Teachings of Hinduism are a clear deterrence to and prohibition of suicide

Dear Editor,

In her letter, `Not a ‘misunderstanding of caste’ but how to manage ideology’ (SN 22/12/2019), in her usual cavalier and contemptuous style, Professor Kean Gibson claims that the Hindu belief of reincarnation is the cause for suicide among Hindus. But no one who has even the remotest awareness of the trauma of suicide and its aftermath, or even a cursory knowledge of the Hindu understanding of birth and death will trivialize either by saying that Hindus commit suicide because they know it’s “just” and “only” a matter of time before they are born again. However, properly understood and applied the teaching of karma and reincarnation is the greatest deterrence to suicide.

Hinduism teaches we are all reborn by the force of our previous life at the same juncture, in the same mental and emotional state in which the body was abandoned to continue life’s quest for liberation and the cessation of the cycle of birth and death. A new birth thus gives us a fresh chance to confront and resolve life’s issues and challenges, as much as it represents an opportunity for growth and transformation.

Those who commit suicide do so in spite of the teaching of karma and reincarnation, and certainly not because of it as Professor Gibson so carelessly asserts.  From a Hindu perspective then, there can be no greater deterrence to suicide than the knowledge that we have to come back to face life’s turmoil, old and new, and certainly to welcome new opportunities.  Our challenge in life is, “to act that each tomorrow finds us further than today,” in the words of the American poet Longfellow.

The teaching of karma and reincarnation places the responsibility on the individual for his or her own actions. There is no scapegoat. We are the architect of our own destinies.  It also helps us to come to terms with and understand our individual suffering.  As a matter of fact, on a larger scale, the belief in karma and reincarnation, is probably the most intellectually satisfying, elegant, and simple idea that can be found in the history of human thought to resolve the age-old problem of why evil and suffering exist in the presence of a loving God.

To further demonstrate how suicide is antithetical to the spirit of Hinduism, the Gita teaches us that the thoughts and emotions occupying our consciousness at the time of death are a key factor in determining our future. Consequently, we are entreated to remember God at the time of death. By the grace of remembrance at this critical juncture of departure, we attain oneness with the Lord. But this mindfulness of the presence of the divine is not possible if it not a habit of the heart engaging the individual throughout his life.

By contrast, death by suicide where the individual is seized with fear, anger, delusion, frustration, hate, despair, and regret makes it impossible for a person to so engage himself.  It is these thoughts that will determine in what condition he is reborn and it is these thoughts he will have to contend with in the next birth. Suicide is never an escape. 

Hinduism also teaches that all of life – our thoughts, speech and actions – is to be offered to God as an act of worship. A life grounded in selflessness, compassion, truth, and non-injury, a life that is free from clutches of the three-fold evil of greed, anger, and ignorance, is one that becomes a fit offering.  A Hindu life is punctuated with numerous sacraments with the final one being the cremation rites in which the corpse itself becomes an offering in the sacred fire.  We are therefore required to live in such a way that the body becomes a fit offering. 

In the case of suicide, the sanctity of the body is destroyed and for this reason the texts recommend cremation rites without sacred mantras. Another authority even recommends that the corpse of the suicide be dragged around in the village though this practice has long ceased.  All of this, in addition to unambiguously declaring suicide as a great evil, is meant to serve as a deterrence.

Finally, we are taught that the body is humanity’s greatest inheritance and good fortune. It is to be revered as the doorway to liberation, to the heart of Lord Rama, and who, having earned this body through countless years of austerities, does not use it for the purpose for which it was intended is nothing but an ingrate.

There is a lot more but suffice it to say that the teachings of Hinduism are a clear deterrence to and prohibition of suicide.  It is not, as Professor Gibson callously suggests, that people merrily go on taking their lives because they know it is “just” and “only” a matter of time before they are reborn.

Yours faithfully,

Swami Aksharananda