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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 battlefield."" The resignation of the body to death has not been considered to be as difficult as the observing of self-control, and the fixing of one's mind in the Atman, when the vital forces depart from the body. Thus the emphasis is on the rejection of passion, and consequently this noble death serves for the fulfilment of Ahiṁsā. It is on account of this practice of the abrogation of passions that the process of Sallekhanā must needs be distinguished from suicide which is perpetrated by the cruel dominance of passions, through the mal-agency of water, fire, poison, inhibition of breath and the like.. Suicide is easy when compared with the adequate performance of Sallekhanā. The latter is undertaken only when the body fails to answer to the spiritual needs of the individual and when the inevitability of death is a matter of undisputed certainty; while suicide may be committed at any time in the life time under the spell of emotional disturbance or passionate attitude of mind,
Process of Sallekhanā in case of the householder ::
The householder must first attain the purity of mind by renouncing attachment, aversion and infatuation. Afterwards in modest and sweet words he should make his earnest request to the members of his family and others around him to pardon him for the vicious deeds committed by him to afflict them wittingly and unwittingly. He should also forgive them from the bottom of his heart for being troubled by them on certain occasions. He should then practice the five Mahāvratas and engage himself in the study of scriptures with adequate zeal without allowing himself to be seduced by grief, fear, hatred, and the like. Nourishment is to be renounced gradually so that mental disturbance may be avoided. The persistence of equanimous mental state is the prime necessity. The physical renunciation of food to enervate the body must needs be balancement of the strength of the spirit. In other words, the gradual development
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Jaina Mysticism and other essays
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