Osho – Nirvana means the ultimate enlightenment, the state when the ego disappears, when man is no more separate from existence – not even a thin curtain separates him, not even a transparent glass separates him – when all separation disappears. That meeting with the total, that merger with the whole, that melting into the absolute, is called nirvana.
The literal meaning of the word is beautiful, one of the most beautiful words. Literally it means blowing out a candle. When you blow out a candle, the light disappears and you cannot say where it has gone. You cannot show any direction – to the east, to the west, to the north, to the south; it has simply disappeared. It has not gone anywhere, it has not moved into some other place. It has gone out of existence. It has moved into nothingness. It is no more.
Exactly like that flame of the candle, the ego disappears. You cannot say where it has gone – it has not gone anywhere; it is no more. When the ego disappears, all is silence, because all turmoil, all noise, is of the ego. And when the ego disappears there is no longer any possibility of any anguish, anxiety. There is nobody to be anxious in the first place. One feels oneself as pure emptiness, and that pure emptiness has a fragrance to it.