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14 - CODE OF CONDUCTS OF MONKS AND LAYPEOPLE
and in a state of complete awareness. It is not inspired by any passion such as impulse of depression or extreme anger. It is the result of conscientious gradual withdrawal from taking food in such a manner as would never disrupt one's inner peace, state of complete equanimity, and dispassionate mindfulness or awareness.
Sanlekhanä gradually allows the highly spiritually advanced person to terminate his or her life by certain practices, principally by fasting, under specified circumstances and under the strict supervision of an ascetic. This is sanctioned only when a person strongly feels that he cannot progress any further spiritually due to terminal illness, poor health or extreme old age, and is a burden to the society. It generally takes 30 to 120 days to die after taking this vow.
A person who takes this vow (aspirant) has no dissatisfaction, no sorrow, no fear, no dejection, no sinfulness; the mind is cool, calm and composed; the heart is filled with the feeling of universal love and compassion. It is also called death in equanimous state.
Sanlekhanä is thus a spiritual process which involves giving up relationships, enmity, and attachment to possessions of worldly objects with a pure mind, forgiving others and asking for forgiveness. One's passions are almost eliminated by internal and external austerities. Therefore, there is a fundamental difference between suicide and Sanlekhanä. Suicide is the result of the outburst of passion whereas Sanlekhana is the result of dispassionateness or passionless state. Jainism does not support instantaneous termination of one's own life. It is considered suicide and it happens in the highest state of Kashaya such as anger or depression.
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JAINISM AND SPIRITUAL AWAKENING
