Bhava Nirodha refers to the goal of life according to Buddhism – the cessation of rebirth. The cycle of birth and death perpetuates the suffering of the individual. The individual is made up of psycho-physical aggregates consisting of the physical body, perceptions, feelings, conative dispositions and consciousness.
Buddhism explains that all these factors are in a state of flux and one can discern no underlying principle of eternal substance or the self. The desires and actions of the individual incur merits or demerits which affect his future destiny.
The principle of karma, the effect of deeds, lends fresh impetus to the cycle of causation. The causal theory is termed pratityasamutpada, samsara chakra or bhava chakra.
There are twelve chains, such as karma and desire, which are the causes or sources of rebirth. If these conditions cease, the effect (rebirth) does not occur. When the will to be born and attachments to desire are absent, the fetters of lust, hate and delusion are broken. Thus the one who succeeds in breaking the links of the chain of causation attains the goal of liberation, which is the end of the cessation of the cycle of birth and death of all sufferings.
Nibbana (liberation) is of two types, sopadhisesha nibhana and anupadhisesa nibbana. The first is deliverance from the feelings of pain or pleasure while alive and the second is an end of the causes of continuity, leading to complete cessation of ‘being’, i.e, bhava nirodha. Hence, the Buddha says that since there is the realm of the unborn, un-originated and unconditioned there is freedom from the sphere of the born, originated and conditioned.