TO DIE, OR NOT TO DIE. IS THAT THE QUESTION?
If it scares you, it should.
In the Bhagavad Gita, the Lord declares
this face (our ego) to be our most
powerful and greatest enemy!
Thus the goal of life is declared to be killing it,
before it kills you!
Question: Did Sri Ramana Maharshi ever speak about suicide? Did his teaching guide us to know the source of suicidal feelings and how to overcome them?
Sri Ramana Maharshi did speak at length on suicide, and I will give his most pertinent remarks below. We must first understand that Bhagavan was adamantly traditional in his guidance with regards to what suicide is, what promotes it, and what frees us from its influence. Bhagavan echoed the teachings of Sri Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita, the major Hindu scriptures, and the wisdom of the Buddha in declaring first and foremost that,
"All states and all conditions in life proceed from the mind; they are mind-made and mind governed. (Dhamapada 1:1)We live and move, either feeling bound or free, as individuals. Dependence on “others”, in Pali “tanha (clinging)”, spiritually weakens us. Thus Bhagavan expressly demonstrated this truth in his own translation of Adi Shankacharya’s Vikekachudamani:
“If, by some great penance, that rarity, a human body is obtained, with its ability to understand the meaning of the scriptures, and yet, owing to attachment to insentient things, effort is not made to attain the immutable state of liberation, which is one’s own true state, then indeed one is a fool committing suicide. What greater fool is there than one who does not seek his own good?”Bhagavan is reminding us of the source of the pain which can lead to suicide, “owing to attachment to insentient things”. But alas, we are sensual beings and we habitually seek association and attachment in an effort to secure happiness.
In this regard we find the following words of guidance from Bhagavan recorded in Talks #340:
A question arises, why there should be suicides. Why does one do it? Bhagavan replied: “Because he is unhappy and desires to put an end to his unhappiness. He actually does it by ending the association with the body which represents all unhappiness. For there must be a killer to kill the body. He is the survivor after suicide. That is the Self.”Later, in Talks# 536, Bhagavan shows the ways and means to escape unhappiness, even the unhappiness that leads to suicide:
“The person soaked in the “I-am-the-body” idea is the greatest sinner
and he is a suicide. The experience of “I-am-the-Self” is the highest
virtue. Even a moment’s dhyana (meditation) to that effect is enough to destroy
all the Sanchita Karma. It works like the sun before whom darkness
is dispelled. If one remains always in dhyana, can any sin, however
heinous (suicidal) it be, survive his dhyana?”
[Sanchita Karma: Karma produced by acts performed either in this life or in a previous one, but which remains latent during this present life. Karma which has not yet begun to produce results or fruits.]
Meditation alone promotes the strengthening of the individual, without dismantling our innate need for dependence. It does so by creating and enlivening our Spirit through dependence on God! The power of meditation is fathomless, for as Bhagavan declares, in unison with the Bhagavad Gita:
“The pain (Sanchita Karma) which is yet to come can be avoided.”Sri Anandamayi Ma spoke of this truth when saying that, “Death must die!” Death, the ultimate cause of the most painful fear, can be transcended. Even death must be transcended, for it is the most potent limitation of the realization of the Self. This “realization” is brought about through the death of the ego; the goal of life is, in Bhagavan’s own words, the highest state of “egocide”!
We must never stop until the goal is reached; the goal of shaking free from the limitations promoted on dependence on anything other than God. Sri Ramana Maharshi puts us to the test, pointing the Divine finger at us to realize that we are not just suicidal, but actually living in death.
D.: Death must then be the highest state.
M.: Yes. We are now living in Death. Those who have limited the unlimited Self have committed suicide by putting on such limitations. (Talks #435)
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