Where Life is Beautiful
Indian Cremation
Cremation is the act of reducing a corpse by burning, generally in a crematorium furnace or crematory fire.
The Indian religions, such as Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism, mandate open air cremation. In these religions the body is seen as an instrument to carry the soul. As an example the Bhagavad Gita quotes "Just as old clothes are cast off and new ones taken, the soul leaves the body after the death to take a new one". Hence, the dead body is not considered sacred since the soul has left the body and the cremation is regarded as ethical by the Eastern religions. In Sikhism, burial is not prohibited, although cremation is the preferred option for cultural reasons rather than religious.Since Sikhism has a lot of cultural similarity with Hinduism, Sikhs prefer cremation. They also scatter the ashes in holy rivers like Hindus.
According to Hindu traditions, the reasons for preference of destroying the corpse by fire over burying it into ground, is to induce a feeling of detachment into the freshly-disembodied spirit, which will be helpful to encourage it into passing to 'the other world' (the ultimate destination of the dead). This also explains the ground-burial of holy men (whose spirit is already 'detached' enough due to lifelong ascetic practices) and young children (the spirit has not lived long enough to grow attachments to this world).[citation needed] Hindu holy men are buried in lotus position and not in horizontal position as in other religions.[citation needed] Hindus have 16 rituals (Sanskars) like Name, Thread ceremony, beginning of student life, marriage, etc., and the last one is Cremation. Cremation is referred to as antim-samskara, literally meaning "the last rites". At the time of the cremation or "last rites" a "Puja" (ritual worship) is performed.Holy text of Rigveda, one of the most oldest Hindu scripture has many Ruchas(small poems) related to cremation stating that Lord Agni (God of Fire) will purify this body so instead of any other method let’s give this Parthiv (dead body) to Agni (Fire).
The Indian religions, such as Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism, mandate open air cremation. In these religions the body is seen as an instrument to carry the soul. As an example the Bhagavad Gita quotes "Just as old clothes are cast off and new ones taken, the soul leaves the body after the death to take a new one". Hence, the dead body is not considered sacred since the soul has left the body and the cremation is regarded as ethical by the Eastern religions. In Sikhism, burial is not prohibited, although cremation is the preferred option for cultural reasons rather than religious.Since Sikhism has a lot of cultural similarity with Hinduism, Sikhs prefer cremation. They also scatter the ashes in holy rivers like Hindus.
According to Hindu traditions, the reasons for preference of destroying the corpse by fire over burying it into ground, is to induce a feeling of detachment into the freshly-disembodied spirit, which will be helpful to encourage it into passing to 'the other world' (the ultimate destination of the dead). This also explains the ground-burial of holy men (whose spirit is already 'detached' enough due to lifelong ascetic practices) and young children (the spirit has not lived long enough to grow attachments to this world).[citation needed] Hindu holy men are buried in lotus position and not in horizontal position as in other religions.[citation needed] Hindus have 16 rituals (Sanskars) like Name, Thread ceremony, beginning of student life, marriage, etc., and the last one is Cremation. Cremation is referred to as antim-samskara, literally meaning "the last rites". At the time of the cremation or "last rites" a "Puja" (ritual worship) is performed.Holy text of Rigveda, one of the most oldest Hindu scripture has many Ruchas(small poems) related to cremation stating that Lord Agni (God of Fire) will purify this body so instead of any other method let’s give this Parthiv (dead body) to Agni (Fire).
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