Why do so many people commit suicide?

From Pancha Pandava P

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7y4z8dMzQE

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you Hare Krishna Question from Banche Pandav Prabhu Why Do so many people Nowadays commit suicide Even people who are Very famous Wealthy and successful Why are so many people committing suicide Nowadays Answer Because They are not able to Find meaning And happens in life Essentially A person commits suicide When that person feels that The pain of living Is greater than the pain of dying That the problems of life Are so great And are so Unsolvable That death is the only solution That ending one’s life is the only solution Now There may definitely be big problems In a person’s life And it’s not that At the very least when we see Wealthy people committing suicide Famous people committing suicide Then at one level we can understand that Wealth and fame Don’t solve problems Wealth and fame don’t bring happiness They may provide some happiness They may solve some problems But often they bring with them Other kind of problems And sometimes the problems Can be so much That people have to commit suicide So at the very first level We understand that Wealth, fame which are often thought of as the goals of life Should not be made The exclusive goals of life Because such an attitude Is Countered by the fact of Wealthy and famous people committing suicide But beyond that Now There are specific problems Which may be very difficult to deal with Whether it is for wealthy people or poor people Now in general Even among poor people The point is When do people commit suicide When they feel That the problems are unsolvable And that they are Helpless And that the only way out is Just end one’s life So actually This sort of attitude That ending one’s life is the way to solve problems Or is the way to get Rid of problems It comes from a worldview Which may not be even Consciously deliberated and understood But it comes from a worldview That has to be Analyzed And that has to be corrected So What is the worldview That worldview is that Firstly I am here And there are all these problems around me And I have to tackle these problems And I am Practically all alone If I can’t deal with these problems Then I am lost And if I just die Death is the end of everything So I will be free from the problems also So this idea Comes from a materialistic worldview That means When one thinks that Usually this comes from a materialistic worldview When one thinks that Actually this life is all that we have And ultimately I am All alone in this world And this world is hostile And I can’t deal with the world But Spirituality Can help us To counter these misconceptions So first of all spirituality Helps us to understand that we are not alone Yes there may be Big problems in life But God is bigger, he is the biggest So as it says Don’t tell It is said that No matter how big our problems are God is always bigger than the biggest problems So Now we may say that sometimes religious people also Commit suicide, yes that happens But that happens when Religious people don’t Their religion is superficial Or they misunderstand their religion They misapply their religion Then essentially the worldview becomes Similar to the materialistic worldview They think I have so many problems now And that is the solution to the problems But no it isn’t Actually the solution is To grow In our inner life That means what That actually when we understand Our spiritual side When we understand that We are not the body We are the soul and there exists God with whom we have eternal relationship Then We get an inner strength An inner Confidence in our spiritual identity And in our relationship With God That enables us to tolerate Problems, that enables us to Live through problems and not just Live through problems but to grow through problems So for example If I think that life is Just a 100 meter marathon And if I see that It’s a 100 meter sprint And if I see that I am just getting I am not going to win Or there are so many problems in it I am not going to succeed Then what is the use of living But when we understand that life is like a 100 kilometer marathon And this life is only One sprint within that marathon Then whether we are ahead Or whether we are behind Whether we have big problems or whether we have small problems We understand there is a long way to go And whatever is there around me It’s temporary So getting a spiritual understanding of life Helps us To see To not eternalize the present So firstly I talked about the shelter of God Secondly I talked about understanding our eternal identity Now I am talking about how We can keep small things Small when we understand Our spiritual identity Suicide happens when people think My problem is so big It is so unsolvable That the only way out is by death But When we understand That actually No matter how big a problem may be It’s small Because I am much bigger I am an eternal being And no problem is going to be eternal It is there now, it may be there for some time It will go away in due course So now That’s why when we think that I am this body Then life becomes like a 100 meter sprint And then a problem seems to be forever Even if I have a problem that is going to stay throughout my life Still This life is only one small flash In our life, in our actual life It extends before birth and beyond death For all of eternity So seeing this long term perspective How does it change our Change our Attitude towards life We understand say life is like a train journey And while going in a train journey I have come to a dirty station It’s foul smelling The smell is intolerable But that doesn’t mean that I have to quit the train And jump out of the train And risk myself No, the train is going to keep passing And that station is going to pass And no matter how dirty and intolerable Foul smelling it may be The station is going to go away So like that, yes I may be in a terrible situation right now But life is going to move on And this terrible situation is also not going to last That’s why Krishna says We have to tolerate pleasure and pain Neither is permanent Neither is going to last forever So The basic point is when we Don’t take our inner life In terms, not just in terms of Our feelings and emotions But in terms of our inner identity And our inner relationship with God We don’t take that seriously enough And we take the outer world And its effect on us too seriously Then That When carried to an extreme Leads people to the frustration Extreme frustration That terminates