Unborn, Eternal, Constant and Primordial - A Brief Look at Death and Grief in Hinduism

In keeping with a previous post I wrote about exploring themes of death and dying in various religious traditions (I started HERE for those who may have missed it), I wanted to explore these concepts in Hinduism, since it is likely that a great many of my western readers have little familiarity with concepts of Hindu traditions.  I admit to not having a full appreciation of certain Hindu philosophies until I had the opportunity to learn of the Hindu approach to death and grief. 

Firstly, the Sanskrit word for death is dehanta, which means the end of the physical body.   This word does not connote the end of life, however, only the end of the body.  That is important, since the English word "death" connotes the end of everything - the cessation of life altogether.   So the word death, with which each of us are so familiar, automatically carries a much darker, more sinister tone than does its Sanskrit counterpart.     And since it's important to begin to change the way we talk about death if we're ever to change the way we look at it, I think this comparison is necessary!  

 

The Sanskrit word dehanta means the end of the physical body, but not the end of life. 

In Hinduism, then, dehanta is a necessary part of the cycle of the cosmos - and one in which we all play a role.   Cremation is necessary - not burial - as cremation symbolizes the dying physical avatar of the human shell; the shedding of the host skin, as it were.   This is important in Hindu traditions because the soul (or Self) can only be released from its shell by cremating the remains - rendering them inhospitable to the consciousness.   Cremation isn't prohibited in Westernized Christianity (the kind that is loosely tossed about here in the West as a religion) so long as it does not preclude the resurrection of the body itself.  I can't get into any dialogue here of this particular dynamic, because my main point is to build a construct around which to understand the process of biomechanical death in Hinduism, but my readers will see this and understand the absurdity around it.  

Hindu traditions, then, separate the physical self from the cosmic self - much like a driver is separate from a vehicle.    In Hinduism, it is generally understood that corporate death (the dehanta concept) is the final sacrifice of the body - and it is played out in the final act of the bereaved loved ones when they strike the burning corpse's skull with a stick or a rod so as to symbolize its opening - thereby releasing the soul from its shell.  After the burning, the ashes are then scattered symbolically (not unlike in Western funeral traditions involving cremation) in a designated holy place - like a river or an ocean.  This final act represents the last detachment of the Self (or soul) to its tethering in this world, and its migration to the next. 

Cremation is seen as a necessary act in Hindu funerary traditions. 

Hinduism supports that bereavement and grief, then, are part of those attachments - and that the best way to honor the life lived by the departed loved on is to let them go - to release them into their migration onward and upward, so that their soul can enter its next installment.  And yes, Hinduism supports the concept we call reincarnation - a re-insertion if you will of the consciousness into another physical manifestation within the constructs of a physical reality.   The letting go of the physical remains of the loved one's corpse is an act of love, then, and detachment from the physical world allows for ease of transition into the perpetual cycle of death and rebirth.  

As we grow in our understanding of death, and we begin to reimagine the concepts that surround it, it is my hope that it will lose its sinister shadow, and we may finally come to appreciate - all of us - the words written in the Hindu holy text of Bhagavad Gita - or the Song of God - about the human soul:

It is not born, it does not die;

Having been, it will never not be. 

Unborn, eternal, constant and primordial; 

It is not killed when the body is killed.