From: gmadras@taco.engr.ucdavis.edu (Giri) Subject: Re: Did Sahaja Yoga kill my brother? Newsgroups: alt.yoga Date: 29 Oct 1995 22:35:39 GMT >Especially my mother is very sore about this, because as an Adventist she >thinks suicide is an immoral thing to do, and she is convinced that if my >brother had followed Christianity, this could not have happened. I am sorry for your brother and his decision. But, I am not sure what is implied in the above sentence. Yoga and Hinduism does condemn suicide and is considered immoral, as far as i know. Again, I feel sorry for your brother's decision which in my opinion is not because he changed from Christianity to Yoga. Giridhar Prasanth Madras From: Vladimir Alexiev Subject: Re: Did Sahaja Yoga kill my brother? Newsgroups: alt.yoga Date: 30 Oct 1995 07:40:53 -0700 In article <470vjr$n5n@mark.ucdavis.edu> gmadras@taco.engr.ucdavis.edu (Giri) writes: > >she is convinced that if my brother had followed Christianity, this could > >not have happened. > I am not sure what is implied in the above sentence. Didn't mean to implicate anything, sorry if it sounded like it. > Yoga and Hinduism does condemn suicide and is considered immoral, as far as > i know. I didn't know about this. Could someone please elaborate on it, especially for Sahaja Yoga? This is important for me. > not because he changed from Christianity to Yoga. Just a clarification: he never was a Christian. In fact in my family only my mother is a believer. From: Mukti Parupudi Subject: Re: Did Sahaja Yoga kill my brother? Newsgroups: alt.yoga Date: 31 Oct 1995 01:50:47 GMT My two cents: I am sorry about your brother and the suffering your family is undergoing. As one who has studied and practiced yoga extensively over a long period of time under the guidance of some excellent renunciate yogis, I would categorically state that yoga does not encourage suicide in any way. Renunciation of temporal attachments is not to be confused with renunciation of life. In fact, life becomes so precious as it is being used for what it is intended to be used, namely, God Realization. However, as part of the dispassion (vairagya in sanskrit) sometimes, thoughts do occur to escape from this world and all the suffering associated with cycle of rebirth, temporal limitaions, etc. However, those thoughts pass quickly upon reflection of the Doctrine of Karma. But then these thoughts probably occur more frequently in the population at large! Yogis believe that it is extremely difficult to get a human birth due to the evolutionary stages of the consciousness. Man is the highest in the scale of consciousness from animals upwards. Even some of the lower level gods and demi-gods have to take a human birth in order to complete their evolutionary process to reach self-realization or merge with Brahman or God Consciousness. Only a human body can strive towards and attain God Realization. Most of the difficult periods in a person's life are in the womb, childhood and teens. For one who has reached the late twenties or so, life is even much more precious, having passed some of the earlier difficult stages. Most people do not commit to a serious spritual discipline over extended period of time. Many people dabble in it. So life is very precious for a serious yoga student who understands how unique and rare, (s)he is. Yogis believe that whatever unfinished business (karma) that has not been worked out in this lifetime (due to suicide / sudden violent death, etc) will have to be worked out in the next life. There is no escaping it. It is almost like a "pyramid of souls"; as you go towards the top of the pyramid, there are fewer and fewer souls, who have a human birth, who have passed the early years, who are in excellent health, who are lucky enough to stumble into a spiritual practice they are comfortable with, who have a guide / guru / teacher, who are serious enough to continue it for several years / decades / lifetimes, etc. etc. Thus those souls towards the top end of the pyramid are so extremely rare and hence so precious and hence suddenly ending that process of evolution and restarting it (with no guarantees of when one might get another chance to restart it) is almost unthinkable!!! Hope this helps. Cheers, Mukti From: gmadras@pinto.engr.ucdavis.edu (Giri) Subject: Re: Did Sahaja Yoga kill my brother? Newsgroups: alt.yoga Date: 30 Oct 1995 17:15:11 GMT >I didn't know about this. Could someone please elaborate on it, especially >for Sahaja Yoga? This is important for me. I feel Sahaja yoga (since it is a part of Raja yoga/kundalini yoga) should have the same opinions as Vedanta. The topic of life after suicide and the karmic effects of the same are discussed in Upanisads. There are many experts out on alt.yoga who can explain these concepts better than I can. Again, I feel sorry for your pain. I defer to them,