Nirvanas

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A state of perfect happiness and peace, often associated with spiritual enlightenment
2. an ideal or ultimate condition of liberation from suffering and desire
3. a transcendent experience in which the self is freed from the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth

Etymology: "Nirvanas" is simply the plural of "nirvana," so it refers to multiple instances of the transcendent state. The base word comes from Sanskrit "nirvāṇa," which literally meant "blown out" or "extinguished," as when a lamp or flame goes out. The term is built from "nis," meaning "out," and "vā," meaning "to blow," the same root that gives English "wind" and "weather" through its Germanic and Slavic relatives, and Russian "veter," meaning "wind." The surprising part is the image behind the word. In Indian religious thought, the extinguished flame became a metaphor for the self being snuffed out of the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth, so a state that sounds like annihilation was understood as liberation. The word's concrete sense of a flame being blown out is what gives the abstract spiritual meaning its force.

Synonyms: nirvana states, enlightenment states