Danda 1995 - Suhotra Maharaja Archives

for that. So that... This is going on in the human society, but that does notmean it is dharma. No. Dharma means you have to abide by the regulation given bythe Vedas. You have to adjust things. Sometimes in Africa the man-eaters, theykill their grandfather, make a feast. The Russians also, they maintain suchtheory, that old men, they should be neglected. I have heard. I do not know.They become burden. But that is not Vedic injunction.Himavati: But isn't that natural, just like no one wants to keep an old bull inthe barn?Prabhupada: Yes. These things are man-manufactured. Dharman tu saksad bhagavatpranitam. Therefore we have to accept the words of Narayana, the SupremePersonality of Godhead. That is dharma.(3)So they are very... Householder, this is meant for the householder especially.This is ideal householder, that guru, agni, atithi, vrddhanam. Old man alsoshould be taken care of. Nowadays the philosophy is coming: "mercy-killing.""Old men should be killed to show him mercy." Because he is burden in thesociety, the communistic theory.... "Old man does not do anything and simplyeats; therefore to show him mercy he should be killed." "Mercy-killing." Justsee the philosophy, "Killing is mercy." But this is going on. "Mercy-killing."Is that? "Mercy-killing"? What is that? Huh?Brahmananda: They kill someone for that person's benefit.Prabhupada: Benefit. So the man killer, will he take that benefit? If somebodycomes that "I shall kill you for your benefit," that he will be afraid of, buthe is philosophising, "mercy-killing." This is going on. So one should berespectful also to the old men. According to Vedic knowledge, brahmana, old men,child, woman, and cow--they have no fault. They are free. They are not withinthis jurisdiction of law. So therefore cow-killing, brahmana-killing, womankilling,and elderly-person-killing, they are accepted as the great sinfulactivities.The above 3 references put euthanasia into the Vedic perspective. But it seemsto me that your question is not really about euthenasia. If a devotee refusesmedication or fasts until he leaves his body, (1) he is doing it to himself, notto another person, and (2) he is doing in preparation for going back home, Backto Godhead, not to get free of bodily distress. Such a devotee knows that it istime for him to leave this world. So why continue maintain the body? This isnot the same as suicide. It is not done as a means of getting free of a painfulcondition of life. That is specifically defined by Lord Caitanya as"harrassment" of the Supreme Lord. There is a story illustrating this verypoint narrated by Locan das Thakura in his Caitanya Mangala, about a SouthIndian brahmana who vowed to commit suicide in the presence of Lord Jagannathabecause he could not endure his extreme poverty any longer. Lord Caitanyabecame very unhappy with this person.I don't know what cases are under discussion in Australia, but in the US thereis a doctor named Kerkorian (or something like that) who has build a rollingsuicide laboratory in the back of a van. People who are terminally ill andsuffering greatly from the disease call him, and he puts them in his van, sticksa needle in their arm, and tells them to press a button that will inject apowerful drug into their bloodstream that brings on unconsciousness and death.These unfortunate people think that death is the end of all suffering, so ifdeath is made as painless as possible, that's the best way to go. "The bestdeath" for a karmi is to die in peaceful sleep (total ignorance, in otherwords). But there is a next life which is determined by the thoughts of ourlast moments in this life. It doesn't také much imagination to envision wherean unconscious person will end up in his next birth.You can't compare such an artificial contrivance as Dr. Kerkorian's suicide van,which is aimed at smothering pain with ignorance and which exemplifies thephilosophy of souless atheism, with a devotee's preparing himself to go back