Throughout the Karmavibhanga text, and throughout this entire series of sculptured panels, the rewards are repeatedly specified, that the performers of good deeds ‘will enjoy a great happiness, and upon death will reach heaven and will eventually enter nirvana’.

Graphic and visual depictions of material rewards, being Happiness (bhoga/atibhoga) and Heaven (svarga/swargga), are repeatedly shown in this set of reliefs, but how can one depict nirvana?

Going through the seemingly repetitive scenes, we notice a regular occurrence of certain details, which must have been purposefully inserted by their priestly designer. Most of the chief characters of the scenes of reward both in human world and in heaven, wear a yogapatta, a hip band and conventional Indian element usually and specifically applied to religious figures, or to persons absorbed in religious contemplation. In several reliefs of this series, we see rich householders [ 1 ], kings [ 2 ] and even nimbate gods [ 3 ] wearing this accessory of meditation round their leg or hip, when they are shown in the amidst exuberance, great wealth and sensual enjoyments. This could have been an instilled message of the priestly designer to suggest the inherent thought of spiritual liberation that should be the goal of all lives, to be kept aglow in mind at all times and in all circumstances.

In support of this supposition, we may also draw attention to the body attitude of many figures of man, prince, king, and god, when sitting enthroned amidst sumptuous wealth, entertained, respected and adored by others – they deliberately turn their face away from all these [ 4 ].

There seems to be more allusions to nirvana. Sumptuous buildings imitating the temple style of the Shailendras appear in many instances as part of scenes of everyday life on human plane, as well as of life in heaven [ 5 ]. They are certainly meant to represent Buddhist temples, functioning conceptually as the seat of spiritual enlistment and of the ultimate nirvana.

We believe that they are there to represent the thought of nirvana that must be the ultimate goal of life, not to forget even when enjoying extreme worldly happiness or the bliss of paradise. Many chief persons in the scene of enjoyments in human world and in heaven deliberately turn their face away from the phenomena of sensual delights, towards a temple, which is standing nearby [ 5bis ]. This message of nirvana, repeatedly emphasized by the Karmavibhanga and carried out in visual terms by the designer and the sculptors of Borobudur, becomes even clearer in the insertion of figures of meditating monks and ascetics among the scenes of paradise. One particular panel appears among the scenes which are generally believed to depict the heavens of the Rupadhatu sphere in which the human spirit has freed itself from desires but has not yet transcended the phenomenal world [ 6 ]. It most probably represents the four stages of meditation that will bring one up to the higher sphere of Formlessness (Arupadhatu) as advised by the Karmavibhanga.

The last of the 160 panels show four more meditating figures, all dressed as recluses, seated in apparent stillness in a paradise, which also contains a fabulous wishing tree and a god enthroned amidst sensual pleasures [ 7 ]. This relief marks the end of the series. If one follows the sequence in clockwise direction from panel 1 to 160, one comes back to the stairway on the eastern side, which was obviously meant to serve as the main ascent up the monument. From this lowest base, now covered but not obliterated, one is expected to climb up the steps to what has now become the first gallery, to reach the world of the Bodhisattvas – the beings whose mind have become purified and are now bent entirely on bodhi (enlightenment). Having left behind or below all confusion and chaos of the ordinary human life, the pilgrims ascend the more purified worlds visually unfolded on the upper levels of Borobudur.