Mahavira and his Philosophy of Life

SR No.: 006934
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Kamalchand Sogani
Publisher: Jain Vidya Samsthan
Publication Year: 1998
Total Pages: 80
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 9 MB

Page 61

(scriptures) and fearlessness. The gift of these should be offered.
Spiritual Welcome to Death (Sallekhanā) . It 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 may renounce the present body with a view to having 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 is 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.
It is to be remembered that the mere loss of the strength of the body is of no consequence if it does not lead to the conquest of passions. The flagellation of the body must issue in the denial of passions. It is on account of this
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Mahavira and his Philosophy of Life