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JAINISM
serpent Naga, regarded as a symbol of infinity.
Several other local Hindu festivals are also observed.
Jainism, similar to Hinduism, accepts the idea of religious suicide, but as distinct from Hinduism, Jains always considered that quick methods of suicide are worthless and the people making use of them are reborn as demons. The Jain ascetics choose the method of slow death from hunger and thirst. Moreover, death itself is not their aim. The aim is to renounce all the requirements of the flesh and thus atone for all sins, connected with the flesh.15
Only the ascetics are permitted religious suicide. Any other suicide is strictly condemned by Jainism, as violent interruption of the process of liberation of soul from the power of karma.
15. U. Thakur, The History of Suicide in India, pp. 103-106.
