THE HIGHEST TYPE OF SUICIDE

 
A suicide inspired by ordinary altruistic motives is not the highest type. The fourth or highest class results from intense desire to see God or to unite with Him; this is an extremely rare occurrence. In most cases in which suicide is believed to have been committed for the sake of God, there is an admixture of other motivating factors, such as dissatisfaction with conditions in earthly life.

If and when suicide is embraced purely for the sake of attaining God, it can have the effect of achieving liberation, or Mukti. The masters have always warned aspirants against resorting to suicide for the intensity of their longing for union with God, for there is too great room for self-deception and inadvertent admixture of inferior conscious motivation.

Regardless of the abnormality of the circumstances which may lie back of it, no type of death can really damn the individual forever. It is never more than an incident in his long spiritual journey.