Jaina Mysticism and Other Essays

SR No.: 006933
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Kamalchand Sogani
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy
Publication Year: 2002
Total Pages: 166
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 17 MB

Page 94

NATURE AND PROCESS OF SALLEKHANĀ
Nature of Sallekhanā as distinguished from suicide :
Sallekhanā implies the enervation of external body and internal passions in a legitimate way by the gradual removal of the causes of their nourishment, so that one can renounce the present body with a view to have a new bodily modification.' To be more clear, the abandonment of the bodily frame on being confronted with the uneschewable calamity, famine, senility, and disease for the sustenance of spiritual practices has been regarded as Sallekhanā.? This signifies that the process of Sallekhanā is to be adopted either in special circumstances when the religious observances are being endangered on account of unavoidable bodily infirmities and the like, or on the occasion when the time of natural death has been known in all probability. No doubt the body which the medium of the upliftment of the soul is to be properly nourished and cared for and the diseases are to be seriously met with without any retreat. But if the body refuses to respond to our earnest endeavours, we should not falter to forsake it like a villain in the interest of saving the peace of mind. Thus if one is, encountered with the causes of the termination of duration of the present life one should resort to the performance of the process of Sallekhanā which is not other than the spiritual welcome to death. This is not yielding to death, but a way of meeting the challenge of death undauntedly and adequately. The happy embracement of death has been calculated to carry the spiritual dispositions to the next birth, but it is not very easy to practice. Those who have submitted themselves to vicious deeds throughout their lives cannot easily think to adopt the process of Sallekhanā. This requires an earnest endeavour from the start. Samantabhadraó declares that austerities, if they have been truly, deeply, and successfully performed, must bear
Jaina Mysticism and other essays