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COMPENDIUM OF JAINISM
depression, or frustration. Suicide is committed to escape from certain situations from which the victim is unable to save himself. The idea is to put an end to life immediately. by some violent or objectionable means. The suicide results in harm to the family or kith and kin of the person who commits suicide. While suicide is committed in secrecy and by adoption of questionable devices, Sallekhana is adopted when the mind is free from all passions with the full consent of the Guru and with an open mind of forgiveness and compassion towards all; death evokes devotion and religious feelings while in the case of suicide, death is attended with horror or scorn. .
There is thus difference between suicide and Sallekhană as regards intention, situation, means adopted and the consequences of death. Jaina thinkers have adressed themselves to this question and have given cogent reasons for saying that Sallekhana is not suicide. Amộtacandra Sūri bas defined suicide with such precision that his defiinition can stand the scrutiny of any modern jurist: "He, who actuated by passions, puts an end to his life by stopping breath or by water, fire, poison or weapons is certainly guilty of suicide."11 In Sallekhanā, all desires and passions are subjugated and the body is allowed to wither away gradually by voluntary fasting with no bodily pangs or pains when the mind is blissfully peaceful. C. R. Jaini has summed up the position of Sallekhana vis-a-vis suicide thus: “There is no question here of a recommendation to commit suicide or of putting an end to one's life, at one's sweet--will and pleasure, when it appears burdensome, or not to hold any charm worth living for. The true idea of Sallekhanā is only this, that when death does appear at last, one should know how to die, that is, one should die like a man and not like a beast, bellowing and panting and making vain efforts to avoid the unavoidable... By dying in the proper way, will is developed, and it is a great : sset for the future life of the soul which is a simple substance, and will survive the bodily dissolution and death... The Jaina Sallekhanã leaves ample time for further consideration of the situation, as the process which is primarily intended to elevate the will is extended over a period of days and is not brought to an end at once. 12
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