As per sacred Bhagavad Gita of Hinduism... death carried no meaning in mortal world. Death... as per Bhagavad Gita was just a medium for souls' atmans to manifest another life form. Unless death of present body occurred... our soul atman could not manifest another body. Death was part of cosmic life cycle. In absence of death in cosmic system... everything would become stagnant!
A soul is termed atman in Hinduism.
As per Bhagavad Gita every single soul atman in its lifetime manifested a maximum of 8.4 million forms of which last 1.1 million forms consisted of human life. The initial 7.3 million manifestations in the life of a soul atman occurred in insect, plant and animal form! The movement of soul atman from one manifestation to another was facilitated by death... termed Mrityu in Hinduism!
The evolution of life in cosmic system was a cyclic process. When a life form reached its mortal end... the soul atman immediately after death of mortal body manifested a new life form. If matching parents were not available on mother earth... the released soul atman hibernated in heaven or hell. In heaven... if the residual balance of karma was positive and hell, if negative!
Death of mortal frame did not mean end of life for the present life form. We are primarily a soul atman... pure consciousness that manifested a life form to work out its karma... remove dross impurities within! No soul atman could purify self of its own. It needs a medium... a body to work out its karma. Furthermore, it was only through manifest form of human beings every soul atman finally reached cosmic end of life... 8.4 millionth manifestation... last in cosmic life cycle!
Souls' atmans... karma... death were all integrally related as per theory of spirituality. In absence of one... the other could not subsist! As per Bhagavad Gita we must indulge in good karma... positive karma all the time! Why? After death of mortal body nothing gets carried to next life except residual balance of karma. It was based on karma our soul atman manifested new life form.
It is in our interest... it is in the interest of us as a soul atman that we indulged in positive karma... good karma all the time. Only by doing so could we accumulate Punya karma that finally led to God Almighty in our lifetime. It was only by accumulating Punya karma human beings finally succeeded in cutting across shackles of karma forever.
By committing suicide... one never gained anything in life. Committing suicide was an offence as per Bhagavad Gita. Our soul atman after death of mortal body in present life (that resulted from committing suicide) again manifests a lower life form than present. What of sin incurred by committing suicide? By committing suicide we again suffered in life as our soul atman would manifest a lower form of life in next manifestation.
As journey of life for a soul atman was an unbroken continuous process... why indulge in negative karma and mar our future! When a person becomes enlightened... one finally overtakes death forever. For one who was immortal... death of mortal form carried no meaning. Enlightenment was gained by reducing karma to zero.
Human beings who did not believe in existence of soul atman were ignorant in matters spiritual. Such human beings always clamored for material riches beyond requirements. Pursuing religious path... such human beings desired reaching God in their lifetime. God Almighty could never be reached via path of religion... path of rituals! For reaching God in present life... path of pure spirituality as detailed in Bhagavad Gita was necessitated.
