A man commits suicide in Coimbatore (India) because his girlfriend refused to go with him to watch a movie. And a woman commits suicide because her husband refused to take her to a movie.

Agony, anger, betrayal, distrust, hopelessness overwhelmed both the weak hearted persons and in the “spur of the moment” they took a devastating decision of ending their lives.

Has insanity taken precedence over rationality that people have no hesitation in committing the most heinous crime upon themselves?

A desire to live life on one’s own terms, expecting people around to accept their way of living, never compromising attitude and carrying tonnes of emotions on the sleeves are some of the attributes which characterise people today. The end result is never a pleasant one because in this world we will never always get what we want.

Life is not just about eating, drinking and movie watching. Life has much deeper meaning which most people today aren’t aware of because it is neither taught in schools and colleges and nor people seriously want to learn about it. People give great importance to momentary pleasures and if they find any interruption or obstacle in their pursuit for self-indulgence then they become agitated internally and externally. Most of us spend all our time, energy and effort in taking care of our externals such as accumulating wealth, planning for career etc. and we spend very negligible time in attending the needs of our inner self. But it’s a grave mistake because if our inner foundation is weak then we can crumble at the slightest whiff of any adversity. 

However if we equip ourselves with the knowledge of who we are and what is the purpose of this human form of life then we would in fact shudder at the thought of doing anything whimsically. A child may put his hand in the fire because he may not know that it will burn its hand. Similarly an ignorant man can waste life but as soon he understands the importance of human form of life then he will desist from committing any harm to himself or to others. Human life is very precious because as humans we have the opportunity to do ultimate good to self and to the entire humanity. Importance of human life is exhorted in Vedas and so Vedanta sutra exhorts to all: Inquire about the absolute truth (athato brahma jijnasa). In fact life is to know about soul (us), Supersoul (the Supreme God) and to understand how to re-establish our relationship with the Supreme Lord. If we can develop relationship with God then we can easily confront all the difficulties just like Arjuna who after taking the guidance of Krishna was easily able to subdue all his weaknesses and negative emotions.

Meaningful messages of Vedic literatures will equip us with sufficient knowledge which will prevent us from giving in to our lower self and taking any irrational decisions in our life.

For example a person will not even think of committing suicide if he understands that soul being eternal can never be killed. When one commits suicide then one does not kill oneself but just destroys ones temporary material body which anyway is going to perish oneday. And suicide being a sinful activity a person who commits suicide will have to suffer its reactions in the next life. If a person believes that by committing suicide all his sufferings will vanish then this is not going to happen.  In fact by doing this crime he is just perpetuating his woes.  In fact one should try ones best to break the vicious cycle of suffering forever. Vedic books like Bhagavad Gita elaborately explain how to stop all the sufferings. Krishna says in Gita 18.66 that if we take his shelter then he will deliver us from all sinful reactions. And he has also given us the option to eternally get rid of all the difficulties and dangers by returning back to his abode i.e. the spiritual world. (Bhagavad Gita 15.6)

Having got a human form of life we have the opportunity to return to our eternal home which is full of bliss. And for this we just need to think rationally, introspect intelligently and develop a desire do find a lasting solution to all our problems.

So, each and every moment of life should be utilized for self realization and not for wasting it in the spur of the moment.

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Purushottam Nitai Das is a member of congregation at ISKCON Kolkata. He works in Tech Mahindra, Kolkata as “Associate Solution Designer”. Check his blog http://krishnamagic.blogspot.in/)