Why is there controversy of Cremation over Interment: In-cremation and Interment

Well, the dance of virus deaths continues across the world; the United States, unfortunately, crossed over 40,000, the world has crossed 150,000, I think. Here we will discuss the cremation and burial which one is better in which ages. But before going in it we will discuss some practical issues that are going justify our main agenda that is cremation or funeral. We will also see the examples to relate our topic with that and by comparing, surely, we will get a final conclusion. And also, how the Indian culture of the funeral reach the US? So, let’s start with the current situation that the world is facing and relate with the death as coronavirus death should be cremated or furnace.

India is also spiking up a bit. Europe, kind of levelling out or coming down. But we need to understand that in any of the nations for that matter, we have done nothing about the virus. We have only contained or controlled human behaviour because of that, there are dips. Now, the hardest decision for any government to take, or for any leader to take is, shall we relax or not? There was a proposal to relax partially today, but many states, including Tamil Nadu, has decided not to relax even a little bit, because they see the tendency of infections to spike up and in turn fatalities to spike up. This is a very hard decision for any leadership to take because it's economy versus lives. But if the economy goes bad, then also it will cost lives. It's a very hard decision.

 

Well, is there a perfect decision? Whichever way, they're going to be losses. How much of what are we willing to lose and above all, can you contain these large masses of people like this for a longer period, this is also a challenge. Just in Tamil Nadu, the government has filed over 200,000 FIRs; First Information Reports, that means complaints against people who are violators of the lockdown. Similarly, across the country. In the United States, they are taking out protests. In Bangalore, there has been a battle between a certain number of people in a locality and the police, literally, street battle. So, how long can we contain the people? How long can people maintain their sense and sanity, is a big question.

 

Now is the time everybody would wish the whole population were practitioners of yoga because they would have conducted this indiscipline and sensible way. But the rest of the people are... not all of them but a certain number of people are bursting out. They are unable to stay home - Some for economic reasons, some simply because their mind is going crazy, some for religious reasons. For many reasons but I don't think any government can hold a lockdown for too long. Though the experts, the scientists who don't have the burden of making these hard decisions, they were saying, if the lockdown continues till 15th of May, we could contain the virus in India by September, mid-September or end September. But if you continue the lockdown till 31st of May, you could contain the virus, by mid-June or beginning of July. Well, but can you really make the lockdown effective for long enough, is a big question mark. I don't think you can hold people like that. They're coming to... many of them coming to such a level of frustration that they're openly saying, "If we die, we die, what's your business?"

 

But the problem is if you die, you are big trouble for everybody. So, not easy, not an easy situation at all. Especially to be in any kind of leadership position. Well, as relaxations happen, we must just wait and see how it'll behave in terms of numbers, how it'll behave in terms of fatalities. In Death Book, you suggested that cremation is better than burial: How... how did the death Book go to the United States? We didn't release it there! In Death Book, you suggested that cremation is better than burial for both the being and the family. Could anything be done for the folks who are already buried? Well for the relatives, for friends, and those who are close to that person; the body means a lot. Though at least in their experience that person is not there anymore, he does not inhibit..., does not inhabit that body still, because this is how they had known them, just the form. And they also know if you hold him for a little while he will rot.

In spite of that, there is attachment, there is emotion. So, this is a sensitive matter. Different people have come to different things. Well, and it's also a religious matter because some people believe you have to bury them, but you need to understand, wherever burials happened in places where. I'm talking about ancient times.

INTERMENT OR BURIAL

 

In ancient times, if you observe, which are the regions where there is a burial, which is the regions where there is cremation, you will see, wherever there were deserts, wherever they were extremely cold places, wherever there was no trees and firewood, there, the tradition became of burial. Wherever there were forests, wherever there was wood to burn, there they took to cremation. Well in some societies, we took to a certain mode because of a certain awareness of what happens post declaration of death – I'm particular about this – I'm not saying post-death, post declaration of death. Somebody has been declared dead by whatever kind of doctors or wise people who are around – they observed certain parameters, no breath, no temperature, certain things are gone, vital signs are gone, so they declared that person dead.

