Hinduism's ancient ritual

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Monday, 3 December, 2001, 15:54 GMT

Hinduism's ancient ritual

Varanasi is one of India's holiest cities

By BBC News Online's Sanjoy Majumder in Delhi

When George Harrison's ashes are scattered on the waters of two of

India's most sacred rivers, the Ganges and the Yamuna, it will

continue a tradition dating thousands of years.

 

For Hindus, nothing can be holier than dying by the bank of the

Ganges - and if that is not possible, sprinkling one's ashes on its

waters.

 

>From India's leaders such as Gandhi and Nehru to ordinary citizens,

the last rites of millions of Hindus have taken place along the

Ganges and the Yamuna.

 

Harrison was a strong supporter of the Krishna movement, a Hindu

sect, and has donated considerable funds to the organisation.

 

According to the tenets of Hinduism, followed by the Krishna

movement, the immersion or scattering of ashes on the sacred river is

a symbol of the soul's journey towards eternal consciousness.

 

Hindus believe that if their ashes are sprinkled in the Ganges, the

soul achieves salvation.

 

Holy city

 

The best time to conduct the ceremony is just before dawn, at the

start of a new day.

 

 

 

The most auspicious time is at dawn

 

And the holiest site for cremation or the immersion of ashes is in

the city of Varanasi, one of the oldest in the world.

 

If you happen to die by here, it releases you from the cycle of death

and rebirth.

 

On any given day, thousands of Hindus arrive in the city to wash by

the river and cleanse their souls.

 

But many arrive simply to die - patiently waiting by the river's

edge.

 

Another sacred site is in the city of Allahabad - where the Ganges

and Yamuna rivers form a confluence.

 

Historic link

 

As a strong believer in the Krishna sect George Harrison would have

been familiar with the ritual of immersion.

 

But he also had an older, more profound link with the Ganges.

 

It runs through the retreat of a Hindu spiritual guru, Maharishi

Mahesh Yogi, in the Himalayan town of Rishikesh, where Harrison had

his first brush with Hinduism in the sixties.

 

It was here, along the clear waters of the Ganges rapids that he

began his spiritual discovery of Eastern mysticism, which eventually

led him to his involvement with the Krishna movement.

 

The singer's family has asked his fans to join them in a minute's

meditation at the time of the immersion "in honour of George's

journey".