Suicide is Not the Solution

People commit suicide to escape misery but they do not realise it puts them in greater misery. It is like, someone is shivering in the cold and he goes out and removes his jacket. Will the cold become any less?

No! People who commit suicide find themselves there because they are so attached to life. They are so attached to some pleasure, to some joy, that they want to kill themselves.

And when they kill themselves they find themselves in a bigger soup. They feel, 'Oh my God, this restlessness, these desires which had created such intense agony inside me has not gone.

My body has gone but the agony has remained. It is only through the body that you can dispel the agony and get rid of misery. Instead you destroy the very instrument by which you can get rid of agony.

When energy goes down you get depressed and when it goes further down suicidal tendencies arise. When the prana is high, this thought will not come.

You will not be violent to yourself or others when your prana is high. Through proper breathing exercises, some meditation and through good and loving company energy can go up.

Anyone with suicidal tendencies should be led to someone who can teach them meditation, who can make them do some breathing exercises and raise their energy level. Every day, for ten minutes meditate and become hollow and empty.

We need to create a society free from stress and violence, and the way for it is through meditation. Many times when we sit for meditation, the mind goes all over the place.

That is where Sudarshan Kriya, which is a breathing technique, and yoga, both of these help the mind to calm down and become serene.

Personal development is very important for everyone. See life from a broader perspective. 80 years of life we are living, is it worth being stressed, unhappy? In this short span of life, we should spend our time being happy and making others happy.

If You Get Thoughts Of Committing Suicide:

1. Know that it is just your prana which is low, so do more pranayama
2. There are millions of people who are suffering more than you, look at them. When your suffering becomes smaller you will not think of committing suicide.
3. Know that you are needed, you are useful. You have to do something in the world.
4. Forget about what people think of you: People commit suicide because they think they have lost their prestige, their status. What status? What prestige? Who has time to think about your prestige?

Everybody is entangled with their own problems, with their own mind. They can't step out of their own mind, where do they have the time to think about you? It is worthless to worry about what the society thinks of you.

Life is much more than just a few material possessions. Life is much more than blame or appreciation from someone. Life is much more than a relationship or a job.

The reason for suicide is failure in relationship, failure in job and not being able to achieve what you want to achieve. Life is much more than the small desires that pop up in your consciousness, in your mind.

See life from a bigger perspective and engage yourself in some sort of social activity; service activity. Service or seva can keep people sane and keep them out of this mental depression.

Mental depression is worse than an economic recession. One has to take responsibility to sail over this and help others around them. Taking every crisis as a challenge, as an opportunity is what we need to promote in the world.

(The author of this article, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is a humanitarian and spiritual leader as well as the founder of Art of Living.)