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IV. ĀCĀRA OF THE HOUSEHOLDER
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NATURE OF SALLEKHANĀ AS DISTINGUISHED FROM SUICIDE: After reconciling the threefold ways of describing the householder's ethical discipline, we now proceed to explain the conception of Sallekhanā as recognised in Jainism. 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.3 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. This happy embracement of death has been calculated to carry the spiritual dispositions to the next birth, but it is not very easy to practise. Those who have submitted themselves to vicious deeds throughout their lives cannot easily think to adopt the process of Sallekhanā. Thus it requires an earnest endeavour from the start. Samantabhadra declares that austerities, if they have been truly, deeply, and successfully performed, must bear the fruits of noble death. “Self-restraint, study, austerities, worship, and charity, all become useless if the mind is not pure at the last hour of life. Just as the training of a king who has learnt the use of weapons for twelve years, becomes useless if he faints on the battle field."? It is to be remembered that the mere loss of the strength of the body is of no
1 Sarvārtha. VII. 22. 2 Ratna. Śrāva. 122. 3 Sägā. Dharmā. VIII. 20; Amita. Śräva. VI. 98, yo. Sā. III. 148. 4 Sāgā. Dharmā. VIII. 5, 6, 7. 5 Puru. 175.6 Ratna. Srāva. 123. 7 Yas. and Ic. p. 287.
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