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connected with it are a matter of imagination. It is our uncontrolled desires that create masks put on us. They vanish when the mask is taken from the image of death.
Man's power of life is his freedom. He refuses to accept anything which could limit his freedom. One should be free from hankering after life or fear of death. When spiritual achievements become impossible, a hopelessly unhealthy body is to be abandoned with full comprehension of the act of dying. This is not suicide.Suicide, however, is a death that is related to an urge of malice. Suicide is an escape, dictated by fear. When one becomes desperate and meaning of life is reduced to despair. The suicide made out of emotion is considered as the death committed by a deluded person, which is a misuse of freedom to die. It is utterly detrimental to one's spiritual journey. Jain scholars said that one who commit suicide may have to be born again and again in the world and suffer endless misery. Suicide involve self-murder and it is strong karma, which is unamenable to any kind of transformation. Death means separation of the soul from the body. The right way of dealing with death is the belief in continuation of life after death, called the immorality of soul. The technique of spiritual health negates the sorrow emanating from the separation of the soul and the body. When one realizes that his soul is separate from his body, he can overcome fear of suffering caused by disease, old age and death. Self-realised soul is though in body completely independent of it and is able both to live and to die and can choose freely between them.
Mahavira did not only teach the art of living but he also taught the art of dying and prescribed shalekhana.
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