Podcast:
Transcription
Question: If someone commits suicide, can that be caused by their karma?
Answer: In general, our past karma determines our situations, not our decisions. Now when I talk about situations, it doesn’t just refer to physical situations. We could talk about psychological situations also, so our dispositions also. But just because somebody has a particular disposition doesn’t mean that they necessarily have to make that decision. Yes, those thoughts may come more in some people, those thoughts may come less in some people, but we can’t really say that our past karma makes us do things as extreme as suicide. Yes, there are other factors also. Maybe if somebody does like that, yes, they may have suicidal thoughts, they may have done some things by which they have alienated themselves from people or whatever has happened, somebody is against them and that’s why they are feeling very lonely and persecuted.
Generally, our actions in this life are not forced upon us by our past actions. They’re prompted, but they’re not forced. That’s where the idea of free will comes in. We always have free will. Of course, how much free will we have, that will vary from person to person. That will be affected by one’s past karma, but free will is always there. It’s like, say even a person in a jail has free will, but they don’t have freedom. Freedom is the area over which free will is executed or exercised. So, they don’t have the freedom to go to this part of the city or that part of the country or that part of the world. They have to stay within that jail cell or in that jail premises, but even there they have free will. There they can quarrel with other people, they can fight, or they can maybe read and learn some useful skill and come out wiser. They have choices. Some prisoners might be in a far more restricted cell, they might be in solitary confinement, in a dungeon, and some might be allowed to go around as long as they’re within the prison walls. That will depend largely on what kind of crime they have committed, what kind of conduct they have had in the jail cell as well as before getting into jail.
Like that, we can say our past conduct determines how much freedom we have, but it doesn’t determine our free will. Free will is always something which is with us. If somebody comes to the point of committing suicide, then it is definitely a decision. It is a decision that they took. We can’t put it on past karma alone. Past karma may make them more vulnerable, but then it’s up to them. It’s their choice.
This also is seen to some extent in gender variation within suicides. What is found is that women attempt suicide more, men commit suicide more. What does that mean? Now again, I don’t want to perpetuate gender stereotypes, but broadly speaking, women are more emotional than men and that’s required for them because one of their primary functions is taking care of newborn babies. If somebody is too rational, why is this baby behaving like that? You won’t be able to do that duty of taking care of a child. So that makes them emotionally sensitive to others’ emotions also. But women are more emotional; so, under the pressure of emotion, they may feel, I want to commit suicide. They may attempt it also, but to follow through with it, not so much.
On the other hand, the male body is itself more disposed toward violence. Generally throughout history, if wars have happened, fighting has happened, it’s men who have fought. So, because the male body is disposed more toward violence and that violence can be toward others and it can be toward oneself also. So that’s why women attempt suicide more, men commit suicide more. Does that mean that men have to commit suicide or women have to commit suicide? No. The gender may determine certain psychological or physical orientations, but ultimately it’s an act which is consciously done.
End of transcription.
By Congregational Development Ministry
By Congregational Development Ministry
By Bhakti Charu Swami
By Nrsimhananda Das
By ILS GLOBAL
