Don't kill Yourself

Questions On Suicide

It is estimated that over 100,000 people die by suicide in India every year. India alone contributes to more than 10% of suicides in the world.

A very serious issue faced today in every society is suicide. The percentages are too high to ignore the problem that exists in far too many societies. Well, we can advise, as many elders do: "Don't kill yourself." It only magnifies future problems in the Antarloka - the subtle, nonphysical astral world we live in before we incarnate - and in the next life. Suicide only accelerates the intensity of karma, bringing a series of immediate lesser births and requiring several lives for the soul to return to the evolutionary point that existed at the moment of suicide, at which time the still existing karmic entanglement that brought on the death must again be faced and resolved. Thus turns the slow wheel of samsara. To gain a fine birth, one must live according to the natural laws of dharma and live out the karma in this life positively and fully.
Meaning:
Suicide is termed pranatyaga in Sanskrit, "abandoning life force." It is intentionally ending one's own life through poisoning, drowning, burning, stabbing, jumping, shooting, etc. Suicide has traditionally been prohibited in Hindu scripture because, being an abrupt escape from life, it creates unseemly karma to be faced in the future.
However, in cases of terminal disease or great disability, religious self-willed death through fasting, prayopavesha, is sometimes permitted. Hinduism is not absolutely black and white in this matter. Rather, it takes into account the broader picture. How will this affect the soul? How will it affect humanity? How will it affect one's future incarnations? All that must be taken into account if a wise and compassionate, right decision is to be made on so serious a matter.
Attempt to suicide is an offence punished with simple imprisonment for a term that may extend to one year or with fine under Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code.

Supreme Court in P. Rathinam v. Union of India (AIR 1994 SC 1844) held that the right to live of which Article 21 speaks of can be said to bring in its trail the right not to live a forced life, and therefore, section 309 violates Article 21 and declared as unconstitutional . However, Constitutional bench overruled this decision in Gian Kaur case, holding that Article 21 cannot be construed to include within it the ‘right to die’ as a part of the fundamental right guaranteed therein, and therefore, it cannot be said that section 309 is violative of Article 21.
There are very few extraordinary situations in which self-willed death is permitted. It is not enough that we are unhappy, disappointed, going through a temporary anguish, such as loss of loved ones, a physical injury, a financial loss or the failure to pass an exam and the fear of an angry thrashing from parents when they find out. That is called life. It is not enough that we are filled with sorrow. None of these reasons is enough to justify suicide, and thus it is in such cases an ignoble act. It is not necessarily even enough that we are suffering a serious, terminal illness, one of the thousands that beset human beings on this planet.