Svabhāva

Svabhava (स्वभाव, svabhāva; सभाव, sabhāva; ; ) literally means "own-being" or "own-becoming". It is the intrinsic nature, essential nature or essence of beings. The concept and term svabhāva are frequently encountered in Hindu and Buddhist traditions such as Advaita Vedanta (e.g. in the Avadhūta Gītā), Mahāyāna Buddhism (e.g. in the Ratnagotravibhāga), Vaishnavism (e.g., the writings of Ramanuja) and Dzogchen (e.g. in the seventeen tantras). In the nondual Advaita Vedānta yoga text, Avadhūta Gītā, Brahman (in the Upanishadic denotation) is the svabhāva. In the Mahāyāna Buddhadharma tradition(s) it is one of a suite of terms employed to denote the Buddha-nature, such as "gotra". The term first appears in the Shvetashvatara Upanishad, as a possible first cause (jagatkāraṇa). There also seems to have been an Indian philosophical position called Svabhāvavada which was akin to naturalism which held that "things are as their nature makes them". It is possible this position was similar to or associated with Carvaka. In early sāṃkhya philosophy, svabhāva was a term which was associated with prakṛti. It is the inherent capacity of prakṛti, which is independent and self caused. The Bhagavad Gītā (18.41) has nature (svabhāva) as a distinguishing quality differentiating the varṇā. Overzee (1992: p. 74) in her work on Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881–1955) and Rāmānuja (1017–1137) highlights Rāmānuja's usage of svabhāva in relation to Brahman thus: Let us look more closely at what Rāmānuja means by the Lord's "nature". If you read his writings, you will find that he uses two distinct yet related words when referring to the nature of Brahman: svarūpa and svabhāva. In early Theravādin texts, the term "svabhāva" did not carry the technical meaning or the soteriological weight of later writings.