NIRVANA

(SanskritExtinction, or Blowing Out) Pali Nibbana in Indian religious thought, the supreme goal of the meditation disciplines. The concept is most characteristic of Buddhism, in which it signifies the transcendent state of freedom achieved by the extinction of desire and of individual consciousness. According to the Buddhist analysis of the human situation, delusions of egocentricity and their resultant desires bind man to a continuous round of rebirths and its consequent suffering (dukkha). It is release from these bonds that constitutes Enlightenment, or the experience of Nirvana. Liberation from rebirth does not imply immediate physical death; the death of an arhat (a perfected person) or a Buddha is usually called the parinirvana, or complete Nirvana. In the Mahayana Buddhist tradition, the realization of Nirvana is deferred by the bodhisattva (Buddha-to-be) while he continues, out of compassion (karuna), to work for the salvation of others. Nirvana is conceived somewhat differently within various schools of Buddhism. In the Theravada tradition, it is tranquillity and peace. In the schools of the Mahayana tradition, Nirvana is equated with sunyata (emptiness), with dharma-kaya (the real and unchanging essence of the Buddha), and with dharma-dhatu (ultimate reality). American alternative rock group whose breakthrough album, Nevermind (1991), announced a new musical style (grunge) and gave voice to the post-baby boom young adults known as Generation X. The members were Kurt Cobain (b. Feb. 20, 1967, Aberdeen, Wash., U.S.d. April 5, 1994, Seattle, Wash.), Krist Novoselic (b. May 16, 1965, Croatia), and Dave Grohl (b. Jan. 14, 1969, Warren, Ohio, U.S.). From Aberdeen, near Seattle, Nirvana was part of the postpunk underground scene that centred on K Records of Olympia, Washington, before they recorded their first single, Love Buzz, and album, Bleach, for Sub Pop, an independent record company in Seattle. They refined this mix of 1960s-style pop and 1970s heavy metalhard rock on their first album for a major label, Geffen; Nevermind, featuring the anthemic hit Smells Like Teen Spirit, was the first full expression of punk concerns to achieve mass market success in the United States. Nirvana used extreme changes of tempo and volume to express anger and alienation: a quiet, tuneful verse switched into a ferocious, distorted chorus. In the fashion of many 1970s punk groups, guitarist-singer-songwriter Cobain set powerful rock against sarcastic, allusive lyrics that explored hopelessness, surrender, and male abjection (As a defense I'm neutered and spayed, he sang in On a Plain). Imbued with the punk ethic that to succeed was to fail, Nirvana abhorred the media onslaught that accompanied their rapid ascent. Success brought celebrity, and Cobain, typecast as a self-destructive rock star, courted controversy both with his advocacy of feminism and gay rights and with his embroilment in a sequence of drug- and gun-related escapadesa number of which involved his wife, Courtney Love, leader of the band Hole. Like Nevermind, the band's third album, In Utero (1993)which contained clear articulations of Cobain's psyche in songs such as All Apologies and Rape Mereached number one on the U.S. album charts. By this point, however, Cobain's heroin use was out of control. After a reputed suicide attempt in Rome in March 1994, he entered a Los Angeles treatment centre. In a mysterious sequence of events, he returned to Seattle, where he shot and killed himself in his lakeside home. Subsequent concert releases, notably Unplugged in New York (1994) and From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah (1996), only added to Nirvana's legend. Jon Savage Additional reading Michael Azerrad, Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana (1993), includes a discography. Representative Works: Nevermind (1991) Incesticide (1992) In Utero (1993)