Cremation, Caste, and Cosmogony in Karmic Traditions.

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improper performances of funerals. A proper funeral conducted by the sons may give a positive feedback on the deceased’s karmic record. If the flesh is properly prepared and provided to the gods, then they are satisfied and credit the deceased. If, on the other hand, the sons are sloppy the gods punish the deceased doubly, and the sons will suffer when their time comes. Those who have died a bad death by suicide, drowning, cholera, attacked by a tiger and so on, are not given a cremation, and hence they will attain a lower incarnation per definition since their flesh does not become a part of the hydrological circle. Most likely, if we believe the vivid descriptions of the various hells, these are sinners whose souls leave the anus during the funeral and hence become immensly filthy and impure, and there is no wonder they are born into unfortunate creatures and malignant spirits. Thus, it seems that if the gods cannot use the flesh of the body as life-giving water, then the deceased will become incarnated, when reborn on earth, in parts of the impure materiality he presented to the gods during his funeral. Consequently, if one has an embodiment prior to the next incarnation, then this negative bio-moral substance will accelerate the spiral downwards. If I am at least partly correct in emphasising the importance of the flesh in funerals, then one may rightly ask what it is with the human flesh that makes it so highly auspicious and valuable for the gods? From the divine perspective, the human flesh or this particular constellation of the elements is the most precious one can give to a soul, which has not yet become a god or semi-god. Again, matter encapsulates the thought: it is a prison. The human body is the most fortunate prison possible to obtain on earth, and this embodiment puts the least restrictions upon the spiritual enlightenment. In fact, the human body is only a prison locked from the inside, not the outside, and the devotee may enable a total liberation through penance and prayer. This is the reason why the human flesh is so highly precious compared to other constellations of the elements, for instance the flesh of a rat. The human flesh is a spiritual substance, and by desecrating the human body with impurity the devotee offends the gods. Returning to the life-giving waters in relation to death, this perspective makes sense. Death rituals are only performed for humans and no other creatures. Thus, if one does not return the body to the gods in a pure condition, one has wasted the most precious matter on earth, an act one then would be punished for. If one is born into a human body on earth, this necessitates that the soul reincarnates without any materiality lingering to it so it can re-enter the hydrological and agricultural cycle. If we agree on the premises from an academic point of view but not accepting that this was what happened with Roop Kanvar, then there seems to be a coherency between quality of the flesh/spiritual capacity and the potential for common welfare for society. The lifegiving rains are on a general level the most prosperous 288 gift that a body can become. On a divine scale, however, there are even more precious outcomes. Holy men and sadhus in general conduct their own death rituals when they are alive, and hence, they are not cremated and there is no mourning period, and they attain heaven. The funeral of Milarepa, the renowned Buddhist yogi, was particular spectacular. The funeral pyre was transformed into a celestial mansion, “The flame at the base took the form of an eightpetaled lotus blossom, and the curling tips of the fire unfolded into the eight auspicious emblems and the seven royal insignia. Even the sparks took the form of goddesses bearing many offerings. The chants of worship and the crackling of the dazzling fire sounded like the melodious tones of various musical instruments, such as violins, flutes, and tambourines. The smoke permeated everything with the fragrance of perfume and, in the sky above the funeral pyre, young gods and goddesses poured a stream of nectar from the vases they held, and offered abundant delights for the five senses” (Lhalungpa 1979:182-183). The cremation was completely transparent. Some saw the relics of the corpse as a huge stupa of light standing in the cremation cell, some saw sacred implements, golden rays, offerings beyond imagination, yet others saw the expanse of empty space. The dakinis carried away all the sacred relics, including the ashes, leaving nothing to the humans because the spiritual awakening is the most important of all relics (ibid:184). Spiritual awakening and fragrance, perfume and nectar poured by gods and goddesses – this is heaven – in the normal world the life-giving waters are the most precious a human body can be transformed into. There is a structural homology in the way the bodies of Milarepa, Roop Kanvar and King Birendra were redistributed back into society. Their bodies embraced everything like a lotus but in different ways. Milarepa gave a glimpse of heaven. Roop Kanvar provided water and life for society, and as I interpreted the katto-ritual, the king’s body was divided into the caste structure and gave legitimacy to the social structure. The king has a special role in society, as it is expressed in a Muslim poem; “The world is a garden, whose gardener is the state; The state is the sultan whose guardian is the Law” (Eaton 1993:29). The king’s body creates and legitimises the social structure and laws in society whereas all others make it prosperous: that is through the life-giving waters. Thus, the body of different persons fulfil various roles according to their dharma. The preparation of the flesh of the body is the essence of the funeral rite because of the dual function of death; the individual’s destiny and the future of society. It involves soteriology at two levels. Without ethicisation of death and the flesh for further life, the process of ethicisation step 1 would not have turned into ethicisation step 2. A karma ideology necessitates more than just individual punishments and rewards since humans are miniature replicas of the gods. Therefore, the divine will and cosmic battles in Kali-yuga have to be incorporated into
this system, and the transformation of flesh into lifegiving waters or energies is the most important part in death rituals. Providing society with the life-giving water is the primordial task for the gods. It is the best soteriology possible on earth; the perfect and eternal salvation is in heaven. Water in its original form is procreative and everything has its origin in and from water. Metaphors of creation and cosmogony get their strengths and rationale in aquatic symbols because water is the very essence of life. Every aspect of human life and divine interference on earth is possible to express through water symbolism. This vast ocean of metaphoric potential by aquatic symbolism enables water to be the medium which expresses everything, and anything can be understood and explained in terms of water symbols. The religious and cultural uses of water express essential truths of humanity and the relation between humans and gods, peoples’ worldviews and conceptualisations of their gods, are products of this relation between nature, society, and water. Therefore, “the waters symbolize the universal sum of virtualities; they are “spring and origin”, the reservoir of all possibilities and existences, they