Nature takes its own course and we cease to exist one day or the other but most people do not realise the solemnity in it. We find people yelling, shrieking and creating an awkward scene over the death of a person. In some overseas countries people mourn in a dignified manner observing sincere silence. The last journey of a human being deserves a final farewell, devoid of noisy emotional outburst of the mourners. People in European countries and the U.S. visit funeral houses neatly dressed but in our country people deliberately visit clad in shabby clothes with unkempt hair. This kind of pretended grief is hypocrisy, indeed.
We find caste and religion clinging to people even after the death of a person. People who ignore living parents squander huge amounts after their death, over meaningless rituals and funeral ceremonies. Dancing like acrobats, some ruffians lead the funeral processions. The mourners involve themselves in gossip and silly questions as they have no manners. This is really disgusting.
Rationalists donate bodies to hospitals and become organ donors. Medical College students are also benefitted. This humanistic act helps organ transplant and replacement. The dead, in a sense, live after death in others.
Burial and cremation becomes an intricate problem. Reservation crops up even in this issue. Religious fanatics cause hurdles. Crematoria workers exploit the bereaved families. When COVID-19 turned the world topsy – turvy, conventional ceremonies were all thrown overboard. Meaningless rituals based on religions and castes vanished.
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During 1917-1919 when the deadly disease plague spread all over Erode, Thanthai Periyar himself carried many corpses and arranged their burial and cremation. He rendered great services at the risk of his own life. S.A.Amir Hamsa of Ramanathapuram district in Tamil Nadu rendered such services devoid of caste, religious discriminations during COVID-19 disaster. On 26th January, 2025 during the Republic Day Celebration, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Thiru.M.K.Stalin conferred an award on Amir, honouring his humanism.
Even in this era when Science and technology reign supreme, most people cling to outdated customs. The Parsis neither bury nor cremate. They leave the bodies on a rocky surface and make vultures feed on them. We find bizarre rituals among the people of other religions too.
In most of the American cities there are Funeral Houses. People are not permitted to retain dead bodies at home beyond a time limit. When the cemeteries are unable to handle burials for want of space, the bodies are stored in these funeral houses until the graveyard officials are ready to receive them. Not only birth, but death also seems to be expensive in such cities.
Final Farewell to the departed thus takes place in numerous dimensions. It differs from place to place according to the attitude of different societies but only scientific temper can cause a rationalistic farewell.
Source: ‘Viduthalai’
