DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2018.v06i10.071

Pages: 4032-4034

There has been a dramatic rise in adolescent suicide & it not only affects individuals but also has devastating effect on family, friends & community as a whole. An understanding of suicide in the Indian context calls for an appreciation of the literary, religious, and cultural ethos of the subcontinent because tradition has rarely permeated the lives of people for as long as it has in India. Suicide has been mentioned in the great epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata. When Lord Sri Ram died, there was an epidemic of suicide in his kingdom, Ayodhya. The Bhagavad Gita condemns suicide for selfish reasons and posits that such a death cannot have "shraddha', the all-important last rites. Brahmanical view had held that those who attempt suicide should fast for a stipulated period. Upanishads, the Holy Scriptures, condemn suicide and state that 'he who takes his own life will enter the sunless areas covered by impenetrable darkness after death'.