Author Archives: Chaitanya Charan das

What is the Vedic perspective on euthanasia?
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From: Vikas Dhawan

request you to please let me know the vedic perspective on euthanasia (mercy killing). is it allowed? from SB we know that Bhisma dev had the benediction that he will leave his body only on his own accord at a time that he desired, however in euthanasia the patient is not capable enough of making a rationale decision on whether to live or leave the body. how should we understand this from a vedic perspective.

Thanks a lot for taking the time to clarify my doubts.

Answer Podcast

 

Transcribed by: Dr Suresh Gupta

Edited by: Sharan Shetty

Question: What is the Vedic perspective on euthanasia? Can the passing away of Bhishma pitamah be called as euthanasia?

Answer: The example of Bhisma pitamah is not really relevant to euthanasia. In euthanasia, a person wants to end life unnaturally and prematurely in order to avoid incurable pain. In contrast, Bhishma pitamah, although he was in pain, still wanted to prolong his life so that he could see the prosperity of his grandsons, the Pandavas. The above two principles are radically different. Bhishma had the advantage to reduce his pain by departing from his body on the tenth day of Mahabharata war when he fell. However, he stayed on for a higher purpose despite pain. On the other hand, in euthanasia, people want to cut short their lives.

From the Vedic perspective euthanasia is certainly not acceptable. We are given the body due to our past karma and we have to live in this body for a particular period of time. In that period, we have to endure certain amount of karmic reactions. If we try to avoid them by prematurely destroying the body, then all that we gain is more karmic reactions to endure.
We endure more karmic reactions because we destroyed the body prematurely which was entrusted to us by God. It is like a suicide, which is sinful. It may seem like an easy escape from sufferings, but it is important to understand that we cannot evade sufferings by prematurely destroying the body. We will get a future body to endure those sufferings, and suicide only makes it worse because now we have to suffer even more. That is why the concept of euthanasia or mercy killing is certainly not acceptable.

According to some surveys, actually it is not “mercy killing” rather it is “convenience killing”. The person may want to live but the person’s relatives or the support staff do not want to take care of the person anymore. For the sake of convenience, often the person is given some injection to end the life.

Vedic understanding is that let nature follow its course. We do not accelerate death by taking some substances because that is nothing but a medically assisted suicide. On the other hand, Vedic philosophy also does not recommend prolonging life using artificial support systems for a very long time. When the doctors say there is not much chance of recovery and the body is in a dysfunctional […]

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How can we balance body, mind and consciousness?
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Answer Podcast

http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/audio/CCD%20QA/2019%20QA/11-19%20QA/How%20can%20we%20balance%20body%2C%20mind%20and%20consciousness.mp3

 

Transcription :

Transcriber: Sharan Shetty

Edited by: Keshavgopal Das

Question: How can we balance body, mind and consciousness?

Answer: The working of body, mind and consciousness can be understood with the example of a computer system where the body is like the hardware, the mind is like the software and the consciousness is like the user.

In recent times, science has advanced enormously in terms of improving the hardware. At the physical level, today we have comforts like air conditioning, air transport, mobile communication etc. which were unimaginable even for the royalties a few hundred years ago. But unfortunately, to the extent we progressed at the physical level, we also regressed at the mental level. We have far more mental health problems today than we had a few decades ago, what to say about centuries ago. The hardware is improving but the software is getting corrupted by viruses.

If someone throws away their mobile phone not because it is physically damaged but there are too many viruses, we may call such a person a fool. But we see that there are people who just throw away their precious lives by committing suicides due to mental insecurities inspite of having lavish material luxuries.

We are quite careful at taking care of our physical needs (eat wisely, take adequate rest etc.) but at the mental level we have to see what kind of inputs we are giving. Just like, the kind of food we eat determines the shape and structure of our body, similarly the kind of stimuli we take from the world, determines the condition of our mind. The mind is like the palm of the hand and the five knowledge acquiring senses (eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin) are like the five fingers through which we take information of the outer world.

Broadly speaking, there are two kinds of stimuli that we take in – temptation and tribulation. When we get too many temptations (to buy things, touch them, taste them, watch them) then the mind becomes overburdened with desires and those desires make us dysfunctional. We do one thing but crave for something else.

Similarly, we also get a lot of negativity. Life has always been tough but in today’s interconnected world the way breaking news is shared, it is as if things are breaking down everywhere. Continuous exposure to this type of media bombardment stuffs too much negativity inside our minds. That is why we need to regulate what we take-in at the level of the mind which will help our mind become more efficient and effective. Our mind then becomes less of an enemy and more of a friend.

Beyond that, the consciousness needs a spiritual connection with a higher reality and that is where spirituality comes in. Balancing all of these means there is proportionate growth in all aspects. All of us were at one point in our mother’s womb as a tiny single cell but now there are millions of cells in our body, all […]

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Srila Prabhupada – The transcendentalist who embodied the best of traditionalist, existentialist and utopianist
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[Prabhupada disappearance day celebration at Fort Lauderdale, USA]
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How the Bhagavatam is the means of conquest in material existence – Meditation on narayanam namaskrtya verse
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[Bhagavatam class on 1.2.4 at ISKCON, Alachua, USA]
Podcast
http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/audio/ccd%20classes/desiretree/2019%20classes/10-19%20classess/How%20the%20Bhagavatam%20is%20the%20means%20of%20conquest%20in%20material%20existence%20-%20…