Anthim Samskara

The last sacrament in the life of a person is Funeral with which he closes
the concluding chapter of worldly career. The way one grieves,
commemorates, and disposes the dead varies greatly from culture to
culture…Hindus burn (Except some groups in Hindu who bury the dead ones),Christians Muslims bury and Buddhists some people bury and some people burn.

This Anthim Samskara, being post-mortem, is not less important, because for a Hindu the value of the next world is higher than that of the present one.

Fire is considered holy in Hinduism. It burns away everything until nothing
remains. On the other hand, burying is a very slow process of dissolving the five elements inside the body back into the five elements of the
cosmos. By cremating the body, the physical remnants of the ghost are
entirely wiped out from the face of earth, so that the ghost may
continue with its journey forward.

"O Agni,
neither give it pain nor scatter about
its skin or limbs. When the body is fairly burnt, convey the spirit to
the ancestors. May the five elements be merged with their basic forms." –
Vedic hymn to Agni.
Since Agni, the god of fire is seen as a link
between the gross and subtle, matter and spirit, the seen and unseen,
the known and unknown and a messenger between men and gods, dead bodies are disposed by cremation.

Thus, the dead body is an offering to
Agni with an earnest prayer to purify and lead the individual to a
better and brighter life. Another reason for preferring cremation is to
produce a feeling of detachment in the freshly disembodied subtle body
and to encourage it to pass on, rather than hover around loved ones.
Moreover, Hindus, out of respect for the dead, did not want to leave the
bodies around to be consumed by vultures and other animals.

Now coming to the purpose of this mail,

for the past 25 years Eye donation is becoming very popular and two persons can get vision if one donates his eyes after death.
About two years back there was an interview with a famous Sanskrit scholar
who informed that the body should be submitted( Samarpanam) to Agni as a whole in the form God has given us.Hence the cremation after eye donation will not amount to total samarpanam and it will bring sins to the donor and receiver.

As my husband has been able to regain his vision , because of transplantation in both his eyes, I raised a strong objection to his statement and issued a letter of protest to his canvassing wrong misconceptions among the public.He wrote to me a personal letter saying that he does not have any objection in my acquiring a sin.

I left off at that stage.The man however scholarly he might be in Vedic teachings,if remains blind and totally oblivious to fellow human's sufferings, and misleads others too, is only subhuman according to me.
If one cannot be humane,his body even if carried in tact and surrendered may not save him from sins.


Blessed are they who , willingly donate the organs of their dear ones amidst bereavement and grief to brighten the lives of a few others .Such people attain salvation without uttering a small verse in His praise.
I am just reminded of Kannadasan's song



மீன் செத்தால் கருவாடு; நீ செத்தால் வெறும் கூடு


பார்த்தா பசுமரம், படுத்துவிட்டா நெடுமரம்
கேட்டா விறகுக்காகுமா ஞானத் தங்கமே
தீயிலிட்டாக் கரியும் மிஞ்சுமா!!

I vividly remember an incident that happened in 1994.
One of our close relatives, a lady in thirties lost her right hand upto shoulders while travelling by bus to Shirdi from Pune.
She was sitting near the window keeping her right hand on the metal rods of the window.As she had slept , she didn't notice a fast moving vehicle coming in the opposite direction .Her right hand was totally cut off from the shoulders and fell out of the bus.
The bus could stop only after a few yards.They took the arm, rapped in a towel and proceeded to a famous hospital in Bombay with all the necessary precautions immediately. Though they reached in time, they could not get the hand attached, as it got fractured while falling from the bus.

Now reverting to the topic,while the lady was admitted in the hospital, her husband and in-laws took the cut off hand separately to the cremation ghat, burnt it and did all the rituals considering the hand as dead.
The reason given was: After a few years when she dies her body will not be a complete offering , being devoid of a hand. They were making advance pariharam to make the final future cremation perfect in all respects-an even that may take 50 or more years to happen.
The pity is she could not get artificial hand fixed even by the most efficient surgeons in the field, as she didn't have the minimum space( two inches or so) left off in her shoulders to get the artificial hand fixed.
The girl picked up confidence. After two months she practised the knack of wearing the dress and combing, all with the left hand.Now she makes even chapathis, looks after the entire kitchen work.Everyone is amazed at the speed with which she handles all the work.
She didn't have Darshan of Baba in Shirdi. But she thanks Baba for giving her strength of mind to face the ordeal and come out successful/. Now she is fuully reconciled to the deformity and both her sons are well settled.
This a digression.
The faith takes so many forms and shapes, some with meaning and some lacking common sense.
But everybody in the girl's family felt very bad, when the husband( A Ph. D. in Physics) and in-laws were totally involved in the cremation rites of a single hand, while the girl was struggling for life due to heavy blood loss.
I am quite agonised to see such educated fools who are carried away by blind faiths.
What a world!

Jayasala 42

 

Dear Scorpio,
thank you for the response.
Jayasala 42

 

Dear Satchitananda,
Your concerns are well understood.
The cadaver administration is near to perfection. They have details at their finger tips about the details of the needy, hospital attached etc.
Normally they don't waste the organs. But sometimes there are technical issues about the suitability and the organs go waste. Sometimes unexpected situations such as sudden deteriration in the health of the receiver arises making that transplant impossible and too late for others to use.
This cadaver transplant technique is of recent origin and doctors are doing their best.
Jayasala 42.