Why do Hindus take a bath after a funeral? ----------------------------------------------------------------- It is a common knowledge that hindus consider bathing a part of religious rituals, purificatory and basis for eligibility to participate in rituals either as the doer or as a mere audience.. In particular, bathing after visiting a funeral is highly recommended and supposed to serve many purposes: 1) hygiene: this is obvious 2) symbolic: “washing away” our sadness connected with the event; beginning fresh where loss is only a memory; washing away the connection with the last trace of mortal remnant of the person 3) religious: a) all shaastraa-s or scriptures strongly advise ritualistic bath after visiting a funeral, cremation ground (even not for a funeral), b) Usually a purificatory bath needs to be accompanied by shlokas invoking Ganga, Saraswathi , Godavari and other holy rivers. That the waters of these rivers have a purificatory power and that power is invoked even in the tap or well water is the idea. Hindus of today usually do not make this as a practice but that is the advice given by the shaastraa-s. The rivers, oceans, certain lakes and ponds are described to be presided by specific Devathaa-s (Ganga ma, Sarasvathi) or as abodes of Narayana, Shiva ( Pushkarini, Manasa sarovar etc). c) One is supposed to take bath even if the news of death of a friend or a relative is received. But there is a gradation or the closeness of the relationship – by birth, by marriage, by friendship or other forms of relationship determine this “snaana praapthi” for the deceased – ‘eligibility to obtain a snaan (bath) if he/she dies’. Now it becomes interesting: taking a bath in the memory of someone on the news of death is heard is not same as purificatory bath… someone having snaana prapthi – relations and friends who would take bath when that someone dies – is considered as a sign of that person’s social likeability. This should lead us to infer that there is more to bathing with ‘waters’. Water is the common link in all the things that we do that is not just for cleaning or hygiene. We will try to understand the role of water and the purpose of the rituals that involve water in general. Living beings, particularly higher animals and human, are considered to be of 3 levels of life: physical, subtle and causal. We will ignore ‘causal’ for now but look at ‘physical’ and ‘subtle’. We start at the beginning with our Jiva-s that take up this physical bodies from conception. Jiva-s can be described as bundles of atman or soul “wrapped” in unlimited (apparently) layers that are made of what we would call as Nature-stuff. Upon death, the physical layer of the “wrap” is left back by the deceased to be returned to the nature – by fire (cremation), earth (slower, by burial) or water, or other forces of nature. The jiva still has a long way to go and has a map to its next destination. A truly self-realized saint, a jnani, a yogi would have burned these layers of wraps by their tapas so that they are always conscious of their atma swaroopa – their real awareness of their Atman. They are said to be liberated. We mortals are the cargo called jiva-s which shuttle from one birth to the other. Even after death, the jiva still has attachments to its recent physical form for a very long time and continues to live with a virtual personality as it was in the physical body… that kind of living is in a ‘subtle body’ or sookshma shareeram. Subtle because, it is more in the realms of finer Nature-stuff, thoughts and different planes of consciousness. It exists but not expresses explicitly. It does not want to or cannot leave the connections that are subtle and fine to its now-deceased-existence in the lost physical body. There are some layers of “wrap” it needs to shed or lose to go to its destination. The departed jiva needs to erase its memory of its recently lost body and prepare to take up new data file. Only when these subtle, sookshma connections are lost, this physical consciousness layer of the “wrap” is completely destroyed and the jiva with its cabin handbags and check-in luggage of karma goes on the cycle of samsara to its next destination. Until then, the departed jiva-s are said to “hang-out” somewhere in between in their sukshma or subtle bodies. These connections/layers need to be broken and dissolved, and this process may take a long time. And this can be done not by the jiva because it does not have the means to do so. It is done by the living things to which the jiva had formed its connections when living in the physical body as an individual. That is an explanation of annual death anniversary ritual and tarpanams during Amavasya, eclipses etc. It is mentioned that when a jiva leaves its physical body, its existence in sookshma shareera oscillates between making connections to our world and its own worlds until stabilizing over a period of time. A funeral, a site of death and incidents of death are opportunities, according to our shaastraa-s, where the subtle life forces of the departed jiva-s are more prone to attempt to delve back into our worlds. Our association with these subtle life forces or traces of them need to be carefully reduced to zero to maintain the harmony and assist the departed jiva-s to find the proper path in their next destination. Hence, some established means are given to “annul” such associations/traces acquired through our visits to funerals or sites related to death etc. The same holds for relegating or decreasing the load of connections that may burden the jivas, when we hear the news of the departed. Bathing with correct attitude is one of the means given for such remedies. Why