Talk:Major Steps in Hindu Funeral Cremation Ceremony: Preparing for Cremation
From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia
If a person had died in away from his home (e.g., in a hospital), his body is brought to his home and is purified by bathing it, or sprinkling it with water. It is covered with new clothes, and often sprinkled with sandalwood powder, tulsi leaves and so on. Mantras or names of Bhagavān are chanted in the right year of the corpse to soothe the ātmā which might still be within the body, and remind it that the ātmā is eternal and the body is perishable. All women meet with the departed person for the last time, and bid him goodbye. Typically, only men proceed to the cremation ground.