Nirvana Upanishad
The Upanishad describes a Sannyasi
Devanagari	निर्वाणोपनिषत्
IAST	Nirvana
Title means	Liberation, highest bliss[1]
Date	before 300 AD, likely BC[2]
Type	Sannyasa[3]
Linked Veda	Rigveda[4]
Chapters	1[5]
Verses	82 sutras[6]
Philosophy	Vedanta[7]

The Nirvana Upanishad (Sanskrit: निर्वाण उपनिषत्, IAST: Nirvāṇa Upaniṣad) is an ancient sutra-style Sanskrit text and a minor Upanishad of Hinduism.^[8] The text is attached to the Rig Veda,^[4] and is one of the 20 Sannyasa (renunciation) Upanishads.^[9] It is a short text and notable for its distilled, aphoristic presentation with metaphors and allegories.^[10][11]

The Nirvana Upanishad describes the sannyasi (renouncer), his character and his state of existence as he leads the monastic life in the Hindu Ashrama tradition.^[12] The Upanishad is notable for not mentioning any rites of passage, qualifications or discussion of the sannyasi's life before renunciation.^[5] It just describes the Sannyasi, his external state, his inner state.^[5][11]

The Upanishad asserts that the life of the sannyasi is of reflection, not rituals,^[13] dedicated to Jnana-kanda (knowledge section of the Vedas),^[14][15] finding home when he is in union with truth and perfection.^[15] Self-knowledge is his journey and destination,^[15] a solitary place his monastery of bliss.^[16]

The composition date or author of Nirvana Upanishad is unknown, but its sutra-style suggests that it originated in the sutra text period (final centuries of the 1st-millennium BC), before it was compiled and classified as an Upanishad.^[7] This text was likely composed in the centuries around the start of common era.^[2]

Gavin Flood dates the Sannyasa Upanishads like Nirvana Upanishad to the first few centuries of the common era.^[17]

This text has been sometimes titled as Nirvanopanishad in manuscripts.^[11][18] In the Telugu language anthology of 108 Upanishads of the Muktika canon, narrated by Rama to Hanuman, it is listed at number 47.^[8]

The Nirvana Upanishad is written in Sutra-style. A Sutra means "string, thread",^[19] and in Indian literary traditions, it also refers to an aphorism or a collection of aphorisms in the form of a condensed manual or text.^[20][21] Each sutra is like a theorem distilled into few words or syllables, around which "teachings of ritual, philosophy, grammar or any field of knowledge" can be woven.^[19][20] This Upanishad deals with Vedanta philosophy.^[15][22]

The aphoristic style implies that the text can be interpreted with multiple meanings, is full of metaphors and allegories, and its sutras implicitly refer to Hindu scriptures.^[23][15] "The sky is his belief" in its third sutra for example, states Patrick Olivelle, is a metaphor for consciousness, spanning everything visible yet indivisible; it also means that the sannyasi is not enslaved to any specific doctrine but instead follows his own consciousness, his own conception of the absolute.^[24]

The text asserts that the life of the sannyasi is of reflection, not rituals.^[13] Jnana-kanda (knowledge section of the Vedas) is the scripture of the sannyasi, states the Upanishad, and not the section on Karma-kanda (rituals section of the Vedas).^[14][15] He is marked by fearlessness, fortitude, equanimity, a conduct that is both respectful of others and his own wishes, he does not revile others nor find faults in others, states the Upanishad.^[25] The verse 36–37 of the text asserts a position reverse of the Sunyavada of Buddhism, states Olivelle, where the Hindu sannyasi does not accept void-emptiness as ultimate reality, but believes Atman-Brahman as the ultimate reality.^[26][15] The primordial Brahman, states sutra 40 of the text, is self-knowledge for the renouncer.^[27]

The sannyasi finds home when he is in union with truth and perfection, states sutra 38 of the text.^[15] Self-knowledge is his journey and destination.^[28][15] His state is of an entranced mind, solitude his monastery.^[29] He is virtuous, he knows no fear, no delusions, no grief, no anger, no selfishness, no egotism.^[30] He contemplates on the true nature, silence is his mantra, he conducts himself as he pleases, his own nature is his liberation, translates Olivelle.^[31][15]

The text is obscure, states T.M.P. Mahadevan,^[32] while Paul Deussen states the text may have been a memory aid that went with the glossary sections of the 108 Upanishads, namely the Sarvasara Upanishad and Niralamba Upanishad.^[8]

Patrick Olivelle concurs with Deussen and considers this Upanishad as an early text in the Sutra tradition of Hinduism.^[7] The text, state Olivelle, has a distinct Advaita Vedanta of Hindu philosophy flavor, like most Sannyasa Upanishads, but this may be because major Hindu monasteries of 1st millennium AD belonged to the Advaita Vedanta tradition.^[7]

Buddhadasa, a Thai Buddhist, in a commentary on Nirvana between two Indian religions, states that the Upanishad's view is that an eternal, uncreated Atman exists. In contrast, states Buddhadasa, there is no Atman terminology in Buddhism.^[33]

• Aruni Upanishad
• Jabala Upanishad
• Paramahamsa Upanishad
• Sarvasara Upanishad

Bibliography

• Deussen, Paul (1 January 1997). Sixty Upanishads of the Veda. Motilal Banarsidass. ISBN 978-81-208-1467-7.
• Deussen, Paul (2010). The Philosophy of the Upanishads. Oxford University Press (Reprinted by Cosimo). ISBN 978-1-61640-239-6.
• Dhiravamsa, Dhiravamsa (September 2012). Nirvana Upside Down. Wisdom Moon Publishing LLC. ISBN 978-1-938459-03-0.
• Flood, Gavin D. (1996), An Introduction to Hinduism, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0521438780
• Hattangadi, Sunder (1999). "निर्वाणोपनिषत् (Nirvana Upanishad)" (PDF) (in Sanskrit). Retrieved 18 January 2016.
• Mahadevan, T. M. P. (1975). Upaniṣads: Selections from 108 Upaniṣads. Motilal Banarsidass. ISBN 978-81-208-1611-4.
• Olivelle, Patrick (1992). The Samnyasa Upanisads. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195070453.
• Olivelle, Patrick (1993). The Asrama System. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195083279.
• Sprockhoff, Joachim F (1976). Samnyasa: Quellenstudien zur Askese im Hinduismus (in German). Wiesbaden: Kommissionsverlag Franz Steiner. ISBN 978-3515019057.
• Tinoco, Carlos Alberto (1996). Upanishads. IBRASA. ISBN 978-85-348-0040-2.