Suicide --- Why Is It Forbidden?
Suicide is a Sin
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. People take their own lives by hanging, jumping off a high-rise building, pesticide poisoning, voluntarily drowning themselves, slitting their throats or hands, and by so many different methods. Financial difficulties, relationship problems like breakups, and grief caused by the loss of a loved ones, tragedy, incurable diseases are some of the common reasons for one to resort to that sad decision.
Almost all major religions consider suicide an unforgivable sin. Hinduism, in this regard, too, regards suicide and assisted-suicide acts as heinous sin. Hindu Scriptures state that one who commits suicide will become part of the spirit world, wandering the earth until the time one would have otherwise died, had one not committed suicide. Garuda Purana II.22.18 says souls of those who commit suicide will continue to roam in Bhuloka (=the earthly plane) until their ordained lifetimes are exhausted: "Those who meet with foul death such committing suicide by hanging from a tree, by poison or weapon become ghosts and roam over the earth."
In other words, one goes neither to hell nor heaven, but remains on earth as a bad spirit, and wanders aimlessly till one completes one's actual and allotted life time. Thereafter, one goes to hell and suffers more severely.
After his stint in hell, the soul returns to earth to complete his previous karma, and begins his journey from there once again. Suicide puts an individual's spiritual clock in reverse. This is affirmed in Skanda Purana IV.i.12.12-13: "Those people who kill themselves will enter (the word of) blinding darkness. After experiencing the tortures in a thousand hells, they will be born as a village pig. Therefore, suicide should never be committed by a wise one. Nothing auspicious will befall those who kill themselves, here in this world or in the other worlds."
Scriptures on Suicide
The Parasara Smriti 4:1-2) says that people who commit suicide "sink into a region utterly dark, and filled to the brink with pus and blood; that torment is suffered for 60,000 years".
Bhaviṣya Puraṇa says, "...suicide
throws a person into hellish conditions of rebirth."
Manu Smriti 5.89 "libations are omitted in the case of suicides"
Garuda Purana II.44.1-5 forbids normal rites before burial/cremation for people who commit suicide: "Those who die through suicide are counted amoung the great sinners. Such sinners do not deserve cremation.... Just as money thrown in water or sacred fire on the cross roads, similarly rites performed for the sinner bear no fruit at all."
Garuda Purana II.40.4-12: "There are people who commit suicide---for such persons, there is no rite of cremation, no water-libation, no rite of obsequy and no observance of impurity."
But what if the family does the rites for them, nevertheless? Sri Krishna says in the Garuda Purana (Chapter 4 on Dharma Khanda) that "those who die through serpent, those who commit suicide, or die by fall from a tree, ........ All these deaths are known as bad deaths where no rite of Aurdhvadehika or pinda-dana is performed. If the same is done by mistake it is all destroyed in the air..."
The Lord prescribes atonement for such souls, however: "...But desiring welfare of the deceased and out of fear of the people's reproach his sons or grandsons or sapindas should perform Narayana Bali, O bird. By that the relatives of the deceased are purified. This is stated by yama. There are no other means. When Narayana Bali is performed they become fit for aurdhvadehika."
(Please go to the bottom of this article for easier atonement and penance performed for people who commit suicide or die unnaturally as described above).
It does not, however, end there. Garuda Purana II.21.17-18 says, "In every birth he takes he will become extremely indigent, sick, devoid of progeny and cattle, and he may not get proper livelihood either. The ghosts perpetrate all these things. Then they go back to Yama’s abode. From that place, when their evil actions wear off and the appointed time arrives, they get released".
Human Birth is a Rarity
Human birth is a rarity. After millions of births, over many eons, we get to occupy a human body for the sole of purpose of attaining God. There are 8.4 million species of life in the universe, of which human birth is just one of categories. Padma Purana gives the following breakdown:
Species living in the water: 900,000 species
Species of non-moving living entities like trees and plants: 2,000,000
Species of insects and reptiles: 1,100,000
Species of birds: 1,000,000
Species of quadrupeds: 3,000,000
Species of human beings: 400,000
Grace of God Gives Us a Human Birth
One has to go through the cycle of all these births before one gets a human birth. When one fails to achieve the purpose of human birth, which is to attain God or commonly called "Enlightenment" or "Self-Realisation" (which are synonymous terms of "attaining God"), one has to start the cycle of births and deaths from the bottom, i.e., as one of the species in the water. And, having gone through the births and deaths through the 900,000 species, one progresses to the next level, until one attains human birth.
