Why cremate

[srinivas 0]

When hindus burn their dead while christians and muslims bury their dead.

 

Jesus and Mohammed were both realized souls but how come they advocated burial.

 

Doesnt it seem to condradict.Hindus beleive that soul lives but other major religions do not.I have cristian and muslim friends who feel very offending to burn the dead.

 

How can i prove to them we are souls .And cremation is acceptable.

 

Can anybody help me.

[Avinash 0]

I do not understand why one should try to convince Christians and Muslims that cremation is good. After all, burial is a ritual which is a part of their religion. Why should they accept that cremation is better than burial?

[srinivas 0]

Good point why bother.Burial is their ritual and cremation is ours.Very practical approach to religion.

 

Thank you,

 

Srinivas.

[theist 1]

 

Jesus and Mohammed were both realized souls but how come they advocated burial.

 

 

I never read anything requiring burial in the Bible. Maybe its there. It's more of a cultural thing I think. More people are being cremated but mostly they occupying prime usable land.

 

I am for making cremation mandatory in most cases myself.

[Guest guest]

i believe in freedom of choice and don't think cremation should be mandinitory, but with solution. if we can popularize it, eventually most will cremate anyway.

 

Agreed, i have not seen proof Muslim or Christian religion says to burry. Thats probably the people's concoction, due to attachment to the material body.

 

[theist 1]

You are right. Making it a popular chice is the better way. People are soooo wrapped up in the body. Very emotional issue. After a disaster of some kind we are willing to risk the lives of the living in order to salvage even just a piece of someone's corpse, all in the name of "closure".

 

Even a strong clear philosophical understanding that we are not these bodies would solve so many problems. Not speaking of realization just an intellectual understanding.

 

But society at large has an interest also. The land use issue will only become more important as time goes on and as the population grows.

 

I think we should have public corpse burning in the US and our children should take field trips from school to go witness some. Reality has never been a popular subject in our educational system. It could use some. (I need a tongue in cheek icon here)

 

Its just that in the West wehave such illusions of these things. If someone dies in public the first thing we do is cover up the corpse and have it hauled off as soon as possible. Then the mortican gets it and dresses it up and trys to make it look alive and peaceful like the person is just sleeping."May they rest in peace".

 

This whole burial ritual thing needs an upgrade.

[Guest guest]

Probably it is hard to bury bodies in certain parts of Asia. Like in Tibet they have sky buriel. Who can dig there?

 

I am wondering how long creamtion has been a practice as there is a story of Shankara possessing the body of a dead king he found sitting in the forest to win a debate with a householder's wife. She asked him what he could know about love and he could not answer and did not want to make his own body "impure" so he possessed the king and learned about physical love with the queen then went back to his own body and won the debate. Kind of makes one suspect that enlightenment does not necessarily mean the ego diminishes.

 

Anyway when the queen found out she was really upset so she ruled that any bodies found were to be burned immediately.

Coyote