View source for Religion:Prayopavesa

{{Short description|Hindu practice of suicide by fasting}}
'''Prayopavesa''' ({{lang-sa|प्रायोपवेशनम्}}, IAST prāyopaveśanam, literally ''resolving to die through fasting'')<ref>
{{cite book | last=Monier-Williams | first=Monier |title = Monier Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary| page=708 |url=http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/cgi-bin/monier/serveimg.pl?file=/scans/MWScan/MWScanjpg/mw0708-prApya.jpg| access-date=August 21, 2011|year=2008|orig-year = 1899|publisher=[[Organization:University of Cologne|Universität zu Köln]] | quote=abstaining from food and awaiting in a sitting posture the approach of death}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url= http://www.orientalia.org/dictionary-Hindu_Religion-definition24034-Prayopavesa.html|archive-url= https://archive.today/20130706044213/http://www.orientalia.org/dictionary-Hindu_Religion-definition24034-Prayopavesa.html|url-status= dead|archive-date= 2013-07-06|title= Prayopavesa|publisher= Orientalia}}</ref> is a practice in [[Religion:Hinduism|Hinduism]] that denotes the death by fasting of a person who has no desire or ambition left, and no responsibilities remaining in life.<ref name="bbc">{{cite web |url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/hinduism/hinduethics/euthanasia.shtml|title= Hinduism - Euthanasia and Suicide|date= 2009-08-25|publisher= BBC}}</ref> It is also allowed in cases of terminal disease or great disability.<ref>{{Cite book | last = Subramuniya| title = The master course, Book 2| year = 2001| publisher = Himalayan Academy Publications| page = 424| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=5iQPJA7GBmIC&pg=PA424| isbn = 978-0-945497-98-1}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url= http://www.lifebeyonddeath.org/suicide.html|title= Prayopavesa (Ritual Fasting to Death) by Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami }}</ref> A similar practice exists in [[Philosophy:Jainism|Jainism]], termed Santhara.

==Conditions and rules==
Performing prayopavesa is bound by very strict regulations. Only a person who has no desire or ambition left, and no responsibilities remaining in life, is entitled to perform it. The decision to do so must be publicly declared well in advance.<ref name="bbc" /> Ancient lawmakers stipulated the conditions that allow prayopavesa; they are one's inability to perform normal bodily purification, death appears imminent or the condition is so bad that life's pleasures are nil, and the action is done under community regulation.<ref name="Subramuniyaswami">{{Cite book | last = Subramuniyaswami| first = Sivaya| title = Dancing With Siva: Hinduism's Contemporary Catechism| publisher = Himalayan Academy Publications| year = 2003| page = 833| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=EWlHPAkjBKUC&pg=PA833| isbn = 978-0-945497-96-7}}</ref>

==Examples==
Parikshit is described to have observed the prayopavesa when the ''[[Religion:Bhagavata Purana|Bhagavata Purana]]'' was narrated to him by the sage Shuka, son of Vyasa.<ref>{{Cite book | last1 = Shastri| first1 = Jagdish| last2 = Kunst| first2 = Arnold|title = Ancient Indian Tradition & Mythology;: The Bhāgavata-purāṇa| publisher = Motilal Banarsidass| year = 1979| page = 73,74,75| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=C8YNAAAAIAAJ }}</ref>

In 1982, [[Philosophy:Acharya|Acharya]] Vinoba Bhave (spiritual successor of Mahatma Gandhi) died by prayopavesa. In October 2001, Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami subjected himself to prayopavesa. Subramuniyaswami was diagnosed to be suffering from  [[Medicine:Terminal illness|terminal]] intestinal cancer. He later died on the 32nd day of his fast on November 12.<ref name="bbc" />

On 11 January 1997 Swami Nirmalananda subjected himself to prayopavesa.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.hinduismtoday.com/magazine/september-1997/1997-09-a-saint-s-self-willed-death/|title=A Saint's Self-Willed Death|work=Hinduism Today|date=September 1, 1997|access-date=November 19, 2021}}</ref>

==See also==
* Right to die
* Euthanasia
* [[Philosophy:Sokushinbutsu|Sokushinbutsu]]
* [[Religion:Catharism#Consolamentum|Catharist ''endura'']]
* [[Religion:Sallekhana|Sallekhana]]
* Hunger strike

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

'''General'''
* {{cite news |url=http://www.tribuneindia.com/2004/20040803/cth1.htm |title=Is suicide a solution to problems? |date=2004-08-03 |newspaper=The Tribune}}
* {{Cite book | last = Lorenzen| first = David| title = Who invented Hinduism: essays on religion in History - New perspectives on Indian pasts| publisher = Yoda Press| year = 2006| isbn = 978-81-902272-6-1}}

[[Category:Hindu practices]]

{{Sourceattribution|Prayopavesa}}