Question: If someone is violently killed, does his soul undergo the same suffering as that of someone who has committed suicide?

Sir Chinmoy: No, it is not the same. If someone becomes a victim in the war, if someone is violently killed, then what can he do in that case? It is some wrong forces that have killed the person. On the other hand, if somebody destroys his body, he becomes the aggressor; so the victim and the aggressor cannot be in the same category. In Pakistan, many, many millions of spiritual, religious Indians were killed. I had a mentor, an elderly gentleman who was very, very fond of me. He was an authority on Krishna and on the Bhagavad Gita. One day he was in his room explaining some sloka from the Gita to fourteen of his friends and students and three Muslims came in with a revolver. My mentor was praying, thinking of Lord Krishna and explaining things from the Gita. Three Muslims came in and one by one they shot them. Only one person escaped; that is why we know about the incident. So my mentor was killed. Now do you think that his soul will go to the same place as somebody who commits suicide? Even if he had not been thinking of Lord Krishna, he was absolutely innocent.

In India when the husbands died, the wives used to jump into the burning pyre. Some did it because of their sincere love and oneness with their husbands. Their category is not the same as for those who did it because they were compelled to by law. Sometimes it happened that the wives were pushed into the pyres. They didn't want to die, they were afraid of death, and it was against their will. Again some entered into the burning pyre because they wanted people to think that they loved their husbands. Perhaps the whole time that their husbands were alive they quarrelled and fought. Without any love, the wives entered into the pyre only to escape criticism from the general public. Now, what do you think their fate will be? Will it be the same as that of the wives who entered the pyre out of sincere love and oneness? So here also we have to see from which point of view a thing is being done.

Again, suppose I have committed suicide in this incarnation and I have gone through sufferings and all that. If some spiritual Master saves me, then, even if I have committed suicide, it is all gone: washed away. And again, in my next incarnation, if I start praying and meditating under some spiritual Master, then there is every possibility that I will realise God.

If someone is killed violently, it is not the same as if he has committed suicide. One can easily realise God after a crash or a car accident. Do you think that the soul of that particular person will not have any opportunity to pray again and to realise God?