Guest guest Posted September 4, 2001 Report Share Posted September 4, 2001 SrI: Dear Srivaishnavas, My wife asked me these two queries: (I could not reply. Please help). Why do we burn the dead bodies? (is it beacuse the body has become impure without the jiVan in it). If there is a reson, why do we not perform the same for the dead bodies of sanysaasis? I am sure there should be valid reasons /pramANams. Regards Narayana Narayana aDiyEn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 5, 2001 Report Share Posted September 5, 2001 Dear ShrivaishnavAs: I too have a related doubt for quite sometime now... What is the significance in doing "Sri Choorna paripAlanai" for the mortal remains after the soul has left the body? It is only done for a Prapanna's mortal remains just before taking the body for cremation. When the soul was so fortunate to have gone thru SamAshrayanam and the necessary rituals when in that body and when it is on its long journey to its finasl abode of Nithya Kainkaryam, why do this for the mere body? Regards Get email alerts & NEW webcam video instant messaging with Messenger http://im. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 5, 2001 Report Share Posted September 5, 2001 shrI: Dear Swamin, The reason for the burning of dead bodies is given in the book called "pitrumedha sara prashnam" (pitR^imedha sAra prashnaH). Shri. Thozappar (a) vaidhIka sArvabhaumar has blessed us with many granthas and one of them is this. He has also done a vyakhyanam for this which is called as sudhI vilocanam. Based on these granthas, Shri. U.Ve. Veeravalli Ghanapati Desikacharya Swamy of Vaduvur has written a book and was published some years back. Adiyen was lucky to have a copy of this book. Given below is the crude translation of what adiyen has understood from the book and please forgive adiyen's mistakes. mUlam: tatra dehaH paramaM haviH puruSAhutiryasya priyatameti vi~nAyate | meaning: There are lot of things which will satisfy "agni". Ajyam, purodAsam, caru etc... But, body (deham) is the most superior thing which will satisfy agni (priyatamam). **** The benefit of this act goes to the person who died (even though the karma is performed by karta). The person, whose body was burnt by "tulasikaThaka agni" will be relieved of all the sins he had committed. Even if he had committed thousands of sins he will attain moksha. Adiyen could not get the answer for why the dead bodies of yatis are not offered to fire. Apart from yatis, a child which dies within 10 days of its birth should only be buried. If the child dies after 10 days and before 3 years it can be offered to the agni or buried or can be thrown away in the forest. **** Probably, our ancestors had anticipated the population explosion and if everybody is to be buried after their death, I think the entire world would eventually become a burial ground. I have heard that in Japan they have multi-storied burial building(?) due to the lack of space. Burning the dead bodies may, to some extent alleviate this problem. Please correct me if I am wrong. Dasan, Sudarsanan > Wed, 5 Sep 2001 09:19:26 +0800 > madhav.vasudevan > Burning of dead bodies > SrI: > Dear Srivaishnavas, > My wife asked me these two queries: (I could not reply. Please help). > Why do we burn the dead bodies? (is it beacuse the body has become impure > without the jiVan in it). If there is a reson, why do we not perform the > same for the dead bodies of sanysaasis? > I am sure there should be valid reasons /pramANams. > Regards > Narayana Narayana > aDiyEn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 6, 2001 Report Share Posted September 6, 2001 SrI: Dear Sri Sudarsanan, Thanks for providing rare & good information. I have a doubt from the following few lines you had quoted. --------you wrote---------- The person, whose body was burnt by "tulasikaThaka agni" will be relieved of all the sins he had committed. Even if he had committed thousands of sins he will attain moksha. ---------------------------- 1. What is tulasikaThaka agni? 2. My understanding is that when a person dies, the soul will immediately take another body. The body is burnt after few hours of death. How is it possible for "tulasikaThaka agni" to liberate the soul from all sins and attain moksham. 3. Does the soul is still inside the dead body until the body is burnt?. Does it mean that based on the type of agni, the soul will either go to moksham(using tulasikaThaka agni) or take another body? I request the members of the list to clarify my doubts. Regards, ramanuja dasan Vijay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 12, 2001 Report Share Posted September 12, 2001 Dear Shri Vijay, > Message: 5 > Fri, 07 Sep 2001 00:33:01 -0000 > "Vijaykumar T G" <vkumar > Re: Burning of dead bodies > --------you wrote---------- > The person, whose body was burnt by "tulasikaThaka agni" will be > relieved of all the sins he had committed. Even if he had committed > thousands of sins he will attain moksha. > ---------------------------- > 1. What is tulasikaThaka agni? I am sorry for the typo. It is actually tulasikASThaka agni. tulasi kASTham means tulasi stick, to the best of my knowledge. > 2. My understanding is that when a person dies, the soul will > immediately take another body. The body is burnt after few hours of > death. How is it possible for "tulasikaThaka agni" to liberate the > soul from all sins and attain moksham. When we offer havis to Agni by chanting mantras, we get the benefit. Most of the benefits we obtain this way helps our soul rather than the body (except for few kAmyArtha karmas, which may benefit the physical body). Similarly, when we chant the mantras and offer the mortal remains of the body to Agni, the benefit goes to the soul even if the soul is no longer associated with the body. I think here lies the significance of the mantras. This can be compared with all the pitR^i karmas we perform in which the benefit goes to our ancestors. (Even though the corresponding soul may no longer be associated with the gotras and the names with which we offer the shrAddha, the vasu,rudra and Aditya take care of delivering them to the soul irrespective of the current form of the soul). > 3. Does the soul is still inside the dead body until the body is > burnt?. Does it mean that based on the type of agni, the soul will > either go to moksham(using tulasikaThaka agni) or take another body? I think that the soul would be separated from the body once it dies. But, as I mentioned earlier, the benefits of all the karmas done to the body reaches the soul. One more example for this could be the dhAnAs we do after a person dies, on his behalf. Garuda Puranam explains the things that happen to the soul after the death. Probably, it can throw some light in this regard. I hope that my answer clarifies your doubt to some extent. I am not an expert in this and whatever little I know, is from the books I have. Much more can be gained by the way of interaction. Dasan, Sudarsanan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.