Therefore, it is only through Grace of God that one gets a human body. Adi Shankara in His Vivekachudamani cites three rarities (=durlabham trayam) that can only be attained by the grace of God: one of the three, he reminds us is "manushyatvam" (=human birth)): "These three things are rare and attained only by the grace of God - human birth....". In (verse 2), He again describes human birth as "durlabhamataḥ", i.e, a rarity. He says, "Among sentient creatures, birth as a man is difficult to attain....But the spiritual knowledge which discriminates between spirit and non-spirit, the practical realization of the merging of oneself in Brahmatman and final emancipation from the bonds of matter are unattainable except by the good karma of hundreds of crores of births."
Skanda Purana: "The rare human birth is meant for accumulating merit
and at last achieving liberating release from this material world."
Thus, if one, who acquires a human birth through the Grace of God, purposefully ends one's life on earth by way of suicide, one commits a heinous sin:
Devi Bhagavatam 9:18 says, "Rather an irretrievable sin would be incurred in committing suicide".
Devi Bhagavatam 12:32-56: "I will be guilty of suicide; so again due to this sin I will be born a Chandala and I will be again cursed."
Similarly in Mahabarath Chap 84, Adi Parva Chaitraratha Parva, it has been said, "They who commit suicide never attain to regions that are blessed." In Chap 205, Section 250, it again warns, "The suicide ever sinketh into hell.
In Shiva Purana (Chapter 20: Umasamhita), the Lord has said, "The human body is the means for achieving of the heaven and moksa... (because) It is difficult for even the gods and the demons to achieve the human body. Therefore after achieving the human body, one should act in a way that he has not to face the agonies of the hell."
In Tulasidas Ramacharita Manas (7:42:4), it says, "It is by good fortune that you have secured a human body which --- as declared by all the scriptures --- is difficult even for the gods to attain. It is a tabernacle suitable for spiritual endeavors, gateway to liberation. He who fails to earn a good denisty hereafter even on attaining it".
"Barring prayopavesa (fasting unto death) no one shall indulge in self-killing." Skanda Purana IV.i.74
Mahatamas' Views on Suicide
Question: Is suicide the logical conclusion for a man who has come to believe that life has no meaning for him?
Swami Sivananda: "Suicide is not the logical conclusion of a meaningless life, but the illogical conclusion arrived at by the thoughtless and non-discriminating mind which has failed to perceive the meaning that is in life. Suicide does not remove misery or correct defects, but leads to violent reactions later on. And the reactions will be more painful than the present condition of unsatisfactory life. Suicide is pure defeatism."
Swami Sivananda: "An aspirant said, 'I have not realised the Self though I did meditation for some years. I am going to commit suicide with the Bhava (feeling) I am immortal Atman. I have got full Vairagya. No sin will cling to me, because my motive is pure. I will attain Self realisation.'
"He actually committed the abominable act. Do you think that he realised his Self by this act? Do you find such a statement anywhere in the scriptures?
"Certainly not. This is extreme foolishness. Some aspirants who have no idea of the nature of true Vairagya, who have not lived under the guidance of their masters for some time, commit such ignoble acts. They can never get salvation by taking to wrong Tapas though their Bhava may be pure. They cannot entertain the Bhava ‘I am Atman’ just at the time of committing the act. Horrible thoughts will crowd at the critical juncture. They will have to share obviously the fate of Pretas (ghosts).
"The mind should gradually be weaned off its old habits and cravings. If you cut off all at once its pleasure centres, it will get puzzled. That is the reason why young aspirants who take to too much Vairagya commit the ignoble act of committing suicide. You should train the mind in meditation gradually and make it taste the inner bliss. Gradually it will leave off its old habits and old cravings and you can get yourself established in true Vairagya." (An excerpt from "What is True Vairagya?")
Why is suicide considered a sin?
