Funeral Pyres at Pashupatinath!

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Brilliantly red and orange flames devoured all things in its path, crackling and popping as it turned wood into embers and flesh into ashes. The scent of cinder wood barely masked the unforgettable odor of burning flesh. Witnesses sat transfixed as they observed the performance of the sacred ritual. ‘What are they thinking? ” I silently wondered. Their solemn expressions were enhanced by the reflection of the burning flames as the deceased’s material being was transformed into a spiritual memory. I looked once again at the deceased’s family and friends and couldn’t help but wonder, ‘What are they remembering?’

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Smoke continued to billow through the evening sky and against the veil of darkness, it resembled ghosts of those leaving the material world, serving as tangible evidence that their souls, indeed, ascended directly up to the heavens.

Witnessing the funeral pyres on the cremation grounds of Pashupatinath, the holiest hindu temple on the Indian Subcontinent was both mesmerizing and humbling.

Hindus believe in both rebirth and reincarnation and it is popular belief that to die and be cremated in this temple will release one from the cycle of repeated rebirth and death. During the ritual, the body is laid out on blocks of cinder wood, the eldest son circles the body with a flame 3 times then performs the most important and most difficult ritual of his life. He lights an oiled cotton wick which had been placed in his parent's mouth and ignite's his parent's funeral pyre.

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The observation of this solemn event compelled my friends and I to cease all exchanges of words between us as we took a few moments to reflect on our own lives. The silent spell was broken when one friend spoke in Nepali to the other. Birman translated, “Hem-dai says that he is working so hard and when we die, we die like that !” He turned to look towards the funeral pyre. My eyes lingered a little longer at the burning fire as it consumed the body slowly reducing it into ashes. It was simple, yet it’s impact was powerful. We leave the world with the very same things we were born with - our bodies, our hearts and our minds.

Everything else is left in the material world. Everything else doesn’t matter.

I then remembered a poem I had written a few months ago, which I would like to share in closing of this journal entry.

Savor the moment

In it’s entirety

Feel it, see it, smell it, hear it.

If possible, taste it

It passes once

Then it’s gone.

Returning, never!

For life is an accumulation of moments

In the end, it’s not what you have that matters, it’s the memories.

The happiness. The sadness. The challenges. The victories.

Ask yourself.

What do you want to remember most about today?

Then create, define and live, what will become your personal history.

Create it the way you want to remember it.

Define it’s boundaries if need be, otherwise, stretch them.

Then go and live the way you want to be remembered.

- Romena Romuar