Sramana 2016 01

Author(s): Shreeprakash Pandey, Rahulkumar Singh, Omprakash Singh
Publisher: Parshvanath Vidhyashram Varanasi

Page 86

SALLEKHANĀ : A WAY OF FACING DEATH ARTISTICALLY: 79 meditation and fasting. Samādhimarañais very much common word. It is an art of death. That is the ritual death, the death accepted through sensual restraint, right penance, right faith, right knowledge and right conduct. The world sallehaņā is a Prakrit word equivalent to Sanskrit sallekhanā. The marana or death by observing vow of sallekhanā is technically described as samādhimarana, death while in meditation.
Sallekhanā is a technical term which means a praiseworthy process of emasculating the body and passions. Its main objective is to make thin the passions that disturb equanimous state of the soul. In the course of defining the sallekhanā Ācārya Samantabhadra writes - upasarge durbhikṣe jarasi rujāyām ca niḥpratikāre/ dharmāya tanuvimocanāmāhuḥ sallekhanāmāryāḥ|/? - “Sallekhanā is giving up the body by fasting when there is an unavoidable calamity or distress or old age and incurable disease, in order to observe the discipline of religion.” Generally the house holder is expected to observe it on the end of life- māraṇāntaki sallekhanām joșitā/3 According to śivārya sallekhanā means simultaneously thinning out both the inner passions and outer body. He states- sallehaņā ya duvihā abbhantariyā ya bāhirā ceva, abbhantarā kasāyesu bāhirā hodi hu sarire/
This shows that sallekhanā has to aspects - kaşāya sallekhanā and kāya sallekhanā. Kaşāya sallekhanā means mental disciplines which consist in the control of passions and attainment of equanimity of the mind. Kāya sallekhanā means the actual practice of fasting which gradually leads a vowed persons to death. Of these two aspects, the first is a prerequisite for the second. It means that sallekhanā does not consist merely of fasting; it aims at perfect equanimity of the mind. If the mind is troubled by any passions or thought, simply fasting will be of no use. It is therefore necessary that as a preparatory measure for the performance of sallekhanā, a person should conquer all the emotions, like fear, anger, grief and so on, and should over come love, attachment, hatred etc. Thus Ācārya Samantabhadra says as follows: śokam bhayamavasādam kleśam