Swami Sivananda: Pleasure and pain in life are respectively the rewards of the good and the bad actions of an individual. If a man suffers, it is a reminder to him to ennoble his life and make his future happy through the performance of good deeds, self-discipline and right effort.
When a person, convicted to a term of imprisonment by the court of law for having committed an offence, escapes from the prison, the law demands that he should be rearrested and given added punishment, because he had not only committed an offence but tried to avoid the punishment therefor. So is the case with trying to escape from one’s suffering by inflicting death on oneself, rather than attempting through self-effort to improve one’s future or accepting philosophically what is beyond all help.
One has, besides, no right to take a life, even though it may be his own, since it is a crime not only in the eyes of God but also in the eyes of social law. The person who commits suicide will suffer more in a spirit-body for a period of time, and then take a lower form of birth, to work out his Karma. So, one will not be benefited in any way by committing suicide.
Srila Prabhupada: "A confused, frustrated man cannot get relief by committing suicide because suicide will simply lead him to take birth in the lower species of life or to remain a ghost, unable to attain a gross material body." (Purport to 4:26:10)
Parihara or Atonement for People Who Commit Suicide or Die Unnaturally
As mentioned at the beginning of the article, in the Garuda Purana (Chapter 4 on Dharma Khanda), it has been said that "those who die through serpent, those who commit suicide, or die by fall from a tree, ........ All these deaths are known as bad deaths where no rite of Aurdhvadehika or pinda-dana is performed. If the same is done by mistake it is all destroyed in the air..."
In the same Purana, the Lord says,
udbandhanamṛtā ye ca viṣaśastrahatāśca ye
ātmopaghātino ye ca viṣūcyādihatāstathā [2.22.8]
Meaning: One who dies by hanging, also through poison and weapon, one who commits suicide and also dies by cholera etc. becomes a ghost.
Srimad Bhagavatam 6:2:15 says, "If one chants the holy name of Hari, and then dies because of an accidental misfortune, such as falling from the top of a house, slipping and suffering broken bones while travelling on the road, being bitten by a serpent, being afflicted with pain and high fever, or being injured by a weapon, one is immediately absolved from having to enter hellish life, even though one is sinful."
In Brahma-Vaivarta Purana, it Vyasadev proclaims that "...any man or woman who observes this (Nirjala Ekadasi) fast properly and worships the Supreme Lord Jalaśāyī (He who sleeps on the water), and who on the next day satisfies a qualified brāhmaṇa with nice sweets and a donation of cows and money - such a person certainly pleases the Supreme Lord Vāsudeva, so much so that one hundred previous generations in his family undoubtedly go to the Supreme Lord's abode, even though they may have been very sinful, of bad character, and guilty of suicide, etc. Indeed, one who observes this amazing Ekādaśī rides on a glorious celestial airplane (vimāna) to the Lord's abode."
Sources: pgs. 35, 91, 159, Ekadasi by Krsna Balaram Swami
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. People take their own lives by hanging, jumping off a high-rise building, pesticide poisoning, voluntarily drowning themselves, slitting their throats or hands, and by so many different methods. Financial difficulties, relationship problems like breakups, and grief caused by the loss of a loved ones, tragedy, incurable diseases are some of the common reasons for one to resort to that sad decision.
In other words, one goes neither to hell nor heaven, but remains on earth as a bad spirit, and wanders aimlessly till one completes one's actual and allotted life time. Thereafter, one goes to hell and suffers more severely.
After his stint in hell, the soul returns to earth to complete his previous karma, and begins his journey from there once again. Suicide puts an individual's spiritual clock in reverse. This is affirmed in Skanda Purana IV.i.12.12-13: "Those people who kill themselves will enter (the word of) blinding darkness. After experiencing the tortures in a thousand hells, they will be born as a village pig. Therefore, suicide should never be committed by a wise one. Nothing auspicious will befall those who kill themselves, here in this world or in the other worlds."
The Parasara Smriti 4:1-2) says that people who commit suicide "sink into a region utterly dark, and filled to the brink with pus and blood; that torment is suffered for 60,000 years".
Bhaviṣya Puraṇa says, "...suicide
throws a person into hellish conditions of rebirth."
