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THE SACRED BOOKS OF THE JAINAS
Death would release him from present torments and bring him his wished for objects in the next life. A calm and bold preparedness to meet approaching death by engagement in pore meditation and by disengagement from distressing thoughts, is the last and most courageous act of piety and can never be called suicide.
यो हि कषायाविष्टः कुम्भकजलधूमकेतुविषशस्त्रैः। व्यपरोपयति प्राणान् तस्य स्यात्सत्यमात्मवधः॥ १७८॥
178. 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.
Commentary.
The subiection of desires, and gradual mastery over the needs of the body is not killing oneself, when it is done as a matter of graduated self-discipline. If death supervenes, it comes on in due course. It is not invited. It is not welcomed as a deliverer from pain and misery, or as an usherer into a better state of things. There are, again, many a religious fanatic who court and invite death as a matter of religious merit. The self-immolation of a widow on the funeral pyre of her husband, burying oneself in the freezing snows of Himalaya, dying under the wheels of the chariot of Jagannath at Puri, getting beheaded at Kashi, or getting drowned in the Ganges, are forms of death, which used to be voluntarily adopted under the belief that by doing so, one would attain a happier and better life in Heaven. This was suicide, immoral, illegal, and sinful.
Sannyas, samadhi-marana, or Sallekhana is a quiet resignation, a peaceful separation of the soul from the body, when one is convinced that death is inevitable. If it be doubtful, the vows taken are limited in duration, and are terminable, in case life is saved after the fixed duration.
The body is a means to the practice of religion, and the performance of good charitable deeds, and it is the duty of a Jaina to protect his body against all harm and injury.
It is only when the body cannot possibly be saved, that a Jaina should withdraw himself from all unnecessary attachment, from all painful thoughts, connected with the end of life, and should
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