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Depends on the season. Not very big normally, but huge in rainy season. At GarhMukteshwar it is not very wide due to topography (between elevated portions of land). Garh means fort and forts are built at higher places. Mukteshwar has an ancient Shiva temple from Purana times. The place, like other revered places is supposed to grant deliverance to souls (Mukti-freedom).
Yeah, Vinayaka, I had the frolic angle in mind. With cremation, nothing can come out. There has to be a body.
Finally I completed the writing of how my son should dispose my dead body. Here is that for your perusal (so that I could make any changes if required):
Instruction / Request for the disposal of my body after my death:
The main thing that you ned to understand is that though I am a staunch Hindu, I do not believe in superstition, I believe in science. I do not believe in Gods and Goddesses. I am what they term as "Brahmavadi". What that means, you can check with people like Vijaya Chachi (Vijaya, your Tamil aunt) who may know what it means. I want a disposal without any fanfare or mantras. I know all the mantras and their value. I do not want them after I am dead, not even the Gayatri Mantra. I am not an Arya Samaji. And the Gayatri Mantra in RigVeda does not contain "Om, Bhuh, Bhuvah, Swaha". That is a later addition. Therefore, here is what is to be done:
1. The Arthi (carriage):
After death, I would not need any bed. Therefore, do not get a "phatte wali seedhi". The wooden plank only increases the weight of the arthi. it does not in any way convenience the body. Just the bamboo seedhi will do.
After death, the body feels no heat or cold. So, covering the body with shawls does not make any sense. You should not put any shawls on my body. Just the white sheet of cloth will do.
After death I cannot see or smell flowers. Therefore, putting flowers on my body is a useless exercise. Kindly do not do that.
It is customary to put a photograph and a burning lamp near the head of the dead body. I am not photogenic (though in my younger days I was mentioned as good-looking, lean, mop of black hair, fair complexioned, bluish-green eyes and a perfectly-shaped straight caucasian nose). Therefore, do not waste your effort and time to have my photograph or burn any lamp. My lamp would already have been extinguished by that time.
You can take the arthi to the temple. I may be an atheist, but I am still a Hindu and love and respect Hindu culture, its Gods and Goddesses. That will be perfectly OK.
2. At the cremation ground:
As I said, I do not want any mantras. Pay the Shamshan brahmin his fee but ask him not to recite any mantras whatsoever. You can go through the motions of circling my body three times and break the pitcher. At the funeral pyre also, you can go around three times before lighting the fire (Agni dana).
A very imporant thing is to have my funeral pyre at the ground level and (if possible) in a funeral pit that is open to sky. Do not, I repeat, do not have my body cremated in a funeral pit which is at a higher level. That is for diginitaries and I am a common man.
Ghee and samagri are OK because that is to let the fire burn my body quickly and camoflage the smell of burning body.
After cremation, do not make an announcement as to when the bones are to be collected. Those who will come will come and it will not concern many others who will choose not to come. It is a silly / foolish practice to burn a bunch of straw after cremation, and the whole congregation to circle it three times with a piece of straw in the mouth. Kindly do not do that after my funeral. That is why no announcement.
3. Immersion of ashes:
There is no need to go all the way to Haridwar. That is a full day’s journey. Immersion of ashes in Garh Mukteshwar will be perfectly all right and it is at half the distance than Haridwar. Mother Ganges flows there also. Here again, pay the brahmin his fee (don’t be fleeced), ask him not to utter any mantras and allow you to peacefully immerse the ashes in Mother Ganges. That will require half the time that you would have spent in going to Haridwar.
4. After the funeral:
I do not want any ‘chautha’ (fourth-day remembrance) to be held (with my enlarged photograph on the dais and prayers) after my death. I do not believe in prayers. I know you will like to have a ‘griha shanti’ ceremony because you are superstitious people, but kindly make sure that you do not do it in my name. Instruct the brahmins accordingly. Ask them not to mention me or say anything about how pious I was. It will embarass me even in my death.
I do not want any remembrance ceremonies after my death (no dasvi, 10th, gyarahvi, 11th, or terahvi, 13th) that also means no ‘masavar’ (monthly remembrance), no six monthly remembrance (chhamahi), nor the yearly remembrance (Shraadhha) at any time.
Also, do not put my photograph on the wall (do not hang me on the wall). When I am gone, I have completely and surely gone – like Buddha said - “gate, gate, para gate, para samgate”.
I hope you will dispose my dead body according to the instructions mentioned above. Thanking you in advance.
Did one tell one's son and other family members? If yes, what did he say?
That is right. I also have decided as to what should be offered to the people who come to the funeral although I cut out that portion from my post. Usually when I attended cremations of relatives , my brothers and myself never forgot to have a cup of tea with some snacks at a shop near the ancient (supposedly 5000 year old, from Mahabharata times) cremation ground in Delhi - Nigambodh Ghat. Although I wish to be cremated in the neighborhood cremation ground where my father was cremated. Why make people travel a long distance just for a cremation?
Me either. Not photogenic at all. You should see my driver license photo. Or better still, not! *grin*As I mentioned, I am not photogenic. That is why not my mug in my 'avatara', though I was not much different than the boy in the image.
That's worthy of a thread alone. Where are all the dead going to live?
I wasn’t aware that there was a “Christian” way to dispose of a person’s remains. If I was taken by a shark or “buried at sea” or eaten by wild animals....what does it matter? My body will decay and “return to the dust” (be absorbed back to the elements of the earth) no matter how my remains end up. Cremation simply takes me to “dust” without my body rotting in a box.
So where do you get the belief that the man's father was not yet dead?
I know I know Aupmanyav, my best to you.
The man was offering an excuse for why he couldn't become a follower of Jesus....how long would it take to bury someone at that time? It was usually within 24 hours and if his father had been dead at that time, the man would have been there at the bier and not listening to Jesus. But the man obviously meant that his father was old and sooner or later would die; and so the man wanted to postpone following Jesus until after he had taken care of his father until death and so receive his father’s dying blessing and then fulfill his father’s wish to have his son at the deathbed close his eyes after death ensued. This would have delayed the man’s following Jesus indefinitely and Jesus knew that the man's relatives were not believers, so that is why he said..."let the dead bury their dead".
Yes, spirit anointed Christians become a spiritual temple of the holy spirit. What does that have to do with cremation?
Religious or cultural tradition can be against God's laws. There is no "Christian" custom for burial in the Bible, and Christians come from all nations. It is a personal decision as to what is done to the body after death.
Is that your own interpretation, if not, please provide reference?
The statement makes no sense if the man's father had just died....it was used as an excuse not to commit to following Jesus, even though he claimed to be a disciple.
I did and you seemed to have a problem with it...no?
I am one of Jehovah's Witnesses and I have no belief in an immortal soul. Can you provide me with a single scripture that has these two words side by side in any passage?