Unfortunately, tragically in suicide So Now Of course suicide There is also another philosophical misconception That People commit suicide because they feel it will solve their problems They will be able to Escape or run away from their problems But unfortunately it doesn’t happen like that What happens when people commit suicide Is that The problems which are Coming in our life are coming because of our past Karma And we can’t escape from those Problems Now we may say that is it cruelty that so many Problems are coming upon me from a past karma No, it doesn’t have to be cruelty Those problems Can enable us to grow in life Just like when there is a Bird inside an Inside an egg The bird or baby bird is there And the baby bird has to come out of the nest A nest Sorry of the Shell of the egg At that time it has to labor a lot And often it gets Hurt while cracking the shell And it suffers In that process but if somebody just breaks the shell And let the bird come out, the bird comes out But its body, its wings Its legs which would have grown By pushing against the shell That growth doesn’t happen And often the bird is not able to fly And the bird becomes simply a prey for some predator It’s getting devoured away So similarly The past karmic reactions That are coming to us They are not necessarily Nature’s cruelty First of all we have only done some karma Because of which we are getting the reactions But the important point is God arranges things in such a way That we can grow through them If we make healthy choices So yes the past karmic reactions Create problems but we can see those problems As a shell Around us and by Growing, by breaking through that shell We are going to grow So by enduring the problems In not having Knee jerk reactions But maturely dealing with the problems Enables us to grow Grow in our wisdom, grow in our devotion Grow in our spiritual side By which we can face Life’s inevitable future problems With much more intelligence and maturity And that is the Foundation for ultimate success in life So unfortunately When people commit suicide Then they can’t escape the past karmic reactions Because as souls The soul will go to another body Another destination, some other place And the soul will have to get reactions there And further suicide itself Involves doing a bad karma Because the body has been given to us by God It is entrusted to us And when we destroy it We are destroying a gift of God And a precious gift of God So that itself involves further bad karma So suicide doesn’t solve problems Actually suicide complicates our problems further But If we Turn towards God And take shelter of Him It’s not that the problems will go away By a magic wand But we will get inner strength To deal with the problems So we get In remembrance of God In praying to God, in chanting His holy names In studying the scriptures Then we get inner strength To We get an inner shelter We get a Inner place to Find relief Basically when we have a lot of problems Whatever we think about That agitates us And then there is nothing pacifying To think about and then one gets so worked up That I feel there is nothing to live for But Just thinking about Krishna Is pacifying, chanting His holy names Singing the kirtans Studying the philosophy Taking darshan of the deities So Krishna offers for us A home for our consciousness A comforting Protecting, strengthening home In thinking about Krishna We get keys and strength And when we get that We can deal with any problem That we may face So The scriptures also talk about something called Spiritual suicide When we reject our identity When we reject Krishna’s identity And when we reduce our personality To nothingness That is a spiritual suicide So rather than doing any kind of suicide like this What we can focus on is Developing ourselves spiritually And By turning towards Scripture And learning about God’s love for us We understand that no matter how many problems I have in life Krishna still loves me Nothing can ever happen That will stop Krishna from loving me And nothing can ever Happen that can stop me From Getting relief In loving Krishna From getting shelter In Krishna’s loving Remembrance So when we understand that we have Something which will always give us shelter Even when the whole World takes away all our other shelters Then This extreme of suicide Will never happen Yes Of course apart from that If a person has specific problems Then the specific problems also have to be dealt with At a practical level And that is the responsibility Of the family Of the society Of the government So for example if farmers are committing suicide Because of extreme poverty and debts And complications Then Then it is also the responsibility of the government To create proper Social economic arrangements For taking care of people Or if a person The education system is creating so much Stress and tension That students are feeling so pressured That they want to commit suicide Because they feel that I will not Succeed and what will happen to me If I don’t succeed Then the education system also needs to be revamped The parental expectations Need to be scaled down So there are There are definitely social Cultural and other practical measures That will need to be taken To deal with the problem of suicide In a Effective way But we have to understand that That just dealing with those Things Will solve those problems But the tendency to commit suicide May still remain Because other problems may come up And a person may feel all the problems are unsolvable Let me commit suicide So at a fundamental level To Remove that Option of suicide itself From one’s mental framework From one’s mental array of options That option of suicide should be removed Entirely and that’s what Spirituality gets And then we find out how to Deal with the problems practically And there are practical measures definitely Which need to be taken at an individual level At a familial level, at a social level, at a governmental level And these have to be taken up But along with that And foundational to that We want to deal with suicide We also need to educate people in the right World view that will never Let them become so frustrated As to consider suicide as a way out Of frustration Rather devotion will help them to avoid Much frustration and devotion will also Offer them shelter when some frustration Inevitably comes up And in that way, spiritual wisdom And the devotion that it culminates in Can help In minimizing This tragic Social health problem as the United Nations Called it of the large number Of people committing suicide Thank you