Suicides in The Ramayana and The Mahabharta

“It is better to die than dishonor” – Bhagwat Geeta (2:34)

Suicide is considered a sin. In Christianity, a different graveyard is allotted for those who die by suicide. No funeral rites are performed for them.

According to Sec. 309 of IPC 1860, committing suicide is a criminal offense. When a person is caught in an attempt of committing suicide, instead of showing sympathy, that person may be sent to the imprisonment for one year.

Why it is so ..?

The most of the IPCs (Indian Penal Code) of our constitution were made in England in 1860 when India was under British rule. The British follows Christianity and the Christianity is the religion of commandments. In this way, in this religion, suicide became a sin, and in law, a crime.

But in the Hindu tradition – voluntarily, giving up mortal body is seen differently.

In the Mahabharata, old parents of the Kaurava and old mother of Pandava went to the forest.  They engulfed by a forest fire. They did not commit suicide, but they exposed to death. They refused to escape from the forest fire and willingly, they sacrificed their mortal body. They thought – death is better than carrying old and fragile body which is not incapable of doing anything significant than liability of others.

At their old age, Pandavas along with their common wife, Draupati, tried to ascend to the Himalayas where they fell to death except Yudhhisthir, and no one tried to save anyone. They did not commit suicide, but created a situation where death was inevitable. They had completed their prescribed task on this planet. They willingly had passed their kingdom to their new generation and left for the Himalayas knowingly they may die on the way.

In the Ramayana, Sita, voluntarily, submerged into the earth and sacrificed her mortal body. And consequently, Rama jumped into Saryu and finished his mortal journey of this planet. They had completed their role and part on this planet, they had already given the message to the world what they wanted to give.

Many sages and seers including Gyneshwar, who translated Bhagawat Geeta into Marathi, took Samadhi in his very early age.  Adishankryacharya who propounded Adaitya Vedanta also took Samadhi in his very early age at Kedarnath.

In Jain, giving up the mortal body by starvation is allowed – that is called – Santhara. Chandragupta Maurya, grandfather of Ashoka and the founder Maurya Empire, was the follower of Jainism who embraced death by this method. This is considered a good and auspicious way of sacrificing the mortal body in Jainism. It is the sign of great detachment from the material world after completion of the prescribed duty on this planet with the present body.

In some cases, the persons who are suffering from severe pain due to incurable physical ailments and seeking for the voluntary death, it should be granted. It would be a great relief. In some particular cases, voluntarily embracing death in some countries is legal whereas it is illegal and criminal offense in many countries irrespective of the mental and physical pain and suffering of the people.

The mind and body of the human has been given by nature for a certain period of time for some particular purpose. And the functionality of the mind and body must be used for that purpose only before it becomes fragile and stop working. The people who do not use their mind and body for their prescribed purpose and dissipate their energy on something insignificant, they either fear of death or in depression, contemplate of ending their life by suicide which is a cowardice act.

The way, the great heroes of Ramayana and Mahabharata and other sages and seers sacrificed their mortal body after accomplishing their duties, or they thought that they were old enough to do any more duties, they voluntarily embraced the death, the individual should also think in this direction.

On April 17, 1955, the greatest physicist of his time Albert Einstein’s abdominal aortic aneurysm burst, creating internal bleeding and severe pain. He went to Princeton Hospital but refused further medical attention. He demanded, “I want to go when I want. It is tasteless to prolong life artificially; I have done my share, it is time to go. I will do it elegantly.”

What is Your Identity ?

Mangesh woke-up in the morning and got ready for the office, before leaving for the office, he stood before a mirror and gave a pep-up talk…”I am a diamond…” and happily reached to the office. One of his sub-ordinates met him and said.. “Sir, you are a platinum…”. He mumbled,” I was just thinking of myself a diamond… I am more precious than that … I am a platinum…”. With this attitude he started his work. After some time, his boss called him, and said, “ you know, … you are a copper…”. He got confused whether he was a diamond, a platinum or a copper. With this confusion, he reached his home. His wife understood that something has happened with him. In front of your wife, neither you can express your happiness nor sadness. In both the cases, you have to give the explanation which is more perilous than expressing your emotions. His wife asked the reason for his upset. He explained what had happened.  She shown the sympathy and said, “ how can your boss call you a copper, this is not fair ….you are not a copper… you cannot be a copper …you are …..a …..plastic of low quality..”.

What this story says….

The person who does not understand his true identity gets depression or arrogance on temporary name, fame, shape, body, mind, success or failure. Whether it is the depression of your failure or arrogance of your success, both snatch your happiness.  

