Is Suicide Justified?

Every day, newspapers carry reports of people taking the extreme step of killing or trying to kill themselves. The situations range from financial ruin to emotional havoc. Sadhguru answers the question: Is suicide justified?

Sadhguru: Sometimes, life can place people in such extreme situations that at that moment, they may feel death is definitely better than the life situation they are faced with. But if you approve of this, then for every little bit of difficulty that someone faces, they will think it is the most difficult situation and they’ll want to go. So there is no way to approve of it, because the moment you bring that approval into the social structure and social psyche, too many people will start killing themselves. Every time there is a little difficulty, they will kill themselves.

You did not create life, so you have no business to take it either – whether it is yours or someone else's. Unless you are able to create it, you should not destroy it: it is as simple as that. Life situations are there, some are okay, some are not okay, some are horrible, but still it does not give you the right to take life because you are incapable of creating one.

Everyone's life is precious to them; it is naturally so. If someone has gone beyond that and tried to take their life, if they are still alive, I would say an absolute “no” to it. But if it has already happened, respect their decision and leave it there. In spite of it being the most precious thing that they have, if someone has taken the extreme step of taking their own life, it does not matter how silly it looks to you and me, respect their decision because if that is how it is, that is how it is. But if they are alive, you should say 100% no because you have no business to do that.

In terms of karmic structure, in terms of the spiritual evolution of a being, it is a 100% no. No question about it. You have to see every situation as a possibility to move towards freedom rather than getting entangled. If you use every situation as a stepping stone, then there is no question of suicide. If a spiritual process becomes active in societies, suicide can almost disappear except in cases of mentally deranged people. They might do something because it is not in their control as to what they do. But if a spiritual process is on in one's life, there would be much less people consciously deciding to take their life; this may even completely go away.

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