Concept
Sallekhana
Overview
Sallekhana (IAST: sallekhanā), also known as samlehna, santhara, samadhi-marana or sanyasana-marana, is a supplementary vow to the ethical code of conduct of Jainism. It is the religious practice of voluntarily fasting to death by gradually reducing the intake of food and liquids. It is viewed in Jainism as the thinning of human passions and the body, and another means of destroying rebirth-influencing karma by withdrawing all physical and mental activities. It is not considered a suicide by Jain scholars because it is not an act of passion, nor does it employ poisons or weapons. After the sallekhana vow, the ritual preparation and practice can extend into years.
Sallekhana is a vow available to both Jain ascetics and householders. Historic evidence such as nishidhi engravings suggest sallekhana was observed by both men and women, including queens, in Jain history. However, in the modern era, death through sallekhana has been a relatively uncommon event. There is debate about the practice from a right to life vs right to die and a freedom of religion viewpoint. In 2015, the Rajasthan High Court banned the practice, considering it suicide. In 2016, the Supreme Court of India stayed the decision of the Rajasthan High Court and lifted the ban on sallekhana.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
Life is one of these hallucinations and death is its counterpart. Joy is one part of these hallucinations, and misery the other part, and so on. What have you to do with life or death? These are all creations of the mind. This is called giving up desires of enjoyment either in this life or another.
Swami Vivekananda, Jnâna Yoga, Part II
States what Sallekhana is.
Other methods of deliverance from evil are in the excessive acts of penance performed by the Indians, to which a retreat within themselves is added. Now when the Indian thus internally collects himself, and retreats within his own thoughts, the moment of such pure concentration is called Brahma, the one and the clearly supersensuous state, which the understanding calls the highest possible existence. When this is so…
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy
States what Sallekhana is.
Here at any rate was a ceremony--a ceremony the object of which was--to apply, to the purpose of ensuring obsequiousness, the power of the religious sanction. The object, to which it was meant to apply that form, comes, it may be seen, under the general denomination of an _oath_. An oath is either assertory or promissory: if it be an oath of the promissory kind, it is called a _vow_. An oath which is not a vow…
Jeremy Bentham, Not Paul, but Jesus
States what Sallekhana is.
Philosophers who discussed Sallekhana
Related ideas
- Ācārāṅga Sūtra
- Ahimsa in Jainism
- Hinduism
- Indian religions
- Jainism
- Satya
- Suicide
- Karma
- Karnataka
- Just war theory
- BBC
- Mahavira
- Haribhadra
- Jinasena
- Kundakunda
- Tattvartha Sutra
- Buddhism
- Śvetāmbara
- Jain monasticism
- Freedom of religion
- Champat Rai Jain
- International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration
- South India
- Dharma
Place in the tradition
Part of Jain philosophy.