By Venuri Gangodawila.
What is the exact value of a life? Well obviously, this is a rhetorical question where providing an answer would be the most difficult decision ever. Therefore we believe that this thing called “life” is invaluable. So when talking about one’s own life, he or she considers it as the most precious gift which they received either from God or according to their religions. But is it the same in every condition or in every person on the earth we live in? Sadly No! It is then this very unfortunate concept of “Suicide” comes into light.
What does suicide mean?
Suicide in its very word refers to an act of intentionally causing his or her own death. This sounds really terrible. How could someone have the courage to take his own life? But that happens all over the world. Maybe at the exact moment when you are reading this article, or at the moment that I am writing this piece, someone who is fed of his or her life might be attempting to commit suicide because WHO suggests that every 40 seconds, one life is lost due to suicide which counts up to 16 per 100,000 people. And this would be increased up to the difference of 20 seconds by 2020, says WHO.
Suicide and Sri Lanka
Over the past times this word has become a familiar term to us Sri Lankans. That’s sadly due to the world suicide rankings where Sri Lanka stands the first among 177 countries. It says that within our small island, 35.3 suicides per 100,000 occur. That’s a vast amount when we consider our population.
When it comes to Sri Lanka this concept of taking their own life runs back to many decades ago. The ancient tales or actually tragedies which contain the suicides of people ironically makes our history interesting to listen too. Such famous ancient suicides includes the tragedy of Daskon (the French horse rider known as Pedro de Gasket) and the most beautiful queen known as Pramila where she is believed to have committed suicide by consuming the stem of the fatal flower known as fire lily (niyagala), after knowing that the king has ordered to kill her secret amuser, the Daskon Adikarama. (These stories might not be accurate) and the other tragedy runs up to the reign of King Vijayabahu, where his consorts commit suicide by jumping off a cliff, by getting falsely alarmed of the King’s loss of war against Magha.
So, since those times, suicide has taken a major role in the society of Sri Lanka, where citizens were more likely to take their own life in front of problems which they had to face throughout their life time. One such incident was regarding a young Sri Lankan actor who hanged himself and the other recent report about a father and his children getting burned inside their own house which was investigated as a suicide. Therefore we can state that suicide in Sri Lanka has developed at a great scale where there a trend has been developed mostly among the teens here to take his or her life during their quandaries. For example failing at exams or getting dumped by his or her love interest.
Is suicide the only option at the face of problems?
It is true that we all as humans have problems in life. Be it a loss of a long lasted relationship, loss of a most loved one in our life , loss of a job or an income, getting bullied or cornered by the society, depression , anxiety or any kind of a mental breakdown could be accounted for this.
Even though your problems exceed the amount of the blessings in your life, should you take yourselves to the point of committing suicide? Exactly not. Your life is much worth living. So what can you do when you feel fed up with life?
- Talk with someone you trust. This can actually have a huge effect in your life where your mind will surely be at ease after confessing to someone about your beating problems, your bad decisions or anything you yearn to tell them. This can either be your own religion or a person in form.
- If you feel that you are the most unfortunate person on this earth, that is exactly a lie. There are more people who are unfortunate than you and think of them who are struggling to make their lives. Ponder on how they desperately try to overcome their challenges and trials in life without thinking of committing suicide to hide away from them.
- Think about your loved ones, your kith and kin, as blood is thicker than water. If you take your precious life away, what would happen to them? What would your parents, your wife or husband and children do? What would they feel? As you would never know how much they value you and love you.
You have no right to kill your own self. It is in one way a greatest sin where you could never gain a human birth again and on the other hand it is an action in vain. Who would be affected when you die? And what could be corrected when you are no more? So think, think, think and think again, when you are going through a difficult phase of life, about your amount of blessings than the amount of reasons to leave the treasured gift of life at sake!
