The most intriguing question in my entire adult life is the notion of Nirvana or emancipation. What we really want to achieve by attaining Nirvana? Once I met a sadhu or holy man in the Himalayas who could not give me a satisfying answer to this question. A fakir in Rawalpindi living in a secluded place in the foot hills of a mountain just told me that he was searching something which he did not know. A monk in a monastery deep in the Alps Mountains just smiled at my question. Indian philosophy is abounding with this question of Nirvana and there are many stories about the life of many people who searched for it. The search is on but no one yet confirmed that they achieved this illusive emancipation. Indian philosophy explains Nirvana in this way. A transcendent state in which there is neither suffering, desire, nor sense of self and the subject is released from the effects of karma and material world. A story says that a student asked his guru if he will ever meet God. The guru answered in a very mystical way by saying that when you will meet Him you will not be there. The bewildered student begged for more explanation. The guru gave him an example.
He said" Think yourself a river and your wish is to meet the ocean. To fulfil your dream you started your journey from the mountains and finally reached the ocean. After that meeting you become a part of the ocean, you are not there anymore; you don't have a separate identity". A very beautiful example indeed but how fare is this state of the mind is realistic? In Hinduism, moksha is the liberation from the cycle of birth and death and one's worldly conception of self. A person reaches the state of nirvana only when moksha is attained. The Union with the Supreme Being and this experience of blissful ego-less ness is termed nirvana.
In Islamic spiritualism as explained in Sufism that this notion of emancipation is known as fana fillah. This means when a soul melts into the Supreme Being the state of Nirvana is achieved. Here comes the question of existence of God or a Supreme Being. The idea of God has its own history. Many people raised their eye brows when a pragmatist wants some proof of His existence. How to fathom an entity with no shape, no color, no gender, not bound to any space and time and above all beyond any human imagination? How a human sensation can merge into such an illusion?
I personally tried to meditate to understand this puzzle. When I did that following some prescribed way to meditate I reached into a stage where everything seemed to be a void. All my efforts to create something through my human concept turned back to this world of matter and physics. Nothing else could capture my mind except a sensation of being free and happy. The idea of a Supreme Being is time less illusion which has lured some minds to seek it, feel it and merge into it. Poet Allama Iqbal wrote" You can only get all my prostrations lurking in my forehead if you show up in front me in a shape that I know". Karen Armstrong in her book, A History of God, reached a very logical conclusion that the idea of an all powerful God is not a sudden development. This is a culmination of human inability to fathom the mystery of this creation. Whenever they failed to find an answer to this question they submitted to an unknown entity and rested.
Once I came across a saying by Cahill Jibran, be aware of that person whose God lives in the sky. The imaginary exalted throne of God is generally thought is some where in the sky? But what is this sky? A perpetual void, an eternally unfathomable space expanding beyond any mathematical calculation. Now the scientists are telling that this universe is expanding and as per physical law anything that expands must contract as well and eventually when the universe will start contracting it will come to a point only. Now questions can be asked where the place of God in this universe is. The famous bedtime story of Prophet Muhammad's journey to the heavens to meet God is an interesting one. There is no logical explanation for this story just blind faith and superfluous imaginations.
In the modern times Rabindranath Tagore was the most famous personality who as a poet and philosopher showed great interest in the existence of God. His dedication and yearning to meet, embrace and melt into this phenomenon is noteworthy for many reasons. Tgaore'e faith in a Supreme Being is interesting because he used his beautiful poetic calibre to express his feelings. He was deeply influenced by the philosophy of the Upanishad which in fact shaped his entire personality. In one of his songs Tagore says, boshey achie hey kobey shunibo tomaro bani, bahiro hoibo jogotey momo jivano dhonno mani. His ideas of a Creator are filled with emotion which he made his final abode. In another song he says, amar mukti aloy aloy.
This mukti or emancipation or Nirvana has been described in a very pragmatic way in Gita. I find this premise in Gita as explained by Krishna to Arjuna in the battle field of Kuruchetra very interesting and is possible too. Ancient Indian philosophy says that all our pain originates from our insatiable want. Our nature to possess things is the source of all our problems. But life is impossible without possessing anything. We need food, shelter, love, procreation and so on to live a meaningful life. The pivotal question is how much we need to possess. The answer to this question lies in our ability to draw a line between our need and how much we need. The idea of peace and happiness is not a matter of things; it's purely a matter of mind. Gita says do Nishkam Karma which is doing a job with total honesty and dedication but without any desire to get a return out of it.
In this context I would refer to a very profoundly meaningful word' Transgression" which means crossing the reasonable boundary. In Arabic which means" Zulm" and in Bangla we call it' Sheema longhon". I personally experienced that life can be blissful and fully contended if we can train our passions to remain in a reasonable limit, if we can find pleasure in giving, if we can forgive. These qualities bring peace to our mind, a power gradually develops to see life beyond the conceivable world and eventually this brings a deep sense of freedom. To me this is Nirvana.
A distressed woman once wrote to Tagore about her needs and privations. In response Tagore said,' I don't have any touchstone to make you happy but I can only advise you to realize that, what you have now that's much more than what you don't have. Only this can bring you peace, freedom and satisfaction'.
Akbar Hussain
Toronto
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