Indian people particularly Hindus believe in disposing of a dead person’s body through cremation.
Once the body has been moved from the home to cremation site/ smasan, first patha shraddha is to be conducted which is to be followed by the Mukhagni ceremony which is to be conducted at the cremation site/ smasan mainly by the elder son . Shraddha karma is to be started from first day and is to be conducted on fourth, seventh, 9th and 10th day and finally on tweveth day. Annual shraddha is to be conducted on every year starting from first year. Asthi Visarjan must always be done according to the religious manner. According to the holy epics, if the asthi visarjan isn’t performed after death, the soul might suffer . One of the most significant and necessary rituals is Asthi Visarjan, which should be done as soon as feasible. There is no time limit has been prescribed.
The Asthis are collected on the day or after cremation, or on the third, seventh, or ninth day, and fifty percent of the same are immersed in running water on the tenth day during the dasha karma. The remaining part of the Asti is to be immersed any day after the 12th day Shraddha or after prathama Barshika shraddha ( though there is no time limit but it should be done only after the performance of a tirtha-shraddha ceremony in the bank of the holy river). At present because of availability of transportation / communication facilities , Asti bisarjan is being conducted immediately after the 12th day bara shraddha or after the prathama Barshika shraddha . But in the old days, when the Puranas were written, there is no transportation facilities available, hence no time limit has been prescribed. However it has been mentioned that if the Asti bisrjan is not done after twelve th day of bara shraddha then it can be done after performing annual shraddha. However a Tritha shraddha is to be performed before bisrajan by the Gruha karata. If bisrjan is not performed by Gruha karata, then performance of Tritha shraddha is not necessary.
Hindu Funeral Traditions
Hindu funeral customs can vary depending on families and locations. However, there are several common traditions that exist at the majority of Hindu funerals.
Proper dress attire. It is customary for those attending the funeral ceremony to wear white clothing. The clothing should look casual and not too fancy.
Prayers and hymns. The decedent’s family will sing hymns, recite prayers and participate in the chanting of mantras. These actions help create positive energy that then allow the soul to leave the body at the highest state.
At Hindu funerals, flowers will adorn the decedent’s body. Family members will choose flowers based on their symbolism and the health benefits they wish to pass on to their loved one as he or she enters the next life.
Hinduism and Cremation
Hinduism is the world’s oldest religion, dating back to approximately 1500 BC. It is also the world’s third most common religion after Christianity and Islam, with between 900 million to one billion followers.
The majority of Hindus live in India, Nepal, and the nations of Southwestern Asia. The United States has a Hindu population of approximately one million. With continued immigration from Southwest Asia, it is reasonable to expect that this population will grow and Hindu funeral rites will become more commonplace.
What is Hinduism?
In contrast to other major world religions such as Christianity, Buddhism or Islam, Hinduism does not have an individual founder. Nor, in contrast to monotheistic religions such as Judaism and its offshoots Christianity and Islam, do Hindus believe in one God. Hindus believe in multiple gods and can worship – or not worship – whichever ones they choose.
What does bring Hindus together is a belief in “Sanatana Dharma,” or the “Universal Law”. When a practitioner of other religions hears the term “Universal Law,” they might be thinking that Hinduism offers one set path for all of its followers, but that is not the case. Sanatana Dharma actually means that each individual has his own path to follow towards “mukti” which can be understood as freedom from a continuous cycle of death and rebirth.
According to Sanatana Dharma, individuals are born, live, and die multiple times. This will happen as many times as it takes for the soul to finally become perfected and unite with its Source. The Hindu view of the body is that it is essentially a prison for the soul. The soul itself is inherently pure, but in its corporeal form is prone to desires and attachments that keep it bound to the mortal world and divided from the Source.
In Hinduism, each death of the body temporarily releases the soul from its earthly suffering, but soon the soul will be taken prisoner in a new body, where it will experience new challenges and new desires and attachments may form. The ultimate goal of each cycle of birth, death, and rebirth is to move along a continuum towards ultimate release from the cycle, but this progression may not always be moving forward. Some lives may take a soul backwards. Either way, the cycle will continue until the final stage is reached.
Hinduism and Cremation
These beliefs about the soul and the body form the basis for why Hindu funeral rites generally include cremation. Hindus believe that the soul is not strictly bound to one body, but will actually reside in any number of bodies – which may or may not be human – before reaching the final destination of freedom, or mukti. Hindus must work toward freeing themselves from attachments and desires and living a life that will free them from the cycle in order to reach the final stage.
