Did he die of starvation?

Yesterday, I wrote about the Digamber Jain monk Muni Tarun Sagar who had taken the vow of Santhara (Sanlekhna) last Friday. Santhara is a vow to not to consume any food or water until one's death.

Muni Tarun sagar passed away peacefully this morning at the age of 51 years.

_{Picture source: life martini}
He was a very popular saint and was respected by not only Digamber Jain but all communities. He was famous for his candid discourses called Kadve Pravachan (bitter discourses). Although he belonged to the Digamber sect in Jain, he encouraged and promoted non-sectarian outlook. His followership includes non-Jains too. When he was in my city 7 years back, he invited the Shwetamber saint Chandraprabh Muni & Lalitprabh Muni, who were also present in the city during that Chaturmas, to deliver a joint discourse on occasion of Jain forgiveness festival. Such is the stature of this saint that within hours of his demise, I received a message from a Shwetambar Jain follower, who is personally organizing a gathering to offer tribute to this great soul.

He also preached against consumption of non-vegetarian food and alcohol. It was he who objected to the use of leather belts by RSS (Rashtriya Swayam Sewak) in its uniform and stated that it did not reflect non-violence. Subsequently, RSS changed its uniform to replace leather belts with canvas ones.

Practice of Santhara in Jainism is controversial as it's a vow until death. Rajasthan High Courts had imposed a ban on this practice which was considered akin to a suicide. Muni Tarun Sagar opposed the High Court's decision and it was challenged in Supreme Court, which lifted this ban later.

But in March, 2018, India made passive euthnasia as legal. However Santhara is a very pious and spiritual act that is highly revered in Jainism. I apprehend that tomorrow media may raise the issue of legality and significance of Santhara as Muni Tarun Sagar chose to die with the vow of Santhara. But Santhara is not a suicide. Muni Tarun Sagar didn't die of starvation. In Santhara, the person gets into the supreme meditative state where he forgets about his own body and is completely engrossed in his soul. So much that he does not feel any hunger or thirst. Thus he kicks his body and elevate himself into the Supreme soul.

In suicide, a person has a mindset to harm himself whereas in Santhara, the mindset is of ultimate liberation.

Muni Tarun Sagar was suffering from Jaundice for 20 days and his body had got very weak. So he decided to quit medication and take the vow of Santhara to make a graceful exit from this life.

So to continue the discussion about death from my yesterday's post, I'd like to quote Muni Tarun Sagar's thought on death. He celebrated his 50th birthday in 2017 at a cremation ground in Udaipurvati in Rajasthan. He said that everyone should celebrate at least one of his / her birthdays at cremation ground. We should not ignore the death. Death is the bitter truth of life. So we should accept the death. We should not come crying to the cremation place but we should come here laughing. Death represents the ending of a life and beginning of another life.

He walked his talk and accepted his death happily. My tribute to this great saint of this nation!

Note:
_{This post was written on 1^st September, 2018 but was published on 2^nd September due to connecivity issues at my end. Therefore take the date of Muni Tarun Sagar's demise as 1^st September and not 2^nd September. Thank you!}