If a criminal who is convicted to a ten-year prison term, escapes from jail after two years, he will certainly be caught and imprisoned once again to complete his term. Also, he will be subjected to further punishment for having escaped from the jail. So also, is the case of a person who commits suicide. In accordance with the divine plan, the person was presented with a painful life on Earth, so that he or she would conquer the situation through self-effort, and emerge as a person untouched by pleasure or pain. Instead of completing the period on Earth, the person commits suicide, which is wrong. One who commits suicide suffers more in the spirit-body for a longer period of time, and then takes a lower form of birth, in order to work out the unfinished Karma. In fact, by escaping the painful life through suicide, he or she suffers more, instead of less.

When one is going through the painful situations in life, all that the person can think about is how to escape the painful situation. Yet, it is wrong to escape from difficulties by causing one’s own death. No human being has the right to take life, one’s own life. We have all taken birth in order to complete our unfinished ‘karmas’. We have come to Earth on a mission, we must remember that always.

The principal aim of human life is to realise the Self. A human life is always subjected to pleasure and pain. Pleasure and pain are the results of the good or bad actions committed by the individual soul, whether in this life-time or in previous life-times. If one suffers in this life-time, it is a reminder to the suffering person to rise above the situation, and to enrich one’s life through good deeds, right effort and self-discipline. It is important for every person to understand how precious human life is, and also about the principal aim of human life – Self-realisation.