Sallekhanā - Fasting unto Death
The voluntary, gradual reduction of food and drink at life's end.
Sallekhanā is the Jain practice of fasting unto death, undertaken only when death is imminent and inevitable. It is not suicide but conscious, spiritually-focused transition from this life.
The wise person faces death with awareness and equanimity.
Sallekhanā represents the ideal of conscious death.
Sallekhanā Doctrine
Written about in
- What Jainism says about illness and the body failing
Sallekhanā is a voluntary, gradual withdrawal from food and drink, undertaken only when death is imminent and inevitable, and Jains insist it is a conscious transition rather than suicide. It is genuinely contested: in 2015 the Rajasthan High Court ruled the practice criminal, and the Supreme Court of India stayed that ruling within weeks.