 

But the nature of how... how invested we are in this body, that this life energy, this karmic substance has kind of enmeshed itself into every cell in this body, so it doesn't just go poof like that, it will take its time. Because certain types of living don't leave– I won't go into this detail, it's an elaborate thing, you must read it in the Death Book, that's better. I don't know why this question is being asked because I thought it was elaborately handled in the book, anyway. So, it is leaving in stages. Because it's leaving in stages, there will be a certain disturbance to that life. And also, the people who are dear to that person, because they will experience a certain level of turmoil which is beyond their emotional disturbance that's happened because of a loss of a dear one, not just that, a certain kind of turmoil begins to happen. Because that life is going through that due to a genetic relationship, there will be a certain level of turmoil.

 

To address this there are many aspects, again elaborately it's been addressed in the Death Book. But let me put it in a simpler way. Because life is exiting, when it exists to a certain point that person will get declared dead medically because everything is over, it cannot be revived, it's reached that point, but still, life is exciting. If you allow it to exist for a long period of time there is an unnecessary disturbance. As a time to cremate within which you must cremate. But the declaration of death sometimes was not a very qualified declaration. That is, there was no proper medical person to be sure that the person is actually dead. And also, even if all the parameters like breath, heartbeat, everything is gone, suppose the exist... the exit of this is happening very slowly, when you set fire to this body it tends to sit up. It is not that... It is extremely rare, it's happened because of ignorance that somebody sat up and ran out of their cremation situation, that's extremely rare. Because that's done in an ignorant way, somebody checked and no breath and they said okay one and a half hours, how long he has not been breathing. And... because they rushed up or maybe it was your mother-in-law or your enemy, I don't know.

 

Those things could have happened not very often. I know, somewhere it might have happened. But it's happened many times that the dead body tends to sit up in reaction and fall back, that happens quite often. That's one reason why the dead don't run away anywhere but you will see in southern India at least we still maintain this – when a dead body is carried write it down so that he doesn't sit up. Just in reaction, it stands up and also the loss of what to say... the loss of water and moisture that is there when it begins to happen, the body has a tendency to curl up and sit. But this is also due to the residual living which is still exiting.

 

So, in that sense, if people are below eighty-four years of age and they have died, it is best to cremate. If they are over eighty-four years of age, generally, the... most of the time I would say ninety-five per cent of the time or even more, the... the life energies have already become feeble, when it exits nothing much is left or almost nothing is left. So, over eighty-five or eighty-four years of age, sometimes they buried them because it didn't matter. But if they are below that, especially if they are much younger, suppose they died due to an accident or a disease or an injury or something. Then, always cremation is away.

 

Cremation is a good thing to do because it is... it settles for that person and for the emotional lot who are around. Because just the idea, somebody is very dear to you, you put him in a box and put him under this garden, you know in this garden, beneath the surface, you can't leave this place and go because you know your loved one is still there. It's very difficult to do that. It's all right people put mud on it and went away, you put some flowers, but your struggles will not close. The struggles are not purely psychological, there is a physiological struggle also because of a certain genetic relationship which is beyond what you think and feels – so cremation settles those things. So general prescription would be unless they're over eighty-four years of age, it's best to cremate. Maybe this question is coming from the context of the virus-related deaths. If it's a virus-related death it is best to cremate.

 

CREMATION OR PYRE

This has always been the practice across the world – whenever there are contagions, whether it's a plague or this virus or that virus, everybody understood in their wisdom, the best thing is to cremate. But now, situations have become vitiated, my religion versus your religion business – for the dead there is no religion, at least that much you must understand. The dead person is not making any choices. It is for the living you're making these choices in many ways. And if they have died of a contagious disease, it is definitely best to cremate, there is simply no question about it, but I know this is a... they're making it religiously, politically sensitive issue because they want to make an issue out of everything. This is not to go against anybody's wishes or sensitivities, but this is the safest thing to do at times like this.

