All world religions consider suicide as one of the worst sins that a person can commit. This is a crime against the human soul, God, nature. Today we suggest talking about suicide. We will consider this phenomenon not only from the universal and religious points of view, but also from the esoteric side. We will try to answer the question of why suicide is considered a sin, what are its consequences. We will give a series of tips for the relatives of those people who wish to commit suicide.
What is suicide?
It’s worth starting with what suicide is. This phenomenon can be called the same crime as the murder of another person. According to the traditional definition, suicide comes from the Latin sui caedere, which can be translated as "kill yourself." The definition is as follows:
Suicide is a purposeful deprivation of life, usually voluntary (although there are cases of forced suicide) and independent (in some cases, carried out with the help of other people).
Let's say right away: suicide must be distinguished from self-sacrifice. The latter is appropriate in a war, in any extreme situations. All religions of the world call self-sacrifice a manifestation of heroism, and therefore it is not (unlike suicide) a sin, rather, on the contrary, it is a virtue. The thing is that the motives for self-sacrifice are completely different - this is not cowardice and weakness, but courage, valor and service. For example, a warrior who has closed a grenade with his body, thereby protecting his associates, is a hero, because he saves several others' lives at the cost of his own.
The essence of suicide
Speaking about whether suicide is a sin or not, it’s worth talking about the essence of this phenomenon. No matter how the suicide looks, no matter how the person explains it to himself, this is just an escape from life, from struggle and from solving the problems that the higher powers confront the person. Orthodox Christians say: God never sends a person those trials that are beyond his power. That is, a truly believing person will never take such a terrible step, because he knows: any problem can be dealt with, any life troubles can be resolved.
Is there any excuse?
Psychologists note: the person who committed it tries to justify any evil. The killer or maniac is always very convincing, citing arguments to justify it. That is, if a person commits an atrocity, then, in the depths of his soul, he has already justified it for himself. However, do not forget that any evil (even justified!) Continues to be evil. And sooner or later he will have to pay for it.
Believers say: the foundation of any evil and evil act is always its weakness or other vices, such as envy and resentment, pride and cowardice. Moreover, an excuse can look incredibly believable and convincing, sometimes even righteous - often people say "I just had no other choice." However, do not forget - there is always a choice. Sincerity (above all before oneself), fearlessness and courage will help to avoid evil.
Suicide bible
We will understand what the scripture says about suicide. Is suicide considered a sin in Orthodoxy? It is hard to believe that the Christian who committed suicide lost the possibility of his salvation and went to hell. After all, the Bible says: as soon as a person sincerely believes in Jesus Christ, he receives a guarantee of salvation! It is for this reason that Christians are sure that they own eternal life. And it doesn’t matter what happens to them in the future:
I wrote these things to you, those who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you know that you, believing in the Son of God, have eternal life. 1 John 5:13.
And you should pay attention to the following words, which say that a Christian cannot be separated from God's love by absolutely nothing:
For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor Angels, nor the Beginning, nor Strength, nor the present, nor the future, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8: 38-39.
It turns out that if no creation can separate a person who believes in God from the love of God, then a Christian who commits suicide cannot become a reason for excommunication from God's love. The Bible tells us: Jesus died for the sins of man, and therefore a true Christian who, at the moment of weakness or some kind of spiritual attack decided to commit suicide, will commit a sin for which Christ has already died. However, do not think that suicide is not a serious sin against the Almighty. According to the scripture, suicide is equated with murder, so the sincerity of the faith of the person who commits suicide causes religious doubts in people. The fact is that the Bible says: Christians must live for God's sake. And only he can decide when they should die.
One of the best illustrations of why suicide is considered a sin is the episode from Esther. In Persia there was a law according to which every person who appeared before the king without his invitation, must certainly be executed. An exception was the case when the king himself held out this golden scepter to this person, thereby showing his mercy. That is, the suicide of an Orthodox Christian is tantamount to an invasion of the Heavenly King, without invitation, prematurely. Believers say: God will give you his scepter, preserving you eternal life, but this does not mean at all that He will be pleased with your action. The sin of suicide, and more precisely, its consequences, can be found in the Bible verse 1 Corinthians 3:15:
However, he himself will be saved, but as if from a fire.
Why do not the funeral service of people committing suicide?
The next thing you need to know when trying to understand why suicide is a sin is the fact that suicides are not funeral. Concepts such as compassion and pity should not be confused with mercy and the law of God.