water, though? To offer or receive, for an exchange with gods, Agni or fire is recommended. We can only receive boons from gods, and for that we can only offer that which could be consumed by agni. Usually stones are not offered, except when it involves precious stones. Agni is the symbol of purification, universal, lives in different forms as in lightening (electric), individual ( vaishvaanara – as in sense of hunger, Will power etc.), agni is in water (as in electricity), in objects ( as some form of energy) etc. So the reach of Agni is supra-physical – above and beyond the realms of physical domain – as it would destroy whatever is physical when coming in contact with it. We cannot use Agni for purification when a living being or day-to-day living is considered for obvious reasons. Agni generates a form by dissolving another; Fire purifies and refines by consumption. To deal with anything living (in physical or in subtle forms), water is considered. For offering, for taking a vow, for doing charity etc. a few drops of water always accompanies the verbal samkalpam. Water is for human affairs what Agni is for gods. The other 3 elements of the pancha maha bhootha – five primal elements – do not fit the bill. earth is limited, air is not visible to be measured and space is not containable. Water is considered a symbol of Consciousness, Pragnya. In the vedas and in Vedanta, water or waves of water is used as a symbol and nearest representation, of the Consciousness. Each of the pancha maha bhootaa-s have a purpose and mode of function in this universe. For example, all- consuming, energy-giving Agni, is the symbol of godly Will or the power of samkalpa coming from the worlds of gods. Earth is the symbol of patience, forbearance, not able to easily retaliate etc. That is why we are asked to protect Her just like we would do to our mothers. Water is the symbol or the instrument of transaction and purification because the Consciousness, Pragnya cannot be corrupted by anything that is negative, because Consciousness is always of Truth, Sathya. That is why all our religions books describes any devathaa as Satchindananda – Sat, Chit, Anandna or Truth, Consciousness and Bliss. Water is thus considered in our lives to carry that power of Truth that dissolves everything that is not real. Water when used appropriately helps to dissolve the subtle, binding connections of the departed jiva with its previous earthly existence. By using water, we wash away our connections / binding relationships, bondages, that are subtle and finer than the finest hair. By using water, we make our transactions or exercise of will, pure and clean with a touch of Truth. Water is used in all our transactions involving vows, human relationships etc. so that our lives get more refined and purer to think of Ishvara. It is an agent that dissolves the ‘wraps’ of samsaara without destroying anything. Thus we take bath in holy rivers – considered to be the forms of devathaa-s flowing as waters. We give tarpanam during amavasya or death anniversary of a relative – with water. We give away our daughters – kanyadaanam during weddings – with water. We give charity – daanam – with water. We take vows or make samkalpam – with water. We offer water to Gods – argiyam. All the rituals that involve water are always purificatory and cleansing our inner selves because that is what water as one of the primal elements represents. All that water does in these rituals is to purify, cleanse our inner selves, but with a condition as seen below. In all these things, the actions using waters ALWAYS accompany with proper focused and openly-uttered PURPOSES: ‘I am giving away $1000 for the good of this person or temple’, ‘I am giving away my daughter to you so that you both live happily’, ‘ let this sesame (tila) that is colored red as blood when put in water, be my offering to bring peace to the departed jiva so that it may go on its next destination’, ‘I will do this or that vratha for 1 year’, ‘ i would not drink milk for 1 month during dec-jan period’… these samkalpaa-s or vows or our declarations have purpose. Water being a symbol of subtle Consciousness is used as the agent for these purposeful transactions within the human domain for purification JUST LIKE agni is used for transactions in the godly domains. So, taking a bath after a funeral may be symbolic or for hygiene. But if it is done for a dead person, it should accompany with prayers that 1) the waters I am taking bath be the holy waters of Ganges, Yamuna, Saraswathi, Godavari 2) that these holy waters wash away the causal relationship of the deceased with me so that jiva can get some peace and go on its way to next destination in the cycle samsaara 3) let these waters wash away the dirt of bondage and free up a strand of wrap around my own self that I move towards Sri Hari.. Only then the bath after a funeral or news-of-death becomes purificatory. All the other times, it is indeed symbolic, a mere shell of more profound but forgotten aspect of these nobler actions. I do not have access to the original sources for relevant references but I do understand that our shaastraa-s say that the baths are purificatory only when accompanied with proper intentions and attitudes in us. That is why saints like Sri Ramakrishna say that the frogs in Ganges banks do not get mukti even if they swim in Ganges as they do not have attitude like above. that is why, a person good at heart and blessed by Ishwara can purify or heal another with mere tap water because of his/her right attitudes and tapas. ---------------- Aryavart
Posted on: Fri, 09 Aug 2013 13:30:01 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015