Upanishads · Yājñavalkya p15
॥
Devanāgarī
एष पन्थाः परिव्राजकानां वीराध्वनि वाऽनाशके वापां प्रवेशे वाग्निप्रवेशे वा महाप्रस्थाने वा
Transliteration (IAST)
eṣa panthāḥ parivrājakānāṃ vīrādhvani vā'nāśake vāpāṃ praveśe vāgnipraveśe vā mahāprasthāne vā
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
एषः पन्थाः परिव्राजकानांeṣaḥ panthāḥ parivrājakānāṃthis is the path of wanderers
वीर-अध्वनि वा अन्-आशके वाvīra-adhvani vā an-āśake vāthe hero's road, or starvation
अपां प्रवेशे वाapāṃ praveśe vāor entering the waters
अग्नि-प्रवेशे वाagni-praveśe vāor entering fire
महा-प्रस्थाने वाmahā-prasthāne vāor the great departure
Translation
This is the path of wanderers: the hero's road, or starvation, or entering the waters, or entering fire, or the great departure.
Version
70ab07daa525 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
Here one must stop and speak plainly rather than pass over it: five methods of killing oneself are listed. Vīra-adhvan, "the hero's road," means going to certain death in battle. Anāśaka is starving to death. Apāṃ praveśa is drowning. Agni-praveśa is self-immolation. Mahā-prasthāna, "the great departure," is going north and walking until one falls.
Let us say plainly, without any softening: this should not be done, and no antiquity justifies it. We have met the like before in the Kāṭharudra (p8), where ritual suicide was offered, and it was noted there that the book itself immediately gave another way out — "or else let him go to the abode of old age"; and we took that one. Let us add here the arguments the Vaiṣṇava side raises against this, for she raises them directly.
First: the body does not belong to the person. It is given and is subject to return in due time; to dispose of it on one's own is to dispose of another's property. The Bhāgavatam calls suicide ātma-hatyā and counts it among the grave sins.
Second: the Īśā-upaniṣad, from which we cited the verse about a hundred years, also says something else, and its verse is worth citing: "into blind darkness go those who kill the self" — asūryā nāma te lokāḥ... te'bhigacchanti ye ke cātma-hano janāḥ (3). Third, and it is practical: one who has killed himself has attained nothing but cessation; and cessation is not a goal, as was discussed when reading the Jābāla-darśana (6.47).
Let us add what must also be said in defense of the ancients here. This list most likely means not encouragement but an exit for one already dying: not how to begin, but how to end for one who is at the end regardless. But it is recorded as a path; and as a path it cannot be accepted.