Toronto Hindu Leaders Lobbying For Sacred Place To Scatter Ashes, Make Offerings

March 14, 2007

TORONTO, CANADA, March 3, 2007: Adrienne Duff noticed them three years ago, drifting in a Brampton branch of the Credit River. Clusters of flowers, plastic statues, coconuts--some still wrapped in plastic--even jewelry and money. "We started receiving calls from landowners, not just on Fletcher's Creek but also in the main Credit area," said Duff, a watershed-monitoring specialist with Credit Valley Conservation. The mystery was traced to devout Hindus who were making river offerings as a means of conveying blessings, part of their traditional worship. Worried about the potential environmental impact, the conservation agency, along with Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, which is seeing similar things, began the delicate task of finding a compromise. Priests and temple elders promised to help by urging community members to limit their offerings to small amounts of flowers. Devout Hindus also hope their cremated remains will be dispersed in moving water.

The ritual, a symbolic cleansing of the body, is being quietly practised within a GTA Hindu community of 200,000 as of the 2001 census, that is growing rapidly. "In any discussion of the issue of river offerings, we cannot avoid discussing the issue of ash remains," said Roopnauth Sharma, president of the Federation of Hindu Temples of Canada and a spiritual leader at Ram Mandir in Mississauga. Hindus hope to find a safe and sanctioned place where last rites and other rituals can be performed freely. "Right now this is happening in Ontario," Sharma said. "People are dying and people are depositing ashes (in lakes and rivers). We're not sure whether it's against the law." The province's environment ministry says it has no problem with the practice so long as it is carried out with "dignity, decorum and consideration of other members of the community." Conservation authorities argue it is not allowed and is subject to local bylaws.

The need for clarity has become acute as the time-honored practice of flying ashes back to India for immersion in the Ganges River is losing its luster within a Hindu community that has become increasingly integrated into Canadian life. Sharma and other spiritual leaders are quietly preparing to lobby for a spot, somewhere on a river or lake system, that would be designated as a place to make offerings and scatter ashes.