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Re: Cremation vs. Burial
l23@hopi.dtcc.edu (GERALD J. LA CORTE) wrote:
>Several east Asian cultures practice(d) cremation including China and
>Japan.
>: : I was recently reading an article on cremation and burial. It stated that the
>: : Hindus were probably the only major religious group to cremate the dead, while
>: : [edit]
>: : cremation was the best way to dispose of it. Salvation was a matter regarding
>: : the soul, not the body. Does anybody have any further comments to add?
>:
>: More or less you are correct. I must add however,
>: that amongs Hindus, while cremation is widely practiced,
>: bodies are also buried,
>--
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While among Hindus most cremate the bodies, some bury them. Even here
there is an exception. The bodies of sanyasis or monks are supposed to
be buried NOT cremated. The logic behind this seems to be that one
would like to retain the good magnetism of a holy man as long as
possible by burying the remains.
In Texas, I recently ran into a very interesting practice. One of my
friends, who belongs to one of the protestant faith, told me her
mother who lives in Texas and is 90 years old has already made all the
plans for her body to be cremated. I asked her why. I was told that
their family while lived in Texas, had business interests in Mexico
and hence family members travelled back and forth. In the old days, it
was impossible to transport bodies across from Mexico to Texas due to
the governmental restrictions as well as the lack of refrigeration. So
as a practical matter, if one died in Mexico, they just cremated the
body and transported the ashes, which did not pose any practical
problem.
Of late, more and more people are opting for cremation in this country
for various reasons - financial, environmental.
Most of the City of San Antonio, Texas sits on a aquifer which is the
sole source of water for the city and surrounding counties. Many of
the bodies which were buried after embalming, started leaking.
Embalming uses formaldehyde. Seeping of formaldehyde pollutes the
city's drinking water system. I am sure that similar things are
happening in other parts of the country.
MK Ramadoss
________________________________________________________
Peace to all living beings.
M K Ramadoss
