Hindu Cremation Ceremonies
In Hinduism, death is not final, but a resting period in which the atman, or soul, recuperates, regroups, and prepares for its return to this world. This stage, reincarnation, allows the jiva (limited being or embodied soul) to overcome its flaws and inconsistencies to become whole. To Hindus, the cremation ceremony allows the body to return to the elements, releasing the atman into the ancestral world.
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Purpose
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Hindus are cremated based on the ritual detailed in the Vedas (scriptures). This allows the jiva to return to the five elements of prakriti (nature)--Tejas (fire), Prithivi (earth), Ap (water), and Vayu (air) are returned to their respective places on the Earth, and Akash (ether), or the atman returns to the higher worlds. The funeral rites not only ensure the soul's successful migration, they purify the family from pollution incurred through the death process.
Procedure
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Upon death, the body is given a final bath and carried by family and friends on a wooden stretcher to community cremation grounds. The body is laid on a funeral pyre, with the feet pointed south, toward Yama, the lord of death, and the head north toward Kumera, the lord of wealth. The fire is lit by the eldest son, using dried cow dung, wood and ghee as ignition materials. Three to 10 days after the cremation, the ashes are collected in urns and scattered in various places representing the prakriti.
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Afterward
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After the funeral, the family performs sraddham, a ceremonial offering where rice balls, or pindas, are offered to the deceased by his sons for 10 days, one day for each month of the human gestation period. This aids the departed soul in creating an annamaya-kosa (ghost body) to exist in in the world of the ancestors. This is followed by the sapindakarana, which facilitates the entry of the soul into the ancestral world.
Modern Ceremonies
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Hindus, especially those living outside of India, have faced many challenges maintaining their sacred cremation ritual in the modern era. Lawsuits have claimed that the practice is impractical. Hindus have made allowances in order to continue the practice, including erecting structures that contain an opening on the roof, releasing the atman into the afterlife. Modern crematoriums in India include computers that issue death certificates after last rites, and ambulances carry the deceased to and from the crematorium grounds. Hindus living outside of India sometimes have their remains sent to be scattered along the Ganges River.
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References
- Photo Credit sourse of ganga image by Galyna Andrushko from Fotolia.com
