Hindus of India Believe Cremation Eases Soul’s Passage Into Next World

c. 2006 Religion News Service VARANASI, India _ In the Hindu religion, fire is considered a sacred gateway to the spiritual world, explained Hindu priests in India. A cremation ceremony is intended to dissolve the attachment between the soul and the physical body, so that the soul can have a smooth transition to the next […]

c. 2006 Religion News Service

VARANASI, India _ In the Hindu religion, fire is considered a sacred gateway to the spiritual world, explained Hindu priests in India. A cremation ceremony is intended to dissolve the attachment between the soul and the physical body, so that the soul can have a smooth transition to the next world.

Many Hindus are cremated outside on wooden pyres, though the use of cremation chambers is increasing. After cremation, ashes of the person’s remains are placed in a pot, which might be immersed ritually in any of Hinduism’s holy rivers by the family, with an attending priest.


In Varanasi, said my guide Shakeel, devout Hindus follow a ritual after a family member dies. At home, the family washes the body, covers it with ghee (a clarified butter) and wraps it in a white shroud, followed by a layer of yellow or orange for men, red or another bright color for women. They tie the body to a bamboo ladder, which four people carry from the house to the Ganges River. On the way, they stop five times, a tradition based on what the Hindus believe are the five components of the universe: Akash (ether, the upper regions of space), Vayu (air), Tejas (fire), Ap (water) and Prithivi (earth).

The family buys wood, oils, camphor, incense and a gel to increase the temperature of the fire. The first layer of the fire is wood; the second, the body; and the third, more wood.

The body is immersed in the Ganges River to purify it, then placed on a platform. An attending priest conducts a ceremony, purifying the body and pyre by sprinkling holy water and singing or chanting.

The body is to be set alight only by the male child of the deceased, or by the closest male relative. However, women are asserting their right as children, and this is increasingly being accepted.

The primary male mourner of the family bathes in the Ganges, shaves his head and puts on a thin white robe. The primary mourner will buy burning coals from the man in charge of cremations, place the coals beneath the wood, then walk around the pyre as the hot coals begin the fire.

Cremation workers, who move the body and will tend to the fire for three hours or so, are essential to the process, because they are the only people willing to touch the dead body. They are among the old Untouchables of India’s ancient caste tradition. Today, the cremation workers, however wealthy because of their jobs, remain outcasts because of their work.

When the cremation fire is nearly over, the primary mourner will take some ashes, place them in a clay pot and add some water from the Ganges. The water is to help gain salvation for the soul and to break the cycle of birth and rebirth. The dead want eternal peace rather than to be reborn, said Shakeel.


Visitors should keep in mind that cremation ceremonies are not spectator events, said Shakeel. Travelers would be as welcome at Hindu funeral ceremonies as a busload of tourists at a Western funeral. Photos of cremations are intrusive, he said, and are prohibited. If you want a picture of the cremation area, said Shakeel, do it respectfully from a distance.

PH END MOLYNEAUX

(David G. Molyneaux is travel editor for The Plain Dealer of Cleveland.)

Editors: To obtain a photo of cremation workers, go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject or slug.

With RNS-INDIA-CULTURE

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