Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
MUMBAI, INDIA, March 18, 2010: The death of 60-year-old Jain monk Sadhvi Charan Pragyaji on September 11 last year was different from any that the tiny town of Bhilwada in Rajasthan had witnessed. Over 20,000 Jains from across the country thronged the hamlet. They came to join a massive celebration to mark Sadhvi’s death, for she was the only Jain to have survived a santhara — the Jain practice of voluntary and systematic fasting to death– of 87 days, the longest in recent collective memory.
According to Babulal Jain Ujjwal, editor of the All India Jain Chaturmas Suchi, the practice is spiraling — more than 550 Jains took the vow in 2009 compared to 465 in 2008.
In Jainism, santhara is not the preserve of Jain monks who have renounced worldly affairs. “In fact, more ordinary Jains take up santhara than monks,” says Jitendra Shah, director of the LD Institute of Indology. “Another common misconception is that only people suffering from illness embrace the practice. That’s not true. Santhara is taken up with a view to sacrificing attachments, including one’s body.”
[HPI note: Hinduism has a practice that allows terminally ill people to refuse nourishment. This ancient method is called prayopavesha, but must only be taken after a religious preceptor or a community elder gives permission. Fasting to death is not, per se, a meritorious practice in Hinduism, but it might be used to preserve the peace and dignity of the process of leaving the body.]