Ramana Maharshi views about Commiting Suicide

Sri Ramana Maharshi did speak at length on suicide, and I will give his most pertinent remarks below. We must first understand that Bhagavan was adamantly traditional in his guidance with regards to what suicide is, what promotes it, and what frees us from its influence. Bhagavan echoed the teachings of Sri Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita, the major Hindu scriptures, and the wisdom of the Buddha in declaring first and foremost that,

"All states and all conditions in life proceed from the mind; they are mind-made and mind governed. (Dhamapada 1:1)

We live and move, either feeling bound or free, as individuals. Dependence on “others”, in Pali “tanha (clinging)”, spiritually weakens us. Thus Bhagavan expressly demonstrated this truth in his own translation of Adi Shankacharya’s Vikekachudamani:

“If, by some great penance, that rarity, a human body is obtained, with its ability to understand the meaning of the scriptures, and yet, owing to attachment to insentient things, effort is not made to attain the immutable state of liberation, which is one’s own true state, then indeed one is a fool committing suicide. What greater fool is there than one who does not seek his own good?”

In this regard we find the following words of guidance from Bhagavan recorded in Talks #340:

A question arises, why there should be suicides. Why does one do it? Bhagavan replied: “Because he is unhappy and desires to put an end to his unhappiness. He actually does it by ending the association with the body which represents all unhappiness. For there must be a killer to kill the body. He is the survivor after suicide. That is the Self.”

Later, in Talks# 536, Bhagavan shows the ways and means to escape unhappiness, even the unhappiness that leads to suicide:

“The person soaked in the “I-am-the-body” idea is the greatest sinner and he is a suicide. The experience of “I-am-the-Self” is the highest virtue. Even a moment’s dhyana (meditation) to that effect is enough to destroy all the Sanchita Karma. It works like the sun before whom darkness is dispelled. If one remains always in dhyana, can any sin, however heinous (suicidal) it be, survive his dhyana?”

We must never stop until the goal is reached; the goal of shaking free from the limitations promoted on dependence on anything other than God. Sri Ramana Maharshi puts us to the test, pointing the Divine finger at us to realize that we are not just suicidal, but actually living in death.

D.: Death must then be the highest state.

M.: Yes. We are now living in Death. Those who have limited the unlimited Self have committed suicide by putting on such limitations. (Talks #435)

On another occasion I asked Bhagavan about suicide. I had been cycling round the Hill and on meeting a bus the thought had come into my head: “Why should I not concentrate on the Self and throw myself in front of the bus, so that in this way I may attain Moksha!” I told this to Bhagavan, but he said that it would not work. Thoughts would spring up involuntarily as I fell, fear and the shock would cause them, and thoughts coming, life would continue so that I would have to take another body. If I could still my mind sufficiently so that such a thing would not happen, then what was the need of suicide?

Source: A SADHU’S REMINISCENCES OF RAMANA MAHARSHI By SADHU ARUNACHALA (A. W. Chadwick)