precede every form and support every creation…immersion in water signifies regression to the preformal, reincorporation into the undifferentiated mode of pre-existence. Emersion repeats the cosmogonic act of formal manifestation; immersion is equivalent to a dissolution of forms. This is why the symbolism of the (…) I appear in the world like a great cloud that showers moisture upon all the dry and withered living beings, so that all are able to escape suffering, gain the joy of peace and security, the joys of this world and the joy of nirvana. waters implies both death and rebirth” (Eliade 1987:130). The divine character or the immanent powers of the Water Cosmology may therefore be summed up as follows: “From the primeval Waters arose the Plants, from Plants all other beings, in particular the gods, men, and cattle. Rasa, as an essence of the Waters, or as sap in trees, is variously identified with soma, amrta [Sanskrit, “not death”, the nectar of immortality], semen, milk, rain, honey, mead and liquor; there is a cycle in which the vital energy passes from heaven through the waters, plants, cattle and other typically virile or productive animals, and man, thence ultimately returning to the waters” (Coomaraswamy 1931:25). Water truly unites micro- and macro-cosm and contains individual and cosmic soteriology. Shantideva, a revered monk, scholar and poet who lived in India in the eight century, explained the Bodhisattva path this way; “May a rain of food and drink descend, To clear away the pain of thirst and hunger, And during the eon of famine, May I myself change into food and drink” (op. cit Kaza & Kraft 2000:33). The divine character of rain is expressed in the Hua-Yen Sutra; “Raining all over the earth, The raindrops make no distinctions: So is the truths of all Buddhas” (ibid:50). And finally, dharma – the true nature of reality as taught by Shakyamuni Buddha – is also compared to the beneficent rain that nourishes all beings. In the Lotus Sutra, a Mahayana scripture probably composed in the early third century CE, the Dharma Rain is elaborated (ibid:45, 48): (…) I rain down the Dharma rain, filling the whole world, and this single-flavoured Dharma is practiced by each according to the individual’s power. (…) The Law of the Buddhas is constantly of a single flavour, causing the many worlds to attain a full satisfaction everywhere; by practicing gradually and stage by stage, all beings can gain the fruits of the way. 289
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Death and Life-Giving Waters Cremat
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Preface Contents List of figures In
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The origin of Pashupatinath and the
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Fig. 5.1 Map of Bangladesh with Far
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In karmic traditions, death and lif
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constructions, it has often been ap
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Part 1: Cremating Death - Creating
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ethically conditioned (fig 1.2). Th
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The pervasiveness of karma linking
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Fig. 1.3. Pashupatinath temple and
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Fig. 1.5. Cremation priest lighting
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Fig. 1.7. Ghat management and servi
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theories of castes as an organisati
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Fig. 1.9. The sons collected the as
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highly polluted that the people wou
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24 Fig. 1.12. Durga Prasad Sapkota
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problematic (Levinson 1982:198), es
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(seeds, food). In life a person bec
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Fig. 2.1. Manikarnika Ghat, Varanas
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the dead, (they shall eat) their fo
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Fig. 2.6. The representation of cas
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degrees of purity and pollution. En
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Fig. 2.8. Caste structure according
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Nevertheless, it is preferable to b
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the sacrifier is the sacrifice. Thu
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partly a process by which the gods
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Chapter 3: Meditation upon death an
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Being a part of a religious elite i
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The dangers of social interaction S
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Third party observing and legitimat
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Fig. 3.4. Tyaginath sitting next to
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57 Top: Fig. 3.6. The grave of Nara
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the Mahabrahmans mostly consume the
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Religion and ritual Studies of deat
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purest in common sense is not alway
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Fig. 4.3. Modes of fleshly incarnat
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e reincarnated into regarding spiri
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Fig. 4.5. Hocart’s and Dumont’s
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impure and still treated as a Brahm
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Part 2: The Sisters Kali and Ganga
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Ganga Brahmaputra • Faridpur Bay
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Fig. 5.4. Ambikapur Shashan Ghat. F
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Fig. 5.6. Channel from the pyre whe
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The head is always supposed to be d
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Hinduism. She is employed as a care
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Only Hindus are cremated at the cem
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According to Hazera, Badol cremated
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Fig. 6.1. Statue of Jagadbandhu. 90
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Fig. 6.2. Rajani receives the bless
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His disciples are like missionaries
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In the Ashram all the expenses are
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Fig. 6.7. Burial in coffin. 98
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Fig. 6.8. Private Kali temple in Ba
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Fig. 6.9. Jagadbandhu temple in Ban
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The importance of the priest in rit
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the rituals, and they have differen
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108
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Fig. 7.1. The mighty Ganga. Fig. 7.