We are not a body, as a body is the accumulation of 100 billion cells. The old cells die and new one take birth, it is the indication of the end of the body. It means, we are not a body. We are not a mind as well, as the mind is nothing but the collection of the thoughts, and our thoughts keep changing. What the thoughts you had when you were 5 years old and now, have no match. What the thoughts you have now and after 10 years would have a yawning difference. It means, you are not a mind. You are the same person being called by different names and epithet according to your profession, age and relationship, it means, you are not a name, post, positions, titles etc.

…Then what is your real identity that never changes with the changes in shape, name, body and mind ?

Let us understand it. There is a gold ring, a gold necklace and a gold bracelet. When you melt a gold ring. What do you get? Ring loses its shape and size, and gold remains. When you melt a gold necklace. What do you get? Necklace loses its shape and size, and gold remains. When you melt the bracelet. What do you get this time ? Of course, gold. In this way, ring, necklace or bracelet are not the reality, the reality is the gold. Ring, necklace or bracelet is the temporary form of the gold. Similarly, we are not bound by any outer manifestation, these all are ephemeral. When all outer manifestation ceases, we get pure consciousness which never changes, which is our true identity. This is called soul also.

As Vedanta says, if you know yourself, there is nothing in this world to be known, or getting bewildered.

 Despite all the luxury and achievements, this world is not as happy as it should be. There are  animosity, hatred, despise, jealousy and other kind of negativity pervaded in this world. This is because of the wrong understanding of the true identity. And there is always a wrong result of a wrong understanding.

Be Intellectual like Swan

Many things and many thoughts we carry in our life, which has no meaning at all.  The happiness and joy comes in our life by knowing the meaning, purpose of everything what we carry in our life. We carry extra weight on our body, no meaning, this extra burden gives the suffering to our body. We carry extra and unnecessary thoughts, these  unnecessary thoughts are a burden on our mind and the burden on our mind make us mentally weak, the way extra burden on our body makes us weak and unproductive. Whatever extra and useless things we carry whether physically, mentally or materially causes us suffering.

We need to learn how to ignore the things. Assume, today someone commented on you which you did not like, what will do ? … fight …? Not a wise decision… ! …you may want to reply back .. but considering your status and reputation, physically, you choose not to do it , but what about those thoughts which stuck in your mind and your mind started thinking about it. This is absolutely useless and perilous too, it harms no one but the holder only. Just ignore it. Your spouse says something which you think illogical or useless, just ignore it, unnecessary do not start thinking about it, you will reach nowhere. Your boss says something which, you think, do not suit to your personality..just ignore it.

You get many things in your life by just ignoring the useless things. You continue your relationship by ignoring tiny things, you continue your jobs by ignoring the mind stirring negative words and talks.

Our mind never remains without thoughts. If you ignore all useless and negative spreading thoughts and talk and activities, what will remain in your mind.. ?, only positive, motivations, desire to do something great for the self and others.

When we take gold from the gold mine, we process it and we remove the soil from it and we get pure gold. Likewise, if we remove all useless burdens and thoughts from our life, we get the purity, we get the meaning of life. Do not carry the soil, which taints the purity of gold.

The swan has capability to separate water from milk, that is why swan is associated with goddesses Sarsawati, the goddesses of knowledge and intelligence. Similarly, when you learn what to ignore and what to perceive, you become wise. When you catch the reality and ignore the unreality, you become intellectual.  And when, by your intelligence, you come out from the dense forest of delusion, then what is heard and what is told would have no meaning for you, you take the joy in the purity of the self.

Life is not for Competition, it is for Creation

There were five fishermen in a village, and there was a single pond in their village where they used to go for fishing. After few years of fishing, fishes started reducing, demand started increasing. When the resources are less and demands are more, the competition takes place. People start competing with one-another. The same thing happened to them. They started competing one-another to catch more and more fishes and get more profits. The hatred, jealousy, despises and comparison took place, the meaning of life was lost. Competition, defeating others, thinking about others had become their life. In competition, people forget themselves, they always things about their opponents, which make the people go away from the self.

The fishermen were always busy in making strategy against others. They were wasting their energy and time thinking for other`s defeat. They thought, there is no other way out to survive rather than competing with others. When you entangle in these kind of thought, you lose your credibility and creativity. But one fisherman named Nishad, was out of this competition. He was investing his energy and time in thinking some other and bigger alternative. He was not thinking about paucity and competition rather he was looking for abundance and fulfillment.

