(Sanskrit: nis, out; vana, a blowing)
In the Buddhistic religion, a state of absence of desire and pain; in its full import, it means eternal, unconscious repose. To obtain deliverance from rebirth, all forms of desire, whether evil or innocent, must be absolutely suppressed, even the desire to preserve one's conscious existence. Nirvana is a negative ideal of bliss, realized in its completeness after death, and based wholly on the motive of self-love; it thus stands on a much lower level than the Christian ideal, which appeals to motives of disinterested as well as interested love, because it is a union of friendship with God in heaven.