Sacred Texts: Buddhism

Buddhism in Translations - § 77. The Attainment of Nirvana by Godhika.

Henry Clarke WarrenPali Canon TranslationsTheravada Buddhism

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This is a canonical Buddhist narrative from the Pali tradition, drawn from the Dhammapada verses and Buddhaghosa's 5th-century commentary, recounting the enlightenment story of the monk Godhika. The elder Godhika repeatedly attains and loses meditative trance six times due to illness, then decides to take his own life rather than risk dying without achieving liberation. The central claim is that his act of suicide was not a failure but a decisive, courageous move — at the moment of self-inflicted death he attained Nirvana, completely uprooting desire and ending the cycle of rebirth. The story features Mara (the Slayer, a Buddhist devil-figure) frantically searching for Godhika's "rebirth-consciousness" after his death, only to be told by the Buddha that no such consciousness exists to find — it has not "fixed itself" anywhere, because Godhika achieved full liberation. This is a theologically pointed narrative: the Buddha praises the suicide as valor rather than condemning it, and Mara's inability to locate Godhika's consciousness serves as concrete dramatic proof of complete Nirvana. The framing verses about the fragrance of the virtuous "going against the wind" anchor the story to a broader ethical teaching about how genuine virtue transcends ordinary causation.

Buddhism in Translations - § 77. The Attainment of Nirvana by Godhika.

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