moksha vs. nirvana

moksha

noun

Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism.

  1. freedom from the differentiated, temporal, and mortal world of ordinary experience.

nirvana

noun

  1. Pali nibbana. (often initial capital letter),  freedom from the endless cycle of personal reincarnations, with their consequent suffering, as a result of the extinction of individual passion, hatred, and delusion: attained by the Arhat as his goal but postponed by the Bodhisattva.

  2. (often initial capital letter),  salvation through the union of Atman with Brahma; moksha.

  3. a place or state characterized by freedom from or oblivion to pain, worry, and the external world.