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Fig. 7.3. Tara. Fig. 7.4. Tripur-Su
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Fig. 7.11. Chinnamasta. 114
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immediate divine access and godly g
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Fig. 7.12. Pot-maker in front by th
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Fig. 7.14. The making of Durga. 120
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This image is the most important pa
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Fig. 7.17. Replacement of Shashan K
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Fig. 7.18. The Baishanti Durga puja
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tradition. The Bhaishanti Durga sta
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enlightenment and achieve liberatio
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132
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cloth. Although the Hindus in Farid
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Fig. 8.1. A combined Kali and Saras
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high-caste and priests as religious
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1979:115-118). As seen in Faridpur
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142
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144
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Fig. 9. 1. Map of Nepal. Kaligandak
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The opposite approach is the histor
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Fig. 9.2. Manang and Gangapurna gla
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Fig. 9.5. Bone grinding. 152
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Only 20-25 years ago air-burials we
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was completed by the end of the 18
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As a cultural construct water is al
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These sacrifices rebuild the deceas
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giving mother. A “spirit” is
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Gorakhnath promised the Nepalese th
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“Shiva, the god of eroticism, is
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Fig. 10. 3. Dagbatti - the lighting
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Fig. 10.4. Sexual engravings at the
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priori”, Jung argues; “The repr
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174
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are there in a quite objective sens
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Purana, “those who recite them wi
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forms of colour, 4) water with the
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Fig. 11.2. The spot where humans we
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Fig. 11.4. Bagmati originating from
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186
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Fig. 12.1. Sadhu fasting for Nepali
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If the river could not cleanse itse
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The trust is not directly involved
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Fig. 12.6. The outlet of treated wa
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As an example, once a complete drun
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Fig. 12.10. Bagmati River with clea
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positive or negative feedback upon
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this process happens slowly and pro
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Fig. 13.1. Decaying corpse at Nire
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achievement of a wanted state or co
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while unmarried girls and boys with
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Logic of sin and pollution Cosmogon
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212
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214
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less “true”, unimportant, or in
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From the present to the past, urban
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Dating traditions - the development
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The Muluki Ain aimed to arrange all
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spiritual fold took them to the upp
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choose one’s own path because onl
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esult of a variety of combinations
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practice, common people are ignoran
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procured for the people. The import
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Fig. 15.1. Gundestrup cauldron with
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236
Page 250 and 251: took place, at some time in history
Page 252 and 253: Fig. 16.1. Maneckji Seti Agiary in
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Page 256 and 257: Fig. 16.3. Zoroastrian ossuary from
Page 258 and 259: Fig. 16.4. Zarathushtra and fire-te
Page 260 and 261: Fig. 16.6. Inside a Tower of Silenc
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Page 264 and 265: meaningfully constituted and situat
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Page 270 and 271: therefore concentrate on his docume
Page 272 and 273: Marshall suggested that the height
Page 274 and 275: Fig. 17.5. Dharmarajika: plan of re
Page 276 and 277: Fig. 17.6. Buddha from Building L n
Page 278 and 279: Fig. 17.8. The “smaller” Buddha
Page 280 and 281: is always explaining, instructing,
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Page 284 and 285: Fig. 17.10. The Great Bath. From Ma
Page 286 and 287: This is problematic for several rea
Page 288 and 289: As mentioned before, Schutz has mad
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Page 292 and 293: of birth and death. The soul is ete
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Page 298 and 299: follows her husband purifies the th
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Page 306 and 307: kept perpetually ablaze for over a
Page 308 and 309: Gange Farid million people. Muslim
Page 310 and 311: Manosha The patron saint of serpent
Page 312 and 313: Ratnasambhava The third dhyanibuddh
Page 314 and 315: Tirtha Spiritual ford, crossing pla
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Page 318 and 319: very nice. The last son (or husband
Page 320 and 321: y putting faces on people who other
Page 322 and 323: Hence, I have a feeling that I am o
Page 324 and 325: Fig. 18.3. Ram Mani Gyawali, author
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Page 328 and 329: When it again closes then Shiva bec
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Page 332 and 333: A man, after taking a bath in the P
Page 334 and 335: Vishnu said: Obeisance to you, O de
Page 336 and 337: The linga is pure, auspicious and i
Page 338 and 339: 326
Page 340 and 341: Cambridge. Barth, F. 1990. The Guru
Page 342 and 343: Art, Religion & Culture: 184-191. M
Page 344 and 345: Priest. Cambridge University Press.
Page 346 and 347: Insoll, T. 1999b. Introduction. Res
Page 348 and 349: Lahiri, N. 2000. Archaeology and id
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Ahmedabad. Mirza, H. K. 2002. Liter
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Gandhi National Centre for the Arts
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(eds.). Representing Hinduism: 51-8
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