 

 

Having said that, a certain amount of education should happen in the society that when there is a contagion, you keep your sensibilities, your traditions aside, and simply do what is needed. Right now, our work is important. I want to go out, so many people want to go out, we keep it aside and stay here because it's not safe for us. Above all, it's not safe for everybody else. That's very important. If it was not just safe for me, I can go and do it, it's my choice. But when what I do is not safe for anybody else, when what I do is not safe for the society, for the nation and for the world, then I have no business to do it, I have no right to do it, it doesn't matter what I think or what I feel about it. It's not just about cremation, about everything that we do, this is a fact. This is a basic human sensitivity that all of us should have, no matter what we believe, what we are adhere to, how important we think what we believe is, when it comes to, causing damage to other lives, we have no business, it doesn't matter what kind of sensitivities we have about it. So, one who is already buried, should I exhume and cremate?

 

Well if I say this, trouble. But if they died suddenly and it's within forty days, it will be a damn good thing to do, to take it out and burn. But if it's a long time ago, there is no point, it's become part of the earth. There is no need to do that. But you need to understand this.

 

Today modern science is telling you this, a dinosaur that died a million years ago or more, if you find a little bit of something from that, not even a bone, a fossil, from that they're taking out a cell and talking about recreating that dinosaur. Well, nobody has brought back dinosaur, thanks to them. We have enough trouble, we're not able to handle microorganism, how to handle a dinosaur now. No, we don't want a dinosaur, we see them in the museums, we see their bones or plastic structures which are there, we appreciate that that's good. We don't want a dinosaur walking around here, anymore. But I'm saying, in theory, it's possible, that means, even a little bit of genetic content if you get, you can recreate that. So, there is something to that aspect, it is like this.

 

That today there are certain thermal imaging technologies. Forensic scientists are using this. Now I sit here for one hour and then go away. After seven days, if they come, well a dog can always do it, a dog will come and smell and knows that I was sitting here. But with scientific instruments, they're able to take the thermal imaging and say it was this person who was sitting here. After seven days. We have not left anything here all right. We are not sweating we are not doing something else, nothing just with thermal imaging, up to seven days they are saying instruments can do it, but dogs can definitely do it, many of the carnivorous animals can do it, just that they don't follow your instructions, they do it for their own reasons. So, it is important when somebody dies, we must understand, it's the end of the game. And we must treat it that way. We want to continue that process. That is not good.

 

So, planting it in the earth, however, dear they are to you, planting it in the earth, they are not going to raise like another seed or a tree, it's not gonna work. So, if you must bury, at least plant a tree on it, because you can go and enjoy the tree and say, "This is my grandfather's tree." It'll be wonderful. We can make use of it; the tree will absorb the person as quickly as possible. But, as I said, for that life, it is the best cremation, unless they're or they are over eighty-four years of age, or if they have completed those 1012 moons are over. Death is something that happens only once in our lives. It's important that we conduct it well. And everybody around us is sensitized so that they also conduct it well for us because as you become helpless, there will be idiots around you who will do all kinds of things, out of their emotions or their belief systems or whatever. It's very important. Because a dying person has no religion, or a dead person definitely has no religion, no caste, no creed, no nothing. It's human prejudice which carries on, with this.

 

At a time like this, when people are dying in thousands every day, just because of one cause, natural deaths are anyway happening, nobody's reporting them anymore. But just the virus, this is happening and there is a fear that it could multiply into millions, we don't know whether we will be able to contain it or not. Nobody is sure about it. Everybody is talking about many things, but nobody is sure, this is not to spread fear, panic. But if we do not look at a situation square, the way it is, we won't be able to handle it either. Very important to see what it is. What it is right now is, one big unknown. As I said yesterday, it is not just anymore, a respiratory issue. It's getting into your liver, kidney. Above all, it is destroying your lymphocytes or T cells, that means your immune system, it's bringing it down and making the situation very conducive for itself. So, you are encountering a very smart virus. And we still don't have any handle on them, at all. Only thing is we are controlling it by controlling human behaviour.