There was an ocean few miles away from his village. There were varieties of fishes in the ocean, but they did not know how to catch the fish from the ocean. Nishad`s target was to catch fish from the ocean not from the small pond. He started thinking a method to catch the fish from the ocean. If you think constantly to achieve something without doubt, our amenable mind provides a certain way out for that. Nishad, few months, worked on the senses and a favorite food of the fishes, and after a few experiments, he got a method to attract the fishes in ocean. If you can feed the senses of someone, that person becomes  your slave.

Needless to say, Nishad had an ocean of opportunity, because he became the creator of his method, his life,  he started living his life in abundance and fulfillment…., and others did not come out from their pond, because of being competitors to one-another.

Human life is not for competition, it is for creation. In competition, you think about others, you compare, when you compare, means, you want to be some other person, in this way, you lose your true nature, once you lose your true nature, you bound yourself to live in depression, frustration, stress, worry and all kinds of miseries.  The more you become competitive, the more you lose your uniqueness. Everyone on this earth is unique and special. When you lose your uniqueness and specialty of yourself, you lose your real identity, and no one can live happily on the earth without his own uniqueness and identity. You can be in bliss with your true self only not otherwise.

Vedanta says, Aham Brahm asi--- I am Brahma… Brahma means creator…,means, you are the creator of your life.

Inherently, the creativity is inside you, just come out of the concept of competition, and think about the creativity hidden you. The moment, you get it, you would be fabulous.

Stress is an illusion

There is no reason for anyone to live one`s life with stress, worry, tension and anxiety. All things what has happened in your life, what is happening in your life and what will happen in your life, are driven by Karma. Everyone is responsible for one`s Karma. If something happens to you which you had never expected, you become depressed, and you lose all the interest in your life. You forget that whatever is taking place in your life right now is the only one aspect of your life, it is not your entire life, if you do not understand it, then it will destroy your entire life. Better to ignore this aspect and move on.

Stress, tension, worry or any kind of negativity what we can think of are all illusions, are the sign of our ignorance. We do not know the reality why it is happening in our life and what indication, we are getting from the situation. All the situation and circumstances give us some indication to know our life better. And the person who understands it and catch it, is called an enlightened one.

Suppose you are going into a dark room, you see a rope, you get scared by assuming a snake, and your whole body and mind starts responding accordingly. You are in fear, because, you do not know the reality, whether it is a rope or a snake. When you put light and find that it was a rope not a snake, your fear disappears. The same things happen in our life. We do not see the reality of the situation and we live in fear and  stress. When you lit the light of knowledge, all the fear, stress and negativity vanish from your life.

If something is not happening as per your expectation, do not take tension or stress, just analyze it, you will get better solution and way for it. You are in stress, because, you are not using your potential, or you are expecting something, which is more than your efforts. You can only get those things what you deserve. If you want more, then increase your eligibility. It is simple, where is the place of stress in this case. If your all efforts are not working in some particular direction, then think, perhaps you are made for something else, something better and bigger.

We have only control over our duty not the result thereof. And the result is certain as per our duty. So, in any cases, for a realized person, there is no reason for stress or unhappiness. These all are illusions and it happens in the lack of the knowledge.

Do not work hard, it will spoil you

When you were a kid, you were told to study hard, life is tough. When you are in a job, you are told to work hard, life is too tough and competitive, you cannot get success, promotion, salary increment etc. without hard work. You were never told to enjoy studying, you are never told to enjoy your work by choosing the profession of your choice. If you are not enjoying the things what you are doing, merely hard work will not carry you anywhere. You will difficult, you will make your life difficult and hard, not only yours, for those who are directly or indirectly associated with you. If something seems hard for you, leave it. Choose those which you can do joyfully.

Not by doing hard work, you make your life meaningful, but by doing the right work joyfully, you make your life meaningful and successful. By doing the right thing, in right way, and joyfully, you attain the pinnacle of your success. You feel joy and spread joy. You become the richest person in this world, because, you can find millions of hard workers, but rarely you find a joyful worker.

If merely hard labor had worked, then all  the laborers in this world would have got everything in their life, but it is not like that.

Do not take any work as a work, take it as a sport, as a game, as an entertainment, play it, enjoy it, take the challenge, give the challenge and give your best to win it. And do not get pompous or distress by winning or loosing it. Just play it, think it, do better every time, do not take any kind of burden in your life. This beautiful life is not to be blighted  by taking unnecessary burden, stress and tension. Life is for enjoyment, live it to the fullest.

The time spent in a work is a fraction of your life. If you are not enjoying it, means, you are not enjoying your life. If you are making it hard, means, you are making your life hard. Do not work hard, just do the right work joyfully to enjoy your life.