Is there any possibility for a soul who has committed suicide to reach Lord Datta again?

[An online spiritual discussion was conducted on January 24, 2021, in which several devotees participated. Some of the questions of devotees answered by Swāmi are given below.]

[Smt Sudha Rani asked: Padanamaskaram Swami! We all know that committing suicide is the biggest sin. Sometimes, God protects a person who is trying to commit suicide by making his or her attempts fail. But at other times the person succeeds in committing suicide and dies. What will be the effect of that act on the soul? What will be the future births of that soul? Will such a soul never reach Lord Datta? What is the significance of the Nārāyaṇa Bali ritual done for the benefit of such a soul?]

Swāmi replied: Let us say that a person provokes another to commit suicide in one birth. In the next birth, when the provoking person himself tries to commit suicide, God will allow him to succeed in committing suicide. The second case is when a person hurts another person, due to which the latter person suffers a lot and thinks of committing suicide. In the next birth, when the former person, who had previously hurt another, may be suffering greatly, owing to which he may attempt suicide. But he will be saved by God. This is because, although the person had hurt another person in the previous birth, he had not provoked the other to commit suicide. The person who was hurt was simply over-sensitive and hence, he thought of committing suicide. Thus, the intensity of one person hurting another and the sensitivity of the hurt person are to be examined separately in such cases. The punishment will always be according to the quality and quantity of the sin.

After suicide, the soul becomes a ghost and wanders on the earth with that pain. God Datta also incarnates in the world of ghosts (Piśāca Loka) and preaches spiritual knowledge. Some ghosts will be relieved from that pain and get liberated from their ghost-bodies to join the normal line of souls. Nārāyaṇa Bali is the worship of Lord Nārāyaṇa who is the same God Datta. In Nārāyaṇa, sattvam is the predominant quality, which is related to knowledge (Sattvāt sañjāyate jñānam). The knowledge that is essential to stop suicide is that the only aim of human life is to put up efforts to attain the grace of God. Worldly enjoyment with attachment to worldly bonds is not the aim of human life. It is these worldly bonds alone that give such terrible pain and provoke the soul to commit suicide. If you pray to God Nārāyaṇa (God Datta), He will be pleased to communicate this spiritual knowledge to the ghost for its liberation. Nārāyaṇa Bali is nothing but your sincere prayer to God Datta.

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