Sallekhana is Not Suicide

SR No.: 001568
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: T K Tukol
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 1976
Total Pages: 124
Language: English
Classification: Book_English & Religion
File Size: 8 MB

Page 19

What is Sallekhanā ?
chastity and possessiveness, form the foundation of ethical life leading to spiritual development. Besides these, there are the guņa-vratas and sikṣā-vratas which are intended to discipline the body and the mind, to create an awareness of the higher values of life and enhance the capacity, both physical and mental, to live a life of strict austerity.
The vow of Sallekhanā, as will be presently scen, is prescribed both for the house-holder as also for the ascetic. Both of them are required to practise sämāyika, that is, introspection with concentration of mind and prosadhopaväsa. that is, regulated fasting twice in a fortnight. While the former helps in the process of self-analysis and understanding, the latter helps purification of the body and mind, as the period of fasting is to be spent in the study of scriptures and meditation. Proșadhopavāsa is fasting on the eighth and fourteenth days of the lunar months. “The fasting house-holder discards bodily adornments such as bath, perfume, garlands and ornaments, and spends his time in a sacred place like the abode of a saint or a temple or in his lonely fasting apartment, contemplating on pure thoughts by listening to or making others listen to the scriptures."'1 He has also to limit the use of consumable and non-consumable articles. Besides fasting on the eighth and the fourteenth day of the lunar month, he has to take only one meal at midday on the day preceding and succeeding the day of fast. He must abstain from his occupational activities and completely refrain from entertain. ing any thoughts of pleasure and passions. He has to exercise full self-control and spend the nights in prayers. It is common experience amongst Jainas that both men and women observe such fasts wholly or in modified forms according to their faith and capacity for self-restraint. There is no relaxation in the observance of the vow for a monk or a nun.
Jainism is a practical religion. It expects, therefore, the spiritual and ethical progress to be gradual and by stages.
1. Reality, p. 204.