" You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
Everyone decides on how their final event in life should be arranged depending on their religion and/or culture. By letting one’s spouse or family members know how one wants to be cared for once dead. But who says the funeral arrangements one chooses is the wrong way or the right way to do it? Nietzsche is getting at the idea that most people look at this event or anything else through one perspective or lens. Believing it is the right way, even if there is no wrong or right way to bury someone. For this unit, I would like to open our perspective to not only the way Americans take care of the dead and view death, but how another country does and specifically in India.
In the Indian society, the people generally practice Buddhism or Hinduism thus affecting their rituals and ideas toward the dead. Culture has a great affect on how the people decide to care for their dead, because of the traditions and religions most practiced in the culture. “ Hinduism originated in India, with belief in the cycles of being born and dying in an infinite series of lives or successive creations” (Matzo, and Sherman, Witt 27). Those who practice Hindu do not believe that when we die it is the end of everything, as the atheists do and neither do they believe in Heaven and Hell as the Catholics do. Hindus believe that we are in a continuous cycle of birth and death. Of course, no one has died and told the story of what happens after death but wouldn’t it be nice to think that we are just born again or born as another creation? This book also states that in India they perform funeral pyres and when I looked up what a pyre was, it said a pyre was a structure made of wood to burn a body, a form of cremation where body is placed and set on fire. Those who practice Hindu and Sikh religion do this funeral rite.
The people who practice Buddhism do not believe in a God or a soul, “ Buddhism teaches that suffering is part of life and that in death there is transference of consciousness out of the body” ” (Matzo, and Sherman, Witt 27). This confused me so I searched the exact definition of each word, soul and consciousness. The dictionary described the word soul as a person’s essence while consciousness was described as the relationship between our mind and the world. But similarly to Hinduism, Buddhists believe in rebirth except of the simple transference of our consciousness to another body. In this part of the world cremating is popular the Harper’s Magazine states, “ By some the dead were burned and their ashes preserved in sacred urns. In India, and some other countries, this custom still prevails to some extent” ("Harper's Magazine" 310) To them the body is not important once person has died because they will be reborn in another leading to them cremating the deceased right away.
Another ritual in India is Teravih, which is “ a period of mourning observed by Indian people, starting from the day of the death of a particular person, whether male, female or children, to the 13th day after his/her funeral” ("iloveindia.com"). This is a Hindu death ceremony; it is done to ensure the person’s “peaceful crossover to the next level of his/her existence”. ("iloveindia.com"). During which they did not do certain things like wearing new clothes or indulging in sweets or attending any festivities, all done out of respect to the deceased.
The Heart of Hinduism website gave information on how the Hindu ceremony is observed. First the body is cleaned, dressed in a fresh cloth and covered in flowers, then “A few drops of Ganges water are placed in the mouth. The corpse is then carried on a stretcher to the cremation grounds accompanied by kirtan, chanting mantras such as "Ram Nam Satya Hai" (the name of Rama is truth). The eldest son lights the funeral pyre. For renunciates, it is considered important that the skull is cracked, and this is sometimes part of the ritual, apparently urging the departed soul to move on. Towards the end of the ceremony a priest or relative recites appropriate verses from scripture” ("Antyeshti: Funeral Rites"). The natural world is important to the Indian people from the flowers to wood the dead are burned in to the ashes placed in Ganga or a sacred river. In the ceremony the important part is the breaking of skull because it shows how they believe the body is now useless so the soul can now move on to the next body.
After doing this paper I learned more about India’s culture and the religions practiced there, on death and the care of the dead there. Hope as a reader, it has been informative on another perspective of this unit.
Bibliography
Harper's Magazine. 33 Vols. New York, NY: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1866. 310. eBook.
"Indian Funeral Traditions." iloveindia.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 May 2011.
Matzo, Marianne, and Sherman, Deborah. Palliative Care Nursing: Quality Care to the End of Life. 3rd Ed. New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company, 2009. 27. Print.
"the heart of hinduism." Antyeshti: Funeral Rites. ISKON Educational Services, 2004. Web. 14 May 2011.
This was a very interesting read because its always good to be aware of the different cultures/beliefs around care for the dead. (Instead of focusing solely on the U.S just because we live here.) I found this particularly interesting (about the Teravih), "During which they did not do certain things like wearing new clothes or indulging in sweets or attending any festivities, all done out of respect to the deceased." I never knew this, and I found it really interesting how different certain places deal with death than we do. I feel as though these practices of India culture faces death in a more personal way, and though I do not believe in Hinduism/Buddhism, this post made me think India as a country deals with death in a more healthier way than the U.S does.
ReplyDeleteI found your post very interesting because you focused on the way people in the Indian culture view death. I think the ceremony is interesting because it describes the way the body is cared for such as being covered in flowers, I do think in some ways this practice is similar to that in America because we do wash the body but there are differences int eh tradition based on religion. Do you think religion has an impact on the way traditions are adopted regarding death and the care of the dead?
ReplyDeleteI liked your project and speech because you were taling about hinduism and as well as Leah, I also did a little information around the topic which was also a little interseting because it was a big add on to the information that I was able to find. You found more and said things that I never knew about the hinduism culture, and I will use some of that info for further research.
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