Suicide – A few words for the religiously tolerant reader
A word which is considered a taboo to be discussed openly, yet a word so common these days that ignorance is no more a bliss. So common there are plenty of ways to it. Some take it for their own selfish reasons, and when few others do it they take lots of innocents whom they not even know with them. And these few do it in the pretense of what they would like to call as 'sacrifice' or 'jihad' and what not. Whatever the reason, I don’t personally justify to put an end to something which was not started by thyself.
Why am I discussing about suicide? Today morning I was reading something about Vedic India. The Epic of Ramayana and Mahabharata came into the pages. I became curious to know how the reincarnations of Vishnu, Shri Ram and Shri Krishna met with their end. We have here Godly reincarnations in human form, who did superhuman things in their life, whom we know as ‘antaryami’ and the One who knows it all.
Just take the story of Shri Krishna, isn’t it obvious that he knew what the outcome of Ayodhya war would be? The victory of good over evil, righteous over unrighteous, or simply do’s over don’ts. Shri Krishna knew it all, and humbly said these are all part of ‘vidhi’ or the destiny. For instance, after the war, Shri Krishna paid the mourning Gandhari a visit. Gandhari had lost all of her 100 sons to the war, to the Pandvas mentored by Shri Krishna. As usual, Shri Krishna tells these were all part of God’s master plan or ‘vidhi’ over which he didn’t have any control. Gandhari replies him, “O lord; you are maker of Vidhi, the Vidhata (maker of destiny). Hence you decided that I lose all my sons. So I curse you that the entire you and your entire Yadav sect will vanish from the face of the earth in 36 years”. And it happened. Being the God himself, Krishna should have known how death would embrace Him. It is said he waited for it in the forest thinking about Gandhari’s curse. Death comes in the form of an accidental arrow. So was Shri Krishna’s death a suicide?
After Shri Ram’s epic battle of Lanka to get Sita back from Ravana, Sita was made to undergo the ‘Agnipareeksha’ (the fire test) so people would know she is pure. Sita came out of the fire as it couldn’t engulf a pure soul. Still Shri Ram sent off a pregnant Sita to Valmiki’s ashram thinking about what his people would think. Later Sita prays to Mother Earth to ‘accept’ her and the earth splits and absorbs her. Shri Ram walks into Sarayu River which leads to Vaikunta (heaven) where Sita was waiting for him. Wasn’t both these suicides?
Come to Jesus Christ. He was the son of God. He knew his end and dedicated it to the salvation of the entire humanity. He knew Judas will give a betrayal kiss to Him. And yet, he waited for it. So was it suicide?
I am a born Hindu, and I am not an atheist and I respect all religions because all teach to love one another. There might be innumerable explanations on the question I asked above. Still for me, these are basically suicides. We have our belief centered on Divine figures and yet they all were as helpless as we are when death arrives. They did super human things, they were the destiny makers, yet they couldn’t stop their own destiny. And still we fight, kill and die for our beliefs. Isn’t that the greatest comedy of life? The Gods must indeed be crazy then!
When Hinduism and Christianity portray their idols as human-like but Divine, Islam goes a step further by not portraying God at all but only His wisdom. That is Islam’s USP. Religions are here to spread and reach maximum number of people. It groups these people as the so called ‘followers’ and control them to achieve materialistic objectives. Think about religion minus the money they control and command, is something left then? So it is nothing but a conglomerate of individuals who does business in the name of God and belief.
I recall the dialogue from the movie ‘The Godfather III’ where a priest tells the protagonist Michael Corleone something each one of us should think. He picks up a pebble from a water fountain and tells him “Look at this stone; it has been lying in water for years”. He then breaks it to reveal a dry core and tells “and yet the water has not reached the inside. Europeans are like this stone. They were surrounded by Christianity for centuries and yet it has failed to reach their heart”.
Leaving aside the term “Europeans” from the movie, this is a relevant question facing all of us. Has the good ever reached our heart or will it ever reach? Unless it reaches our heart, we all are racing towards our suicide. I can’t think of us any better than a suicide bomber who blows himself up for some foolish belief his master injected to his mind and take the lives of bystanders. The difference is we all carry a suicide bomb with us which will not only kill us and the ones around us, but wipe the entire life from our earth.
Religion has not achieved its purpose since its existence. For me, I see God in myself and you. I see God in the eyes of everyone, for they are capable of doing the superhuman task of giving love without being asked. I love my religion as good as you love yours and that doesn’t give me any edge over you than you over me. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to suicide!!!
