṇa — terminates + kalmaṣāḥ — sins, faults; chinnadvaidhā = chinna — removed + dvaidhā — doubts; yatātmānaḥ = yata — restrained + ātmānaḥ — souls; sarvabhūtahite = sarva — all + bhūta — creatures + hite — in welfare; ratāḥ — joy

Those seers whose sins and faults are terminated, whose doubts are removed, whose souls are restrained, who find joy in regarding the welfare of the creatures, attain a cessation of their material existence and a simultaneous absorption in spirituality. (5.25)

Brahma nirvana really means the attainment of brahma with the cutting off of connections with the prakriti material existence. This pertains to both the supernatural, psychic and physical material natures. The ascetic can touch or reach into or connect into the brahma spiritual plane of existence and still have some residual awareness-contact with the material existence, in which case he or she would be in brahma but would also be in the supernatural, psychic or physical material nature. But if the ascent has no contact with the material nature on any of its levels, then that is nirvana in reference to material existence. Material nature is more than a physical environment. It also has psychic and supernatural levels of manifestation as well as a causal plane and an unmanifest energy which is primeval.

Without reference to any phase of the material nature’s energy, the ascetic would be in state where his sins and faults would be terminated, his doubts would be removed, his psyche would be restrained and if he resumed contact with material existence, he would find joy in the welfare of all creatures, as a matter of course

On resuming focus into material nature, on any of its levels, the yogi would again become a social focus but for his or her part, the contact with brahma spiritual plane would be operative such that he or she would instinctively be de-focused from material existence.