Jain Journal 2000 04

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 13

SEKHAR : "GIVE AWAY VIOLENCE, PRESERVE LIFE"
169
Hemacandra in 1172 A.D., King Kumārapāla38, a monk at Ahmedabad 39 and a nun at Rajkot and so on.
A Jaina monk undertakes this extreme form of self-mortification when he suffers from a fatal disease or when he is unable to follow the rules of his Order40 or when he is faced with obstacles to follow his religion. The Purusārthasiddhyupāya claims that Sallekhanā is not suicide because the passions are attenuated. But he who acts with full of passion is guilty of suicide. There are five desires that are fatal at the time of Sallekhanā : desire to live, desire to die, attachment to friends, recollection of pleasures and desire for future pleasures.41 It is almost killing of activity in oneself besides the abnegation of desires.
Extremism is not accepted in Buddhism as it chooses the middle path for its goal. Hence suicide is condemned without qualification : A monk who preaches suicide, who tells man, 'Do away with this wretched life, full of suffering and sin; death is better' in fact preaches murder, is a murderer, is no longer a monk.42 Buddhists object to thirst for non-existence (vibhāvatssņā) as they object to thirst for existence (bhāvatrsnā). A saint must abide in indifference without caring for life, without caring for death. He will not commit suicide in order to reach Nirvāṇa sooner. Is not suicide a desperate act of disgust and desiredisgust with existence and desire for rest? The pilgrim I-tsing says that Indian Buddhists abstain from suicide and, in general, from selftorture. 43
But there are number of stories 44 to show that suicide in certain cases may be the actual cause of or occasion for the attainment of Arhatship, one step lower than the ideal of Buddhahood, although in certain other cases it may be pre-mature and sinful. The Mahāyāna Buddhism praises suicide as self-surrender and worship. The
38. S. Bühler, Uber das leben Jaina Monches Hemacandra, Vienna, 1889,
p. 50f.
39. for 41 days, 1921 A.D.
Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, Vol. 4, p. 484, ed. James Hastings, Clark T and T Publication. Purusärthasiddhyupāya, ibid. p. 177-178.
Parajika III, Sacred Books of the East, Vol. 13, p. 4. 43. J. Thakkasu, Tr. A Record of Buddhist Religion, Oxford, 1896, p. 197ff. 4. Story of Siha (Therigāthā, 77); of Sappadasa (Theragathā, 408); of Vakkali
(Theragāthā, 350); of Godhika (Kathāvatthu, 1.2); also Sacred Books of the East, Vol. 35, p. 273ff.