Manu Smriti 5.89 "libations are omitted in the case of suicides"
Garuda Purana II.44.1-5 forbids normal rites before burial/cremation for people who commit suicide: "Those who die through suicide are counted amoung the great sinners. Such sinners do not deserve cremation.... Just as money thrown in water or sacred fire on the cross roads, similarly rites performed for the sinner bear no fruit at all."
Garuda Purana II.40.4-12: "There are people who commit suicide---for such persons, there is no rite of cremation, no water-libation, no rite of obsequy and no observance of impurity."
But what if the family does the rites for them, nevertheless? Sri Krishna says in the Garuda Purana (Chapter 4 on Dharma Khanda) that "those who die through serpent, those who commit suicide, or die by fall from a tree, ........ All these deaths are known as bad deaths where no rite of Aurdhvadehika or pinda-dana is performed. If the same is done by mistake it is all destroyed in the air..."
The Lord prescribes atonement for such souls, however: "...But desiring welfare of the deceased and out of fear of the people's reproach his sons or grandsons or sapindas should perform Narayana Bali, O bird. By that the relatives of the deceased are purified. This is stated by yama. There are no other means. When Narayana Bali is performed they become fit for aurdhvadehika."
(Please go to the bottom of this article for easier atonement and penance performed for people who commit suicide or die unnaturally as described above).
It does not, however, end there. Garuda Purana II.21.17-18 says, "In every birth he takes he will become extremely indigent, sick, devoid of progeny and cattle, and he may not get proper livelihood either. The ghosts perpetrate all these things. Then they go back to Yama’s abode. From that place, when their evil actions wear off and the appointed time arrives, they get released".
Human birth is a rarity. After millions of births, over many eons, we get to occupy a human body for the sole of purpose of attaining God. There are 8.4 million species of life in the universe, of which human birth is just one of categories. Padma Purana gives the following breakdown:
Species living in the water: 900,000 species
Species of non-moving living entities like trees and plants: 2,000,000
Species of insects and reptiles: 1,100,000
Species of birds: 1,000,000
Species of quadrupeds: 3,000,000
Species of human beings: 400,000
Grace of God Gives Us a Human Birth
One has to go through the cycle of all these births before one gets a human birth. When one fails to achieve the purpose of human birth, which is to attain God or commonly called "Enlightenment" or "Self-Realisation" (which are synonymous terms of "attaining God"), one has to start the cycle of births and deaths from the bottom, i.e., as one of the species in the water. And, having gone through the births and deaths through the 900,000 species, one progresses to the next level, until one attains human birth.
Skanda Purana: "The rare human birth is meant for accumulating merit
and at last achieving liberating release from this material world."
Thus, if one, who acquires a human birth through the Grace of God, purposefully ends one's life on earth by way of suicide, one commits a heinous sin:
Devi Bhagavatam 9:18 says, "Rather an irretrievable sin would be incurred in committing suicide".
Devi Bhagavatam 12:32-56: "I will be guilty of suicide; so again due to this sin I will be born a Chandala and I will be again cursed."
Similarly in Mahabarath Chap 84, Adi Parva Chaitraratha Parva, it has been said, "They who commit suicide never attain to regions that are blessed." In Chap 205, Section 250, it again warns, "The suicide ever sinketh into hell.
In Shiva Purana (Chapter 20: Umasamhita), the Lord has said, "The human body is the means for achieving of the heaven and moksa... (because) It is difficult for even the gods and the demons to achieve the human body. Therefore after achieving the human body, one should act in a way that he has not to face the agonies of the hell."In Tulasidas Ramacharita Manas (7:42:4), it says, "It is by good fortune that you have secured a human body which --- as declared by all the scriptures --- is difficult even for the gods to attain. It is a tabernacle suitable for spiritual endeavors, gateway to liberation. He who fails to earn a good denisty hereafter even on attaining it".
"Barring prayopavesa (fasting unto death) no one shall indulge in self-killing." Skanda Purana IV.i.74
Mahatamas' Views on Suicide
Question: Is suicide the logical conclusion for a man who has come to believe that life has no meaning for him?
