Hindu Funeral

It may also be considered as a checklist for preparing for our. It is believed that if this stage of funeral rites is not performed or performed incorrectly, the spirit of the dead person shall become a ghost (). Posted by Bansi Pandit on February 24, 1998 at 13:58:08: In Reply to: Modern Hindu Funeral- HELP posted by Mark Matthews on February 24, 1998 at 04:24:42. Most often the dead body is bathed by purified water, and then dressed in new clothes, if the dead was a male or a widow then generally white clothes are used,whereas if the dead was a married women with her husband still alive or a young unmarried girl, then the body is dressed either in red or yellow. If a person dies in a different country, in a war, or drowns, or in any other manner that his body cannot be retrieved for the antyesti, his funeral rites may be performed without the dead body, and similar procedures are followed had the dead body been available. An oil lamp is light and placed near dead body, this lamp is kept burning continuously for the first three days following the death.

Extensive texts of such rites are available, particularly in the Garuda Purana.

Posted by Mark Matthews on February 24, 1998 at 04:24:42: I work with a young guy (20) whose brother (18) was (sadly) killed in a car crash last week.He has invited. Introduction: This document is intended to provide a check list of tasks that have to be done when a death occurs.

Extensive texts of such rites are available, particularly in the. Rites which accompany the disposal of the dead body. Cremation became popular due to the notion that the soul cannot enter a new body until its former one has totally disappeared, and cremation was considered the fastest way to expeditiously dispose of the dead bodies. Hinduism allows for either cremation or burial, however infants are always buried. Sacred ash (bhasma) is applied on the forehead of the deceased, especially for the worshippers of Lord Shiva (Saivites), otherwise sandalwood paste is applied on the forehead, if the dead was a worshipper for Lord Vishnu (Vaishnava). The cremation ground is called Shmashana (in ), and traditionally it is located near a river, if not on the river bank itself. A funeral in About 4000 years before, in the, human bodies were either exposed to the elements of nature, and to the birds, or buried in the earth, in a river, and sometimes a cave or an urn. Hindu Funeral rites may generally be divided into four stages: The rituals and rites to be performed when the person is believed to be on the death bed. Those who can afford it may go to select places like, and to perform this rite of immersion of mortal remains.

ALLAHABAD, India: Devotees prepared a huge bed of logs on Monday to cremate the embalmed body of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the Beatles. Hello, A dear friend's father passed away unexpectedly, and I am hoping someone here can help me with suggestions for customs that are.

Hindu Funerals: Hindus believe in reincarnation and view death as the soul moving from one body to the next on its path to reach Nirvana, heaven. While walking he sprinkles water and sometimes onto the pyre from a vessel. Rites which enable the soul of the dead to transit successfully from the stage of a ghost () to the realm of the ancestors, the. In Hinduism, the dead body is considered to be symbol of great impurity hence miminal physical contact with the dead body is maintained, perhaps to avoid the spread of infections or germs. Thereafter, they are worshipped during the 'sraddha' ceremonies. The body then may be adorned with jewels, and placed lying on a stretcher, with the head pointing towards the south, which is the direction of the dead. Procedures for cremation vary from place to place. Centuries later, cremation became the usual mode of disposal of the dead bodies, with certain exceptions- the exceptions being bodies of infants, yogis, sadhus, and a few others.

One or two days after the funeral, the chief mourner returns to the cremation ground to collect the mortal remains and put them in an urn. Immediately after the cremation the entire family is expected to have a bath. The rites generally last for ten or eleven days, at the end of which the preta is believed to join the abode of the ancestors. When the fire consumes the body, which may take a few hours, the mourners return home. Hindu Funeral sympathy etiquette Hinduism. If it is located at a distance, the stretcher is placed on a cart pulled by animals like bullocks. He then sets the pyre alight with a torch of flame.

Thereafter, the chief mourner (generally the eldest son) walks around the pyre three times keeping the body to his left.

During this mourning period the family of the dead are bounded by many rules and regulations of ritual impurity. If such a person appears (that is, he has in fact not died), then "resurrection" rituals are mandatory before his being admitted to the world of the living. There is wide inconsistency in theory and practice, and the procedures differ from place to place. Thereafter, the close relatives of the deceased person carry the stretcher on their shoulders to the cremation ground.

Sometimes the body may be kept in a sitting position too. Burial at sea for cremation ashes, funerals at sea with burial at sea locations from coast to coast.

The- is an important aspect of Hindu Funeral rites, and its objective is to facilitate the migration of the soul of the dead person from the status of a preta (which is akin to a ghost or spirit) to the abode of the ancestors (that is, the abode of the ).