Hindus place little value on the body itself. They see the body as a prison for the soul, one that generates attachments and desires that prevent forward progress towards freedom. Therefore, in Hindu funerals, the role of cremation is to sever the ties of the soul to the body that it is leaving, freeing it to move toward mukti.
The only Hindus typically not cremated are babies, children, and saints, who are believed to be pure and unattached to their bodies; therefore they may be buried instead of cremated.
Although a few Hindus in America may choose to have their bodies sent to India for these traditional funeral rites, many others choose to be cremated in America.
In the United States, the law requires that cremation must be done in a crematorium, resulting in some differences in how American Hindus must observe their funeral customs. Yet, many Hindu families try to incorporate what they can of the ancient traditions as they are observed in India. Families may have a little water from the Ganges River placed in the mouth of the one who has died.
Now days people other than Hindus have started to opt for cremation throughout the world. Cremation rates vary widely across the world.As of 2019, international statistics report that countries with large Buddhist populations like Bhutan, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Japan, Myanmar, Nepal, Tibet, Sri Lanka, South Korea, and Thailand have a cremation rate ranging from 80% to 99%, while Roman Catholic majority-countries like Italy, France, Ireland, Latvia, Poland, Spain, and Portugal report much lower rates. Factors include both culture and religion; for example, the cremation rate in Muslim, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Roman Catholic majority-countries is much lower due to religious sanctions on the practice of cremation, whereas for Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist majority-countries the cremation rate is much higher. However, economic factors such as cemetery fees, prices on coffins and funerals greatly impel towards the choice of cremation, therefore many Christian believers have now days decided for cremation throughout the world 🌎. Most of the Christian believers of 🇺🇸 USA have started to opt cremation now a days.
The cremation rate in the United States has been increasing steadily, with the national average rate rising from 3.56% in 1960 to 53.1% in 2018. Projections from the Cremation Association of North America forecast a rate of 59.4% in 2023. The rates vary considerably among the states with the highest rates (over 70%) being reported in the Western United States with the lowest rates (under 30%) being reported in the Southern United States.
A survey by the Funeral and Memorial Information Council found that Americans increasingly choose cremation for the cost savings. In 1990, 19 percent reported this motivation; in 2010, one-third reported this motivation.
The following table lists the 2014 cremation rate for each state and the District of Columbia including the national average.
2006 US cremation rates
Rank Jurisdiction Rate (%)
- United States 47% ,1 Nevada 75.9% , 2 Washington 75.2%, 3 Oregon 73.9%, 4 Hawaii 72.6%, 5 Maine 71.2%, 6 Colorado 68.7%
7 Montana 68.6%, 8 New Hampshire 68.0%, 9 Wyoming 66.4%, 10 Alaska 65.8%, 11 Vermont 65.8%, 12 Arizona 65.5%
13 Florida 62.7%, 14 California 61.6%, 15 Idaho 59.0%, 16 New Mexico 57.8%, 17 Minnesota 57.0%,18 Michigan 54.4%
19 Wisconsin 52.4%, 20 Connecticut 51.3%, 21 Delaware 45.2%, 22 Kansas 45.2%, 23 Massachusetts 43.1%, - 24 Pennsylvania 42.9%, 25 Illinois 42.6%, 26 Ohio 42.5%, 27 Rhode Island 42.3%,28 Virginia 41.7%, 29 Nebraska 41.3%
30 New Jersey 41.2%,31 District of Columbia 41.0%, 32 New York 40.1%, 33 Maryland 39.6%, 34 Texas 39.5%, - 35 North Dakota 39.0%, 36 Iowa 38.9%, 37 Oklahoma 38.5%, 38 South Carolina 38.1%, 39 Missouri 37.9%
40 North Carolina 37.8%, 41 Indiana 36.9%, 42 Georgia 36.7%, 43 South Dakota 35.9%, 44 Arkansas 34.0%
45 West Virginia 30.4%, 46 Tennessee 30.3%, 47 Utah 29.7%, 48 Louisiana 27.6%, 49 Kentucky 24.6%, 50 Alabama 22.9%
51 Mississippi 19.7%
The National Funeral Directors Association had a slightly different national cremation rate in the United States, reporting a 2016 rate of 50.2 percent, with this expecting to increase to 63.8 percent by 2025 and 78.8 percent in 2035. - By Lokanath Mishra