Q&A: Memorials for the Dead

suchandra · April 10, 2008

</td><td class="cattitle">Q&A: Memorials for the Dead</td><td class="itemsubsub"><nobr>Apr 10, '08 12:11 PM</nobr>

for everyone</td></tr></tbody></table> Here's another of my Q&As.

What are your thoughts?

What happens when our bodies die? Should death be memorialized?<center>

Lord Jagannatha, Lord of the Universes</center>

An anonymous poster asks:

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Dear John of AllFaith,

I would like to know why there are no memorials for the dead in Hinduism, and also why death is not necessarily seen as a bad thing in Hinduism.

Thank you!</td></tr></tbody></table>

My Reply:

Hi,

There is a wonderful teaching in the Srimad Bhagavad Gita (Hindu's premiere scripture) that addresses this so let's begin there.

A most gruesome civil war (the War of Kuruksetra) was about to begin and the greatest of all Pandava archers, Arujuna ("Arjun"), is perplexed and disheartened, understanding that his loved ones on both sides would soon kill and be killed. Lamenting, he tells his guru and dear friend Sri Krsna ("Krishna"), "I will not fight!":

2:10: O descendant of Bharata [Dhritarastra], in the midst of both armies Hrishikesha [sri Krsna], smiling as it were, said these words unto the lamenting [Arjuna]:

2:11: The Blessed One said: While speaking learned words, you are mourning for what is not worthy of grief. Those who are wise lament neither for the living nor for the dead.

2:12: Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings, nor in the future shall any of us cease to be.

2:13: As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul also passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change.

2:14: O son of Kunti, sensory perceptions afflict one with cold, heat, pleasure and pain. They appear and disappear and are impermanent. Therefore endure them all O descendant of Bharata.

2:15: One who is never distressed, O best among men, and who remains unaltered [in the face of] suffering and pleasure and is patient, he is eligible for immortality.

2:16: Being does not come from the non-existent, nor does non-being arise from the eternal. This is the considered conclusion of those who see the truth.

2:17,18: Know you by Whom all this imperishable is pervaded. The destruction of this immutable is not possible for anyone.

All these bodies are perishable, but it is said of the eternal embodied soul that it is indestructible and immeasurable, therefore fight, O descendant of Bharata.

2:19: Anyone who considers the slayer or anyone who knows the slain and thinks him killer or killed lacks discernment. No one slays nor is anyone slain.

2:20: It [the immutable soul] is not born, It does not die, at no time did It come into being, nor will It come into being hereafter. It is unborn, eternal, permanent and ancient. It is not killed when the body is slain.

2:21: How can that person who knows the soul to be indestructible, eternal, unborn and immutable, O child of Partha, slay anyone or cause another to kill.

2:22: Just as a man casts off worn out clothing and accepts new ones, even so the embodied soul discards worn out bodies and enters into different ones.

2:23, 24: This soul cannot be severed by weapons, burnt by fire, dampened with water, nor dried by the wind.

It is unbreakable, nonflammable, It cannot be dampened nor dried. It is eternal and all-pervading, equable, immovable and eternally constant.

2:25 - 28: The soul is said to be unmanifested; It is inconceivable and unchanging. Therefore, knowing the soul to be thus, you should not lament.

Moreover, if you determine the soul to be constantly born and eternally dying, even then, O mighty armed one, you ought not to lament.

For those born death is certain and for those dead birth is certain. For the sake of the inevitable you ought not lament.

All beings are unmanifested in the beginning, manifested in the middle, and again unmanifested in the end. O descendant of Bharata, where therein is cause for lamentation?

2:29: Some see the soul as amazing. Some speak of the soul as amazing, while others hear of it as amazing. Still, no one truly knows the soul.

2:30: One whose rampart is the material body is actually an eternal and indestructible soul encased within a material form. This is the situation of all living entities, O descendant of Bharata, therefore you do not deserve to lament. (Source: My translation: http://www.a.com)

Rather than encourage mourning and emotional anguish, Indian society has typically accepted physical transformation as a natural part of Samsara (the Eternal Dance of life and death).

Indeed, within the foundation of Hindu thought we see this acceptance of death. It is believed that, 'God is One, the sages use different names'. How this Oneness manifests is the topic of countless treatise and debates, but Hinduism, at large, considers that the One God, the One "by Whom all this imperishable is pervaded," is knowable in three essential forms:

Brahma: The Creator and First Cause

Visnu/Narayana: The Sustainer and Maintainer

Siva/Rudra: The Destroyer, Transformer

Life is the endless dance.

"Those who are wise lament neither for the living nor for the dead."

Hope this helps,

~John of AllFaith

~Jagannatha Prakasa