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Aakash_49 75M
1521 posts
9/18/2014 3:21 pm
Why burn the dead ??




I am a Hindu by Birth. Since childhood been taught to worship Hindu Gods. One of the Hindu tradition is to burn the dead. This method of incineration on a stock of wood pile is a part of funeral rite. Traditionally, pyres are used for the cremation of the deceased in the Hindu and Sikh religions, a practice which dates back several thousands of years. Funeral pyres were also used in Viking and Roman culture.

Hinduism and Sikhism advocates only cremation. It is believed that the soul lingering near the dead ( ) is liberated for its on wards journey. It is further believed that if one is cremated on the banks of Ganges and more so at Varanasi, the departed soul gets direct entry in ' Vaikuntha', the first class heaven . I witnessed a youth carrying his father's dead body on a bicycle. The pillion rider was the dead old man tied to this boy and the boy was on a mission to travel at least 15 kms to reach the Varanasi cremation ghat. At the ghats the scenes are ghastly. Because of the large ques the half burnt bodies are pushed into the river. Raam Teri Ganga Mailee Ho Gayee

In India and Nepal open air cremation is performed with piles of wood. The process takes almost 5-6 hours depending on the season and weight of the body. Various rituals are performed prior to lighting the pyre. A lots of oil, ghee is used to initiate a full fire.

Modern crematoriums in metros in India now have electric furnaces which are more efficient and take about 2 hours but the choice of wood vs furnace is given to the relatives. There are many who believe in traditional wood pyre. The statistics is staggering. A normal weight of 70 kgs requires 500–600 kilograms of wood to burn a body completely. Every year fifty to sixty million trees are burned during cremations in India, which results in about eight million tonnes of carbon dioxide or greenhouse gas emissions. Air pollution, deforestation and large quantities of ash, which are later thrown into rivers, adding to the toxicity of their waters, pose great environmental problems.

The practice of cremating dead is said to be over 10,000 years old. A lot of literature on historical data on this is available. Cremation is gaining popularity in USA and was surprised to learn that in 2008 , 36.2% were cremated . The furnaces or incinerators are well insulated and are energy efficient and use oil or Propane for fast burning .

I wrote a Blog Funeral Pyres suggesting ban on showing funeral pyres in movies and Television serials. Then I had a thought Why do we burn the dead ? And the following reasoning came to my mind.

What I am presenting below has no religious connections/ implications and is not meant to hurt anybody's feelings or sentiments. Its purely scientific and nature based thinking.

In animal kingdom, only humans dispose off their dead. All species leave their dead to the nature as a part of food chain. The mightiest King of Jungle or the hefty elephant in death provides food for various carnivores including vultures. In sea the dead also provides food for other species. Not many would know that even today, Parsees in India offer their dead in 'Tower of Silence' to vultures.

I am not advocating leaving dead unattended or thrown in jungles ( are there any jungles left?) but I think burial is returning back to mother earth and helping enrichment of the soil. Sea burial can be another answer. Incineration should be only limited to sick who may carry risk of spreading diseases. May be Solar powered incinerators will replace energy guzzlers in future.


Creativity is knowing how to hide your Sources


SUNYBUNNY60 64M
7933 posts
9/18/2014 11:25 pm

The blog is really eye opener. It should actually be considered by one and all.
Even Govt should propogat about the furnaces, its benefits etc so that people are made aware of it. It may take sometime but surely people will get educated about the use of furnaces and not the wood...

LOVE IS ALWAYS BEAUTIFUL