Hindu Rituals

[Guest guest]

What is the significance of pouring water into the mouth at the time

of death?

 

Sairam

[Guest guest]

Light and love

 

-

rajendra_shah_us

saibabanews

Monday, March 21, 2005 7:47 AM

[saibabanews] Hindu RitualsWhat is the significance of pouring water

into the mouth at the time of death?Sairam

I did not notice the answer to this question.

 

Hinduism prescribes both ritual and spiritual practices for the final

liberation of human beings. They are performed during various stages in his/her

life for different ends.

According to Hinduism, when a person dies, he/she either travels to heavenly

worlds or to the ancestral worlds depending upon his previous deeds. By Vedas

the departed souls can be elevated to higher planes of existence and pushed

further on the scale of evolution if their direct descendents on earth.

When a Hindu departs from this world, his/her descendents make ritualistic

offerings as prescribed in the sacred texts. The obligation towards the

departed souls is thus a part of ones ordained duties, or obligatory karma, the

performance of which brings happiness not only to the departed soul, but also to

the ones who performed it.

One of the rituals (customs) to be done is pouring a few spoons of Ganges

water/Tulsi water into the mouth either at the time of death or soon after a

person is dead.

Nearly all Hindu homes have sacred Ganga water. Ganga water makes the house

holy. A drop of Ganga or Tulsi water in the mouth of the dying, brings great

benefits to both the giver of the water and to the one on the death bed.

 

More properly about this sacred rituals:

http://mailerindia.com/hindu/veda/index.php?death

http://www.hinduism.org.za/funerals.htm

Namaste - Reet