INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

age centre for immersion, and the use of modern transportations makes these more
exceptional actions feasible.
The oft-stated reason as to why the “flower” should be guarded is to make sure
that the body is fully burnt down to ashes and to protect the remains from disrespectful
conducts. An elderly man said:
There is no religious significance to it… as if we would carry out rituals
for the life after. If the dead relative was my father I took care of him
when he was alive. But other people’s feet should not touch his bones.
Therefore we immerse them in a river. It is not for peace or anything
like that.
Popular beliefs in magic (jadutona) sometimes fring the discussions on possible misuse.
The burning ground is believed to attract tantrics who collect the ashes and
thereby imprison the soul of the deceased in a ghostly existence. The ashes are later
mixed with edible and drinkable substances to harm living beings with spirit affliction.
The brisk business of cremations at Varanasi also makes many suspicious of the
handling of dead bodies. A man who had just performed the last ritual for this
mother said:
They do not let it [the body] get fully burnt before they throw it in
Ganga. It is like an abuse of dead bodies. You can see corpses of dead
people floating in Ganga. Therefore we decided to stay until the body
was burnt down and washed away the ashes and bones in the river.
Most Sikhs think the ashes and bones of a deceased family member should be treated
respectfully, even if just washed away. To dissolve the remnants of a family member
in water is the means to express reverence.
THE LAST PRAYER
Sikh post-cremation ceremonies may be plentiful and, like the previous rituals mentioned
so far in this chapter, assume different shapes depending upon family and
caste traditions. The present code of conduct clearly prescribes that Sikhs are not to
observe shraddh, the offerings to ancestors which are customary in the Hindu tradition.
The traditional shraddh ceremonies generally consist of a set of offerings of gifts,
particularly a large number of rice balls (pind dan) and the feeding of Brahmins, all of
which aims to convert the liminal spirit of the deceased to an ancestor and assist its
one-year long and difficult journey to the abode of the ancestors. 634 Many Sikhs I
spoke with marked out that the offerings of rice balls are typical post-cremation observances
among the Hindus and not the Sikhs, and expressed somewhat divergent
beliefs related to the soul’s destiny after death. They would instead arrange an Ak-
634
Parry 1994: 191.
386
Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008