I recently came across the following news which is quite disturbing and shocking:

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An IAS officer, working as the Proctor General of Emigrants in New Delhi is said to have killed his father, his wife, two sisters and himself using his revolver as he was upset at the raids conducted by the Investigating Authorities at his office and residences in connection with a case of emigration racket. Probably the officer might have felt that he was innocent but harassed as such would have taken the extreme step. Or he might have been involved in the racket and fearing to face the consequences must have decided to end his life. He might have not wanted his dependents also to suffer after his death and must have killed them too. But is this the way to face a problem? They say in Indian Philosophy that for every life the end should come naturally and if it is otherwise, the life that was taken out unnaturally has to spend the remaining part wandering like a shapeless, bodiless being where the suffering is many folds than when the person was alive. In all such cases the soul does not reach its destination but suffers very very badly. This may or may not be true. But one thing is sure that a person ending his or her life definitely chooses a wrong path to solve the problem. I feel it necessary to share my own experience with the readers so that they can detest such a cowardly act if at all they decide in future to solve any problem in this way or ensure that none of their acquaintances tries at any time such a wrong idea.

When I was just 11, I lost my mother. My father, who was only 50, had 8 daughters and 3 sons, of which only one was married. In our society, we need to spend a lot to get the girls married to suitable boys.  We never expected that our mother would die at her 42nd year. My last sister was just 8 months old and the one above her was just 4 years with all others with a gap of 2 or 3 years. Besides, the eldest sister, who got married, the next sister was 26 and was to be married. The sister next to her was 24 and had to shoulder the burden of looking after all of us after the 2nd sister got married. My father left the job as he had a misunderstanding with his colleagues. Had there been anyone else, either he would have run away, or renounced the worldly attachment scared due to the situation or would have married another lady to look after the big family. We were all studying. My father was well educated, had very strong will power and was not scared even though he did not have any savings or assets. He left us under the custody of my 2nd sister and stayed alone far away from us to earn through private tuitions. Singly, he managed the entire family remaining away through his personality and we all were discharging our responsibilities imbibing his qualities. He was also earning through authoring text books and giving lectures on various topics. What I want to say is that he never ended his life even though the situation was very much trying. All of us got educated well and got married through arranged marriages without going astray because we did not have any parental control directly. This was between 1956 and 1975.