So, once again, the disapproval of suicide by the Supreme Lord and the revealed scriptures seems evident, and thus, the person who commits suicide runs great risks: that of being deprived of a gross material body for a period of time and having to wander, helpless, in a ghost or ethereal body. The ghost's situation is particularly miserable and painful, for although it feels many desires, the disembodied soul no longer has the ability to satisfy them through a physical body. This is why, as is well known, ghosts moan and lament. The famous cry of the ghost, “hoo hoo...”, which is often attributed to the ghost's desire to frighten the “living,” is, in reality, more of a moan, a complaint. This moan, therefore, does not come from the fertile imagination of a novelist, a storyteller, or a comic book artist, but is indeed real. It is an expression of the suffering a soul can feel when deprived of its physical body, and is well captured by the popular expression “to wander like a lost soul.”

The risk of becoming a ghost is not limited only to suicide but to any sudden and violent death such as murder but also those resulting from fire, drowning, accident, etc.

Without spirituality, society is suicidal.

When we refer to suicide, we are referring to bodily suicide, but there is another form of suicide. This suicide is spiritual.

In the Age of Kali or the Iron Age, the age in which we live, ignorance and atheism (a manifestation of ignorance) predominate, and the existence of the spiritual soul is often ignored. And even if we know of its existence, we nevertheless consider it in a very abstract and superficial way, as a vestige of a past religious belief. Thus, most representatives of the intelligentsia of modern societies—philosophers, professors, writers, and teachers—are ignorant of or outright deny its existence, and as a result, the knowledge they impart is incomplete and generates dissatisfaction. They do not recognize in revealed scriptures, such as the Vedic scriptures, an infallible means of acquiring knowledge, and yet, the real nature of man and living beings is revealed by Krishna. His nature is spiritual and not material. He has a soul, or more accurately, he is a soul, and this soul is incarnated in a material body. Spiritual suicide is terrible because it forces the spiritual entity or the spirit soul to suffer in a demonic body for many, many existences.

What is wrong with killing land and aquatic animals?

Nonviolence consists of never interrupting the spiritual evolution of any living being, human, land and aquatic animal, and plant, from a blade of grass to a large tree.

Let us not believe that since the spiritual spark never perishes and survives the body, there is no harm in slaughtering animals for the gratification of the senses.

Although amply provided with grain, fruit, and milk, man indulges in the consumption of animal flesh. There is no need to slaughter animals. These, by transmigrating from one species to another, undergo a certain evolution and progress, too. A slaughtered animal sees its progress slowed. Indeed, before rising to the higher animal species, it will have to return to the species it prematurely left to complete the period of time designated for it. We must therefore not prevent the spiritual evolution of terrestrial and aquatic animals solely for the satisfaction of our palates.