Talk:Interfaith Perspectives: Funeral Practices in Different Religions
Within the Dharmic traditions, cremation is the norm for funerals. They all also share the same cremation grounds. This is in contrast to the Abrahamic religions in which different sects have separate burial grounds. E.g. Catholics and Protestants have their graveyards among Christians, as do Shia and Sunnis among Muslims. Hindu teachers offer the following reasons why cremation should be preferred over burial-
“If the body is buried, it is believed that the onward journey to the higher realms becomes more difficult. It is the fire god, mainly, who is the first aid to the soul to sever its connection from the physical tenement and to take his astral body to the higher realms. This becomes very clear when we see that as long as the physical body is visible – either above or below the earth due to the attachment felt by the ego and the astral body, it naturally hovers around it for several days or months unless it is lifted by the proper prayers and worship to God and angels. After the soul has departed from the body, what is there in the body to be loved anymore? Therefore, to dispose of it through fire is beneficial for spiritual, social and even for health reasons, and the problem, at last, is being slowly understood in the scientific world of the west…”[1]
The Jains often employ Hindu priests for the cremation, but their post-funeral ceremonies are much shorter and simpler. The Jains believe that there is not much time gap between a person’s death and his rebirth. Therefore, they do not perform the shrāddha ceremonies much, nor do they have extended mourning periods. The ‘phool’ are dispersed as the Hindus do[2].
The Sikhs have also devised their cremation ceremony from the Hindu prototype. These ceremonies are described in their fairly modern manuals called the Rahit Namas. The ashes of the dead are scattered either in the same places as the Hindus of the region, or at a place called Kiratpur Sahib on the Satluj river because their 7th Guru Har Rai was cremated and his ashes dispersed into the waters at that site. Recitations from the Guru Granth Sahib, their holy scripture (and regarded as the embodiment of the Guru) are done during the post-funeral ceremony in the memory of the departed person. Sikhism does not permit the performance of Shrāddha ceremonies. However, contemporary records of resident Brahmana families in Haridwar and other places show that the Sikh Gurus, their families, and those of many Sikh leaders down to the 19th century continue to perform Hindu ceremonies for their family members.
In many ancient cultures, the dead (especially those who were rich) were buried with considerable material possessions. It was believed that the dead could use these possessions in their next life. A prominent example is that of the Pyramids, in which Egyptian Pharaohs and their families were buried with veritable treasures and articles of utility of all kinds.
The Abrahamic religions believe that on the Day of Judgment, the Archangel Gabriel sounds his trumpet. This brings to life the buried dead. Therefore, burial is the chosen mode of disposal of corpses, and cremation was considered a sacrilege and an abomination. However, due to cost and other reasons, Christians and Jews in the West are switching to cremation in large numbers. To face this changing situation over which they have no control, Christian institutions have grudging accepted cremation with certain conditions. For instance, the Catholic priest must bless the ashes before their burial if the family has cremated their dead family member. During the reason terror reign of the Islamist group ISIS, it was seen frequently that their captives were cremated. The Islamists believed that a cremated corpse has no hope of resurrection on the Day of Judgment.