"Death is not extinguishing the light; it is putting out the lamp because dawn has come"

~ Rabindranath Tagore

A very close family friend passed away yesterday. He was extremely close to our entire family.  

There will be many who'd miss him in the coming days. God bless his soul!!!

Life has its own unexplained ways. We think of a deceased relative for a few days and then it's business as usual. Somewhere in our subconsciousness, we are aware of the reality that all those who are born have to die some day. Maybe that's why the mourning period is limited and we return to our routine lives as soon as possible.

 I am very fascinated by this subject of 'death'. Ahem... just to clarify, it's not like I am having any suicidal tendencies. I am extremely interested in the concept of death as explained under Hinduism which is the religion that I follow. I was reading through some articles on this subject. Most of the theological matter are from these sites. So here goes...

Hinduism believes in the rebirth and reincarnation of souls. In Hinduism, death is not viewed as an anathema or the end of all but only a step in the existence of soul, a temporary cessation of physical activity.  What happens after the soul leaves the body and before it reincarnates again is a great mystery. Most of us loathe death because we are uncertain about the time it will happen and where we'd go after it happens. Hence the fear! The unwillingness to face this fear with proper understanding is due to the emphasis we lay upon the physical body. It is also based upon an innate fear of loneliness due to the loss of those we have been familiar with during our worldly existence. But if we think about this...we were also uncertain during our birth time. At birth, the soul finds itself in new surroundings. This loneliness only disappears gradually as he comes in contact with those who are congenial to him and eventually becomes his friends and families.

So what's being said by the religious texts is to welcome death as another beginning. This is what i am gathering from my readings. It is said that the person after death finds those who he knows and who have been connected with him in his previous physical existence. They may be his parents, his relatives and his friends who died before him. Now to be honest, I don't think i want to meet a few of my dead relatives/friends. I couldn't stand them when they were alive. Let's just hope that i don't meet them 'up' as well. Sigh!!! Hopefully, i should get the opportunity to select only those souls that i do want to visit!!!

Moreover, after death the person is also conscious of those friends and family members who are still alive. He can see them, he can tune in on their emotions, and also upon their thinking. That's great. See! Dying doesn't sound so bad. You can hear people talking about you in an 'invisible' mode. Tee hee. Ahem...let's hope it's the good things that they talk about. We don't want the poor souls to cringe when they hear their friends bitching about their 'not so' good deeds.

Hinduism believes in the existence of not one hell and one heaven but in the existence of many sun filled worlds and many dark and demonic worlds. I remember a dialogue in a Malayalam movie where a Church father is advising a man that he needs to behave well in this life so that he can work in god's vineyards after he dies. The guy replies that he is already breaking his backbone with work  while on earth, and that he'd rather go to heaven to rest and make merry and if being bad can help him achieve that goal of being lazy, he's game. LOL! Well..It's human nature. We want to have a good life, no matter which world we belong to!! We do some good deeds which suit our current life just so that we can attain a better life elsewhere. Somehow, it comes across as self centered thinking amongst human beings. Hey..I don't have a halo on my head! Am just musing as usual.

After death, Hindus are not buried, but cremated. The idea is that the human personality is made up of five elements of which four belong to the body and come from this world, namely fire, earth, water and air while the fifth, the ether (fine matter) belongs to the domain of the subtle body and comes from the higher worlds. By cremating the body, the elements are rightfully returned to their respective spheres, while the subtle body along with soul returns to the worlds beyond for the continuation of its afterlife.

A lot of rituals are associated with the cremation ceremony. When a person dies, the body is given a final bath, carried on a wooden stretcher by his kith and kin and cremated on the community cremation grounds generally by the eldest son. This is followed by some rituals in which the sons make offering of food to the departed soul under the supervision of a priest. Generally a function is organized on the fifteen day and guests are invited for a meal. Generally Hindus who have lost an important relation in their families do not celebrate functions and festivals for a specific period of time as a  mark of respect.





River Ganga- Haridwar

While cremation is the standard procedure, Hindus consider it very auspicious if a dead body is immersed in the Ganges or cremated on its banks since the river is considered very sacred. I feel extremely bad for all the holy rivers of our country. They wash away people's sins but in the process, they are on the verge of extinction themselves. The half burnt bodies, garbage that's thrown into the river, the polluted waters and dying aquatic life is a sign of the self centered existence of humans wherein we don't care about some part of our planet losing their identity as long as we are assured of a great life after our death. We are living in a world where our beliefs are not motivating people to think of a life which includes the well being of other living beings as well, who may not necessarily have a human identity in this birth. It's kind of cliched but no religion, perhaps, lays as much emphasis on environmental ethics as Hinduism. The Mahabharata, Ramayana, Vedas, Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, Puranas and Smriti contain the earliest messages for preservation of environment and ecological balance. The Bhagavad Gita advises us not to try to change the environment, improve it, or wrestle with it. If it seems hostile at times, tolerate it. We have become very selective in our beliefs as well. We chose only those that helps us to achieve our goal, not a holistic existence which includes all living beings on this planet. It's interesting to note that ecology is an inherent part of a spiritual world view in Hinduism.

 

Geeta Upadesh- Bhagwat Geeta

So coming back to 'death'...Let the Soul Live On!! The Bhagwad Gita talks about the eternal soul and the necessity for that soul to live spiritually, constructively and divinely within the physical body. So, why not make our physical existence as pleasant as we can for others so that they will remember us for years afterwards. 

We brought nothing with us when we came, and would take nothing with us when we leave this world. In fact, we will leave a little extra behind if we lead a life of goodness and philanthropy. It's not me preaching. It's in the religious texts that we claim to follow which is citing the same... :)

                                                                                  Proud to be a Hindu!!!

 

Adi Shankaracharya

"Brahma Satyam,Jagan Mithya,Jivo Brahmaiva Na Parah"

"God alone is real,The world is unreal,The individual is none other than God"