Hinduism is the world's oldest religion and as such it has also been a which has documented uncountable rituals over the years. Oven time various rituals were added to the religious text books and now it is the only religion which commemorates both birth and death with multiple rituals. Every rules for clarity about any ritual is well documented in various books however many rituals are lost due to lack of viability to follow them, especially in today's modern cities and towns. This is a detailed account of first person witness of Hindu rituals after death.
( The writers followed a Hindu family in rural India where every ritual in still followed strictly. The family had recently lost one of its elser member due to natural causes. Our team followed every ritual, however we failed to document some of them for the team was not allowed at some places for either privacy or some other undisclosed reason ).
Faith in Afterlife
Just like many other major religions in the world, Hinduism believes in afterlife. There is a very strong believe that people take the form of various living organisms after death before getting reincarnated as humans again. This is the very reason why people practicing Hinduism believes in heaven and hell. They believe that restraining from wrong doing will give salvation i.e. 'Mukti' and the soul called 'Pramatta' will go to the abode of God, 'Golok'.However if tge person who died was a person of wrongdoing then he would go through various hells and would no gain salvation called 'Moksha'.
13 Days Rituals
In Hinduism, close relatives and immediate family of the deceased have to follow a strict daily schedule for a period of 13 days. According to 'Arthasastra', a Hindu religious text book, the time period is of 7 days, however more recently in modern time the period has been extended to 13 days and in some parts of the world such as in Bangladesh this period is of 1 month i.e. 30 days. During this period the family members and close relatives has to survive only on very simple food and lifestyle. They could only eat boiled rice with some potato or other simple vegetables and are forbidden from eating fries, specifically from using mustard oil and turmeric. The progeny and the spouse of the deceased person has to sleep on the ground without any pillow. The son, if any, is allowed to sit at any place only on a simple mat made of woven paddy plant called 'Kushashan'. The wife of the son is also not allowed to have usual luxuries like that of wearing any jewellery. Moreover, the immediate family members (son, daughter-in-law, and spouse) has to wear wet clothes and fry it on body itself. The 13 day ceremony covers various intricate rituals many of which is complex enough to not describe in words unless seen by own eyes. Given below is a description of more or less the major days and the rituals on those days.
Day 1 - The day of Death
This is the day on which the subject expired and marks the beginning of the sacrifice period. The dead body of the deceased is burned near a river-bank called 'shashan ghat'. The son ignites the body by setting it on fire on it's mouth, the event is called 'mukh-agni'. Later at some time when the body is more than half burned, the son strikes the forehead to get a small chunk of bone. In some other castes in Hinduism, burned ash is taken instead of the forehead bone called 'haaraa'
Comments
Post a Comment