New Delhi: Unlike a Christian believer who looks upon the human body as a God-given ‘temple of the Holy Spirit’, a devout Jain views it as a ‘prison of the human soul.’ On average, 200 Jains practice Santhara, or the practice of fasting until death, each year in India.
Most Jains are united on the practice, expressing utmost faith in it as one of the main tenets of Jainism. Banker Shweta Jain, 29, feels it is a religious right of people to die at their will and in a way of their choosing.
“No courts can dictate how someone wants to die. As a matter of fact, suicide should be legal. That being said, who will you prosecute after someone takes his life in India? Abetting someone’s suicide is illegal and should be prosecuted. Can the courts control a birth of a person? When people are born without any laws dictating their birth, they have a right to die at their will,” argues Jain.
Forty-year-old architect Manish Jain believes the law cannot come between a person and his metaphysical existence.
“I have the right to my body and mind, and that is supreme right given to me, not by some cheap paper on which law is written, but by my master who created me. How can a court disregard that? Like most religions, Jainism forbids all forms of suicides. Suicide involves an intentional act of harm against oneself with a known outcome that negatively affects those left behind. Suicide does not allow escape from one’s karma, nor from one’s cycle of births and rebirths. However, in the practise of Santhara, it is viewed that death is welcomed through a peaceful, tranquil process that provides peace of mind and sufficient closure for the adherent, their family and the community,” he says.
Interior Designer Meenakshi Jain, 35, welcomes the ruling of the apex court overturning the ban on Santhara.
“For those who are not in favour of [the] SC [supreme court’s] decision, I only have one word to say: Ignorance is not a point of view. I am glad that court could understand that whereas suicide is an act of extreme desperation fuelled by anguish and hopelessness, a Santhara practitioner relinquishing food and drink voluntarily by this method arrives at that decision after calm and unruffled introspection, and thus attains the highest state of transcendental well-being,” says Meenakshi.