Let's try to reflect: is it right to funeral for criminals, atheists, traitors, because of which innocent people have suffered? The answer is on the surface. Do not forget that the suicide is the same criminal, and not only before God, but also before himself. By his deed, such a man passed against the Higher forces, passing his soul to the dark.
What is a funeral service?
A funeral service is a prayer for the soul of a person who has died. A prayer in which they ask God for forgiveness of sins, care for the soul, its blessing. That is, the funeral service is a kind of ritual of seeing off the Christian soul into the bright worlds, forgiveness of sins, facilitating its future path. But can a suicide deserve such a prayer?
By the way, it is for the same reason that it is not customary to bury suicides in cemeteries. After all, the one who dared suicide, abandoned human fate. Therefore, before the suicides were buried either along the roads - on the sidelines, or in those places where there were burial of domestic animals. The fact is that the churchyard is a place that is under the auspices of the Church and the Higher Powers, there is no place for those who committed the worst sin - suicide. Such people are permanently deprived of the protection of the Almighty and support.
Punishment
Now that you have already understood why suicide is a sin, let’s talk about what punishment awaits everyone who ends his life in this way. Firstly, it is certainly purgatory. That is the name of the state in which human souls are in need of cleansing from the consequences that appeared as a result of sins. The souls that come here are the souls of those people who died in peace with God. Note that modern theologians say that purgatory is not a place, but a process. The temporal characteristics acting on the earth are completely inapplicable to him.
Are there extenuating circumstances?
And what do the clergy say about whether there are any extenuating circumstances? Can suicides be inveterate in church? It is worth saying that with the blessing of the bishop, suicides who were treated in psychiatric hospitals can be inhibited. In addition, it happens that a teenager or a child (fragile personality) someone commits suicide intentionally. In such a situation, the grave sin of suicide is replaced by killing by the hands of the victim herself. In general, each case of suicide must be considered separately. We give one more example. Those who saw the film “17 Moments of Spring” can remember the hero who took this step. Who is Pleisner - a coward who committed suicide, or a person who committed a feat? Of course, the second, because he honestly weighed his strength and realized that, having got into the Gestapo alive, he could not have endured torture, and therefore more than one person would have died because of him. That is, this motive can be called deserving of justification and even respect. Pleischner incredibly loved life and wanted to live, he committed suicide out of a sense of duty, and not in order to escape from life's turmoil.
Buddhism Suicide
Separately, it is worth talking about whether suicide is a sin in other teachings or not. For example, Buddhists believe that suicide is incredibly dangerous. They argue: a person is always able to solve the problems that await him. For example, followers of this religion say that animals live peacefully only because they are not looking for food the next day today. People should do the same. Shantideva argued that if a problem can be solved, then it must be solved. And if there is no way out of this situation, you should just accept it and not be upset, because difficulties arise for everyone. Please note: Buddhists say that a person who runs away from problems sees them incredibly large, but as soon as difficulties are met, they will cease to be so scary. Committing suicide is a great sin and an incredible mistake.
It is important to understand that from the point of view of Buddhism, one who kills himself, kills a person, which means that for several lives he will not be able to find a human life! He will have to be a being of lower worlds for many centuries. And the suffering in such worlds, of course, is much greater than in the human world. What could be the lower worlds? In some beings, they suffer from pain, such as in hell, which Buddhists call the extreme form of suffering. Here souls are constantly engulfed in fire. Special attention also deserves rebirth. People who committed a terrible sin - suicide, are reborn and again fall into the same situations that they could not cope with! That is, suicide is meaningless, in addition, it moves a person away from nirvana.
However, there are also frequent cases where suicide from the point of view of Buddhism moves a person along a chain of rebirths far ahead and even allows you to break it. For example, in the sixties of the last century, Buddhist monks subjected themselves to self-immolation. In this way, they opposed the American occupation of Vietnam. Of course, they could hardly have expected such a terrible action to force the Americans to withdraw troops from Vietnam, but they believed that with this act of self-sacrifice they could achieve the status of holiness. However, there is an opinion that such a suicide could not lead a person to nirvana or enlightenment. Kawabata Yasunari - Nobel laureate (and future suicide) wrote:
Even if you are deeply disgusted with surrounding reality, suicide is still not a form of satori. The highest moral suicide is still far from the saint.
Islamic suicide
Is suicide a sin in a religion like Islam? True Muslims are well aware of the answer to this question: Almighty Allah forbade to commit crimes - both against other people and against himself. The Qur'an says:
Do not kill yourself, for Allah is merciful to you. 4:29
And the Messenger of Allah said the following about this:
May not one of you wish death to yourself! And may Allah not pray for death before it arrives. Indeed, if you die, then your deeds and actions end there, and life (despite its lightness or complexity) is only good for the believer (after all, even the most terrible misfortune with the right and true attitude to it and overcoming it will turn out for the wearer foundations of faith by good and indescribable grace in eternity, and indeed in this life).
