About Suicide

[Reav3R]

What's your opinion on suicide? What would happen to those who willingly take their own life after death? Will they be forced to watch the pain of their family and relatives and suffer or can they completely close their eyes and go away? Will there be any punishment for those who suicide?

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[Robert Bruce]

Suicides fare no differently from non suicides in the afterlife.

A deceased person usually witness his her family's grief. This is likely because strong emotions directed at the deceased will tend to pull that person into that situation in real time.

There is no punishment for suicide in the afterlife beyond the guilt that comes from cutting ones life short, and for causing pain to loved ones.

All actions have consequences, during life and in the afterlife.

If you suicide because of emotional pain and issues, these things will still have to be faced and dealt with in the afterlife. It is actually far easier to deal with such things during life than in the afterlife, where the events that caused the pain will be relived over and over until they are resolved.

My suggestion for potential suicides is to face and address the pain through regular deep meditation. This will allow you to process the painful events and mental states and, eventually, the urge to 'not be here' will go away. This will take time.

There is a reason for pain and suffering. It makes us stronger. It causes spiritual growth and maturity, which are of course indivisible.

robert

[GMAN12]

If I may add on to this, I would like to know the difference between Mahasamadhi and suicide? Isn't voluntarily leaving the body the same thing? How does one even die through Mahasamadhi?

[Robert Bruce]

Can you please elaborate on 'Mahasamadhi'?

I gather this is like a permanent astral projection, which would cause death to the physical body?

If so, then this would be the same as suicide.

robert

[GMAN12]

It's within the Yogic tradition that they drop their bodies on the highest type of samadhi. They leave totally conscious of everything. I think there was some talk about leaving through something called a Fontanel.

[Robert Bruce]

I do not see anything wrong with doing this, if one is ready to leave the physical world.

And if one were capable of doing this, then one would be capable of many other things, including avoiding the afterlife experience, and deliberate incarnation, etc.

robert

[John Sorensen]

I do not see anything wrong with doing this, if one is ready to leave the physical world.

And if one were capable of doing this, then one would be capable of many other things, including avoiding the afterlife experience, and deliberate incarnation, etc.

robert

A possible reason for someone leaving through Mahasamadhi rather than traditional physical death may be if they have finished what they came here in this life to do, and most likely had communicated with their higher self that they had indeed what they accomplished what they came to do.

In my view, (majority of the time) someone who commits a physical suicide, usually does so out of extreme suffering, thinking that it will lead to oblivion and an end to their existence, and not love, and more unlimited opportunities to learn and experience "life" once they "die".

I don't see suicide and mahasamadhi as the same thing, but that is just my opinion, and I may be wrong. It's not like anyone who has done it is around to comment. If anyone has written any records of someone who HAS been through this process and then spoken/ communicated through a trance medium, I would be interested to read it, although it would no doubt have distortions.

From wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahasam%C4%81dhi

Mahasamādhi (the great and final samādhi) is the act of consciously and intentionally leaving one's body at the time of enlightenment.^[1][2] A realized yogi (male) or yogini (female) who has attained the state of nirvikalpa samadhi, will, at an appropriate time, consciously exit from their body. This is known as mahasamadhi. This is not the same as the physical death that occurs for an unenlightened person.
Enlightened yogis take their mahasamadhi during their final practice of samadhi: and they expire during this final sadhana practice. Therefore, mahasamadhi occurs only once in a lifetime, when the yogi finally casts off their mortal frame and their karma is extinguished upon death.
An enlightened or realized yogi is one who has attained the nondual state of nirvikalpa samadhi where duality of subject and object are resolved and the yogi becomes permanently established in the unity of full enlightenment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramakrishna_Paramahamsa

According to traditional accounts, before his death, Ramakrishna transferred his spiritual powers to Vivekananda^[62] and reassured Vivekananda of his avataric status.^[62][63] Ramakrishna asked Vivekananda to look after the welfare of the disciples, saying, "keep my boys together"^[64] and asked him to "teach them".^[64] Ramakrishna also asked other monastic disciples to look upon Vivekananda as their leader.^[62] Ramakrishna's condition gradually worsened and he passed away in the early morning hours of 16 August 1886 at the Cossipore garden house. According to his disciples, this was mahasamadhi.^[62]

From (Paramahansa) Yogananda.com.au:

Sanskrit maha, "great," samadhi. The last meditation, or conscious communion with God, during which a perfected master merges himself in the cosmic Aum (Om) and casts off the physical body. A master invariably knows beforehand the time God has appointed for him to leave his bodily residence.

I checked both of my two translations of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, neither of which mentions "maha" samadhi, but my impression is that this a colloquial term. The main term used is "nirvikalpa samadhi"
"maha samadhi" can also read as "great immersion" or "final immersion" or "absorption".



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samadhi#Types_of_Samadhi

Samādhi is the only stable unchanging reality; all else is ever-changing and does not bring everlasting peace or happiness.
Staying in nirvikalpa samādhi is effortless but even from this condition one must eventually return to ego-consciousness. Otherwise this highest level of samādhi leads to nirvāṇa, which means total unity, the logical end of individual identity and also death of the body. However, it is entirely possible to stay innirvikalpa samādhi and yet be fully functional in this world. This condition is known as sahājā nirvikalpa samādhi or sahājā samādhi. According to Ramana Maharshi, "Remaining in the primal, pure natural state without effort is sahaja nirvikalpa samadhi".^[11]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirvikalpa

Nirvikalpa samādhi, on the other hand, absorption without self-consciousness, is a mergence of the mental activity (cittavṛtti) in the Self, to such a degree, or in such a way, that the distinction (vikalpa) of knower, act of knowing, and object known becomes dissolved — as waves vanish in water, and as foam vanishes into the sea.^[3] The difference to the other samadhis is that there is no return from this samadhi into lower states of consciousness. Therefore this is the only true final Enlightenment.

To clarify, there is a "final immersion" or awareness of self as God / All That Is / Tao where one can choose to remain in ones body and live, or choose (not be forced or coerced) to leave ones body having fulfilled ones karma/duty/purposes for that incarnation.

*In the Eight Limbs of Yoga, Nirvikalpa samādhi is the final goal outlined in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, but there is debate about what this really means. The main point is that the various samadhi states described in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali are intended to be experienced directly, not contemplated by intellect, and any words or descriptions are only sign posts pointing in the direction of those states.

I've mostly read only of people CHOOSING to return to their life from a death state in NDE and OBE experiences recorded from traumatic accidents, injuries and diseases etc.

However for a modern day equivalent of an individual who reached a realisation of Self where he CHOSE to remain in his body (several times), [as stated by HIM, whether you choose to believe him or not is your business] see the lectures and works of psychiatrist and physician David R. Hawkins.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QIF...3NOiYL&index=8

[GMAN12]

Thanks John. I too have only heard of the stories of the NDE's and OBE's. So much to think about.