Do devotees who commit suicide become ghosts?
Thank you Hare Krishna question if a devotee commits suicide will that devotee become a ghost answer a devotee's journey through life in this life as well as next life is guided by Krishna and whatever is best for that devotee will happen now sometimes Krishna can intervene and suspend the laws of middle nature if that is best for the devotee or sometimes Krishna can allow the laws of nature to act if that is the best for the devotee so now if we look at the example to understand this principle let's look at the example of Jada Bharat Bharat Maharaj in the 5th canto of Srimad Bhagavatam normally it is said that if one even takes prasad even one does a little bhakti then swalpa mapyasya dharmasya trayate mahato bhayat that even by the practice of little bhakti one will be freed from fear, the greatest danger and the greatest danger the Acharya has explained is losing the human form of life so now Bharat Maharaj had done not little, huge bhakti had renounced the world in his youth and had practiced serious sadhana in the jungle and yet in his next life he became a deer so how is that that was because although there is one law that if somebody practices bhakti that person will never lose the human form but another law that whatever state of being we remember at the time of death that is what we will achieve yamyam vapisvan bhavam jityante kalyevaram so 8.6 in the Bhagavad Gita 8.56 talks about this antah kaale yamyam vapisvan bhavam so now when there are two laws which one will get precedence that depends on what is best for that devotee so we see that although Bharat Maharaj got a deer's body, he did not get a deer's consciousness he actually had a consciousness that was higher than that of most human beings also that's why even a deer's body instead of searching around for the most succulent green grass, he would stay near hermitages and he would hear the spiritual sound vibrations, the Krishna Katha that the hermits were discussing and then he got an elevated Brahman's body and his consciousness right from his early childhood was so elevated that he was advanced transcendentalist so he lost the human form but he did not lose the special gift of the human form that is human consciousness which was the human consciousness which makes the human form special because human consciousness allows for the potential for spiritual advancement so that stayed with him so similarly if a devotee commits suicide for whatever reason then the devotee will lose that body and if the Krishna whatever is best for that devotee, if it is best for that devotee spiritual growth that that the devotee go into a ghostly body not going to get a gross body that's what Krishna will do and then that soul may have a ghostly body but even in the ghostly body the soul will not have a ghost like consciousness the devotee will have a devotional consciousness there have been some incidents of some devotees and they are going for yatra and suddenly they start behaving irrationally as if a ghost had possessed them and this young devotee that devotees tried various ways to try to exorcise the ghost and nothing worked and finally this devotee spoke in a voice completely different from natural voice and said that I want to go to Mayapur and I will leave this body as soon as I reach Mayapur till then no matter what you do I am not going to leave this body so don't waste your time so then that means what would happen if a ghost that has entered the body of this devotee the ghost wants to go to Mayapur what kind of ghost is that? it is supposed to have spiritual desire so it's not exactly not at all ghost consciousness it is still devotional consciousness so we should rest assured that whatever bhakti we have performed that will never be lost so even if somebody becomes some devotee commits suicide becomes a ghost still that devotional consciousness will be there and so it will be like a devotee ghost now of course the point is that although there is that guarantee that even if somebody commits suicide the devotional consciousness will not be lost but still it is a tragedy when a devotee feels for whatever reasons so so alone so rejected so hopeless as to want to commit suicide we should have adequate support systems in our devotee community we should look out for each other and some devotee seems depressed some devotee feels disappointed for whatever reason we should try to be there for the devotee so that we can assist them and one of the principles so if some devotee has difficulty we need to be trustworthy enough friends so that the devotee can reveal the heart without feeling that we will look down upon them or we will we will broadcast their their dark secrets to the world or whatever we need to have a close knit community by which devotees feel loved and feel a sense of belonging and love and protection and they will not want to no matter what difficulties come up take this extreme step so in the Jadbharat pastime in the Bharat Maharaj's dear Jadbharat pastime the point of the pastime is not to say that ultimately all there was a happy ending because Jadbharat did become liberated but still the point of the pastime is that it was unnecessary detour so we don't want to take unnecessary detour we just want to march straight to Krishna that's why we should take care of devotees and devotees who feel that is from the community's point of view we try to watch out for devotees who have had some sufferings in their life that to give them emotional support and care and love by which they don't feel this dangerous urge and if devotees sometimes get so overwhelmed by some problems some misery that they get this urge they should talk with someone they should talk with somebody trustworthy by which they can get guidance and solve the problems that are there or if the problems cannot be solved get the strength to live with the problems and move on just because we will become devotee-ghost does not mean that the ghostly body is free from misery there will be devotional consciousness but still there is immense misery in a ghostly body and there is also the bad karma of destroying the body so therefore we should try to take counseling, consult some friends or whatever and resist this deadly temptation to commit suicide.
Thank you. Raya Krishna.