Let's just say: Islam not only prohibits all forms of violence, but also aims to support a person in the most difficult moments of his life. Therefore, Muslims are well aware that any tragedy (illness, problems at work, loss of loved ones) is only a temporary test, the disposal of which will follow either in this or in the next (afterlife) life. What determines the outcome of such a situation? Muslims say: the main thing is how a person will put up with his burden, hope for the mercy of Allah and, of course, believe in it. As in Orthodoxy, in Islam, only the one who gives it the right to take life. So, committing suicide is a mortal sin! On the pages of the collection of Sahih Bukhari you can find the words of the Prophet Muhammad:
He who rushes from a mountain and kills himself will also rush from a height in hell; he who kills himself with poison will burn forever in hell with poison in his hand; he who kills himself with weapons will kill himself with the same weapons in hellfire forever.
Despite the fact that this hadith speaks of eternal torture, commentators still believe that the Messenger of Allah would rather mean a rather long period, because not a single Muslim will remain in hell forever. It is worth noting that in Islam it is customary to classify suicide bombers as suicide bombers, however, another sin is added to the sin of suicide in this case - murder. The fact is that these people end not only their own lives, but also the lives of completely innocent people. It is also important that in such an act they generate anger and contempt for Islam from people of other faiths and atheists.
The opinion of magicians and esoterics
Have you ever thought about how much energy, energy and love the Higher forces must put in order for the soul to be able to be embodied in the body? Esotericists say that sometimes this process takes years, and Patrons of the Subtle World take part in it, which include karma, constellations and planets, ancestors. Long before gaining a physical shell, the karmic tasks of the soul must be defined, it must be endowed with patrons. In this case, suicide is an extreme manifestation of ingratitude, which crosses out the entire work of thousands of different forces and beings.
The same can be attributed to suicidal relations with society. When committing suicide, a person proceeds only from his selfish outlook on the world, the problem in his eyes swells and seems unsolvable. However, if a person thought about how much parents, relatives, teachers and friends put their own strengths and emotions into, he would hardly stop fighting difficulties, would not cowardly run away from turmoil, but try to face his problems, not crossing out all the labor of society.
That is why the sin of suicide is akin to betrayal, and the punishment for it is similar to that received by the traitor (for example, Judas). The person who committed suicide automatically loses the protection of the Light Forces, falls into the hands of the Dark Forces - for not fulfilling karmic tasks and escaping from life. Mages say: sometimes a suicide can be doomed to wander as a ghost - Higher forces literally “tie” him to a certain place, like a dog on a chain. Such a punishment can last more than one hundred years! After a person commits a terrible sin - suicide, he will have to live several subsequent lives in the form of an animal in order to acquire certain qualities.
Esoterics: who pushes a person to suicide?
The main reasons that push a person to suicide can be called a negative worldview, negative emotions and weak personal qualities. Typically, such a person suffers from resentment, ingratitude, weakness and vulnerability. However, esotericists say: life was given to a person just to learn how to overcome weaknesses and vices, while becoming more successful and stronger. At the same time, magicians add that different forces are fighting for the soul of a person - both Dark and Light. The former tempt, nourish weaknesses and encourage suicide.The second ones try to teach the person faith and responsibility. Voluntary deprivation of life is a victory of the Dark Forces, a real diabolical feast, esotericists say. That is why suicide is a terrible sin!
Tips for loved ones of people who want to commit suicide
Psychologists divide all suicides into two categories: demonstrative and true. Speaking of the true, it is worth saying that they represent a carefully thought-out action, the purpose of which is to deprive oneself of life. True suicide does not depend on the opinions and reactions of others - family, friends. But the suicide is demonstrative - it’s not at all an attempt to leave this world, but rather a kind of cry for help, an attempt to draw attention to yourself and your problems. Such suicide is committed in a state of affect, psychologists say.
If you notice that your loved one has lost his peace of mind, fell into despair, you must take a number of measures in order to help him get out of this state. It is necessary to consult with specialists, call the helpline. It is important to go to the temple too - the priest will be able to explain whether it is a sin to commit suicide, how to build a spiritual life - your own or a loved one. You should know that it is the lack of spirituality, lack of faith or ignoring the Sacraments of the Church, passion for superstitions - this is what pushes a person to the brink of death. At least that's what all the world's creeds say.