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________________ On Samlekhana or Suspension of Aliment NATHMAL TATIA SAMLER AMLEKHANA or suspension of food and drink with a view to face death peacefully, undisturbed by worldly thoughts, is an important item of the Jaina code of spiritual discipline. We propose to consider the rational aspects of this dogma and also refer to a similar practice in Brahmanism and Buddhism. Life and will to live without any ulterior purpose and end have very little significance for the spiritual aspirant. Hedonistic ethics. which sets forth pleasure as the end of life has not carried conviction to serious contemplative thinkers. It fails to draw the line of demarcation between life of the brute and life of the man. Apart from the question whether the world abounds in pleasure or pain, the aspirant for perfection is not satisfied with the present set up in spite of his capacity for amelioration. It is the presupposition of all religions that human life is susceptible to infinite improvement which reaches consummation in infinite perfection in every dimension. Life is thus a means for this consummation. When by age, disease and decrepitude of powers, a human being finds himself incapable of spiritual and moral advance and the physical existence becomes rather a handicap, a Jaina is asked to strive to get rid of this handicap by samlekhana or suspension of food and drink till death.1 It is misery in excelsis to 1 Tattvarthabhasya, VII. 17
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________________ 140SHRI MAHAVIRA JAINA VIDYALAYA GOLDEN JUBILEE VOLUME become a burden on society without the capacity for contribution to the general weal. The Jaina in this situation adopts a course of graduated suspension of food and medicine with a view to shuffling off the mortal coil. He believes that the cessation of the present state of degradation entailed by loss of powers will lead to another spell of existence endowed with fresh vigour, strength and renewed opportunity for progress. This tenet and practice of the Jaina religious ethics has become a source of controversy. The Jaina will not put an end to the life of another creature even when its life has become a source of unbearable misery. The act of mercy of Mahatma Gandhi who expedited the death of a calf by injection of poison in order to relieve it of the painful existence shocked the conscience of many an adherent of the cult of non-injury (ahimsa). A Jaina will not take exception to any remedial measure to alleviate the pain of the suffering creature. But death as the ultimate remedy will not commend itself to him. He will prefer to remain indifferent. But then, is he not open to the charge of injury to life, when he does demand to put an end to his own existence which has become a gratuitous burden? Is it anything short of suicide which involves injury to life, though one's own. The Jaina answers the dilemma by a counter-dilemma. Is the motive behind this religious suicide, samlekhana, desire to get rid of pain ? If so, it must be as reprehensible as a heinous crime and sin. But if the motive is not a device of escapism but a desire to get rid of disability, it must be construed in a different light. When physical disability entails spiritual and moral bankruptcy, the life has forfeited its moral justification. It is not fear of pain which inspires this extreme step, but fear of moral degradation or stagnation. In life there is either a move forward or a move backward and nothing stationary. The Jaina religious aspirant, therefore, takes steps to get release from the moral stagnation bound to lead to moral degradation. And it will not be fair to charge him with the guilt of committing suicide. When life becomes a drag and hindrance to the pursuit of self-purification, if has lost its significance. In Jaina ethics, therefore, the practice of samlekhana is not prompted by motive of cowardice which fears pain and suffering. But it is motivated by the desire for renewal of life with fresh opportunities for self-amelioration by means of moral and spiritual purification. The practice of suicide in extreme straits was also sanctioned in Brahmanical ethics. But it is now forbidden probably owing to the abuse it gave rise to. Bhavabhuti, the Indian poet of Brahmanical
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________________ ON SAMLEKHANA OR SUSPENSION OF ALIMENT : 141 persuasion, correctly stresses the purpose and justification of life to consist in the opportunity it affords for self-purification (taportham ayuh). There is a passage in Acariya Buddhaghosa's Samantapasadika", the Atthakatha on the Pali Vinaya Pitaka, where the question of the suspension of food and drink by a Buddhist monk is discussed and approved. Should a monk stop taking food and medicine if he is afflicted with long-drawn disease and finds his body incapable of surviving even if carefully tended and nourished, and his attendants tired and exhausted ? The answer is in the affirmative. A monk is also allowed to stop taking food and medicine if he finds his disease acute and is convinced of the impossibility of survival and the attainment of spiritual elevation appears to him as a fait accompli. Even a monk who is not sick is permitted to do so provided he has developed detachment from fear of the world and considers begging of food as hindrance and handicap and desires to apply himself exclusively to meditation. Here meditation is the vis a tergo which compels him to suspend world by activities. The relevant text embodying the verdict runs as follows: Yassa pana maha-abadho ciranubaddho, bhikkhu upatthahanta kilamanti jigucchanti "kada nu kho gilanato muncissama" ti attiyanti. Sa ce so "ayam attabhavo patijaggiyamano pi na titthati, bhikkhu ca kilamanti" ti aharam upacchindati, bhesajjan na sevati vastati. Yo pana "ayam rogo kharo, ayusamkhara na titthanti, ayam ca me visesadhigamo hatthapatio viya dissati" ti upacchindati vattati yeva. Agilanassa pi uppanna-samvegassa aharapariyesanan nama papanco, "kammatthanameva anuyunjis sami" ti kammatthanasisena upacchindantassa vattati. In modern times, Mahatma Gandhi gave a new meaning to this practice of fast unto death. He undertook such fasts for self-purification and acquiring spiritual strength. Injustice of any kind is not to be tolerated. But injustice cannot be removed by another sort of injustice. Violence, according to the Mahatma, is a form of injustice and as such is not to be resorted to for the removal of injustice in any field of life, social, political or moral. One has to set an example of non-violence and self-purification for convincing the aggressor of the 2 Malatimadhava, I. 7. 3 Pp. 463-4, Nalanda Edition.
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________________ 142 : SHRI MAHAVIRA JAINA VIDYALAYA GOLDEN JUBILEE VOLUME injustice of his actions. And Mahatma Gandhi adopted fast unto death in order to cleanse himself of all ill-will-patent or latent-against the enemy, and effect change of heart of the aggressor. The old principle of Samlekhana thus found a new exponent in Mahatma Gandhi in the context of modern problems, national and international.