Swami Sivananda: "Suicide is not the logical conclusion of a meaningless life, but the illogical conclusion arrived at by the thoughtless and non-discriminating mind which has failed to perceive the meaning that is in life. Suicide does not remove misery or correct defects, but leads to violent reactions later on. And the reactions will be more painful than the present condition of unsatisfactory life. Suicide is pure defeatism."
"He actually committed the abominable act. Do you think that he realised his Self by this act? Do you find such a statement anywhere in the scriptures?
"Certainly not. This is extreme foolishness. Some aspirants who have no idea of the nature of true Vairagya, who have not lived under the guidance of their masters for some time, commit such ignoble acts. They can never get salvation by taking to wrong Tapas though their Bhava may be pure. They cannot entertain the Bhava ‘I am Atman’ just at the time of committing the act. Horrible thoughts will crowd at the critical juncture. They will have to share obviously the fate of Pretas (ghosts).
"The mind should gradually be weaned off its old habits and cravings. If you cut off all at once its pleasure centres, it will get puzzled. That is the reason why young aspirants who take to too much Vairagya commit the ignoble act of committing suicide. You should train the mind in meditation gradually and make it taste the inner bliss. Gradually it will leave off its old habits and old cravings and you can get yourself established in true Vairagya." (An excerpt from "What is True Vairagya?")
Swami Sivananda: Pleasure and pain in life are respectively the rewards of the good and the bad actions of an individual. If a man suffers, it is a reminder to him to ennoble his life and make his future happy through the performance of good deeds, self-discipline and right effort.
When a person, convicted to a term of imprisonment by the court of law for having committed an offence, escapes from the prison, the law demands that he should be rearrested and given added punishment, because he had not only committed an offence but tried to avoid the punishment therefor. So is the case with trying to escape from one’s suffering by inflicting death on oneself, rather than attempting through self-effort to improve one’s future or accepting philosophically what is beyond all help.
One has, besides, no right to take a life, even though it may be his own, since it is a crime not only in the eyes of God but also in the eyes of social law. The person who commits suicide will suffer more in a spirit-body for a period of time, and then take a lower form of birth, to work out his Karma. So, one will not be benefited in any way by committing suicide.
Srila Prabhupada: "A confused, frustrated man cannot get relief by committing suicide because suicide will simply lead him to take birth in the lower species of life or to remain a ghost, unable to attain a gross material body." (Purport to 4:26:10)
Parihara or Atonement for People Who Commit Suicide or Die Unnaturally
As mentioned at the beginning of the article, in the Garuda Purana (Chapter 4 on Dharma Khanda), it has been said that "those who die through serpent, those who commit suicide, or die by fall from a tree, ........ All these deaths are known as bad deaths where no rite of Aurdhvadehika or pinda-dana is performed. If the same is done by mistake it is all destroyed in the air..."
In the same Purana, the Lord says,
udbandhanamṛtā ye ca viṣaśastrahatāśca ye
ātmopaghātino ye ca viṣūcyādihatāstathā [2.22.8]
Meaning: One who dies by hanging, also through poison and weapon, one who commits suicide and also dies by cholera etc. becomes a ghost.
Srimad Bhagavatam 6:2:15 says, "If one chants the holy name of Hari, and then dies because of an accidental misfortune, such as falling from the top of a house, slipping and suffering broken bones while travelling on the road, being bitten by a serpent, being afflicted with pain and high fever, or being injured by a weapon, one is immediately absolved from having to enter hellish life, even though one is sinful."
In Brahma-Vaivarta Purana, it Vyasadev proclaims that "...any man or woman who observes this (Nirjala Ekadasi) fast properly and worships the Supreme Lord Jalaśāyī (He who sleeps on the water), and who on the next day satisfies a qualified brāhmaṇa with nice sweets and a donation of cows and money - such a person certainly pleases the Supreme Lord Vāsudeva, so much so that one hundred previous generations in his family undoubtedly go to the Supreme Lord's abode, even though they may have been very sinful, of bad character, and guilty of suicide, etc. Indeed, one who observes this amazing Ekādaśī rides on a glorious celestial airplane (vimāna) to the Lord's abode."
Sources: pgs. 35, 91, 159, Ekadasi by Krsna Balaram Swami
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