Debate on Open-air funeral pyres on the BBC

August 24, 2007

24th August 2007

Anglo-Indian Friendship Society's bid to reinstate open-air burning of human corpses in the UK may go to the European court.

Jay Lakhani from the Vivekananda Centre a Hindu Academy, was invited to participate in a debate with Andrew from the Anglo-Indian Friendship Society on BBC Asianet this morning on the issue of allowing open-air funeral pyres in the UK. The main arguments offered by Andrew were that open air funerals are stipulated in some Hindu Scriptures like the Garuda purana and that without this ceremony the soul will somehow languish and finally that the Hindus have been using this method of disposing of the body for thousands of years hence it was right. He also suggested that modern crematoriums were less environmentally friendly than open air funeral pyre.

Jay responded by saying that the Hindu religion prides itself in being a living, evolving religion and stipulates that the rituals must continue to evolve to reflect changing circumstances. In the Abrahamic religions there is a fixation on the body hence the body is preserved after death, while in all Indic religions the body is considered to be an external garment that should be disposed off quickly and clinically once the soul has departed. The scriptures of authority (not the scriptures of less authority the Garuda purana) like the Gita say that the body is mere external garment that is discarded by the soul on death. This essential being has already departed and the way the body is disposed of cannot effect it. Hinduism prides itself in being open to rational dialogue, the rationality of this situation is that the reason why the Hindus were using open-air pyres for thousands of years is not because there were hard and fast philosophic reasons for it but because modern methods of cremation were not available in ancient times.

Hindu Academy

Vivekananda Centre London