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ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES
Whoever desires to put an end to his life while still able, with his body, to observe the rules of the dharma and of the order properly, he falls from the true path!" (See the Bhagavati Aradhana.)
There is no question here of a recommendation to commit suicide or of putting an end to one's life at one's sweet will and pleasure, when it appears burdensome or not to hold any charm worth living for. The true idea of sallekhana only is this that when death does appear at last one should know how to die, that is, one should die like a man, not like a beast, bellowing and panting and making vain efforts to avoid the unavoidable! Had the modern thinker read anything of the true science of Religion he would have known that the soul is a simple substance and as such immortal. Death is only for compounds, whose dissolution is termed disintegration, and death, when it has reference to a living organism, that is a compound of spirit and matter. By dying in the proper way will is developed, which is a great asset for the future life of the soul, which, as a simple substance, will survive the bodily dissolution and death. If anyone will take the trouble to enquire into the nature of the numerous samadhis (small shrines) which are still to be found in different parts of India, he will soon discover that all kinds of sadhus, Jainas and non-Jainas both, have tried to attain to the higher form of death. In Hinduism, too, the injunction is clearly given in the Manu Smriti where one may read :
"On the appearance of some incurable disease and the like, facing north-east and maintaining himself only on water and air, and established firmly in yogic contemplation, he should move steadily onwards till the body falls down. This mode of dying termed mahāprasthana, is the one enjoined in the scripture. Therefore, it is forbidden to die in contravention of the prescribed form!"
It is therefore quite wrong to accuse Jainism of encouraging suicide, or of being the only 'culprit' in this regard !
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