Jaina Gazette 1928

SR No.: 034890
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Ajitprasad, C S Mallinath
Publisher: Jaina Gazettee Office
Publication Year: 1928
Total Pages: 502
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 33 MB

Page 146

NOTES AND NEWS
161 Swami, Bhattarak of Karanja who is a deep scholar in Jain philosophical literature.
Does Cremation Hurt? The question of whether cremation preduces suffering for the person whose body is cremated was discussed in mail week by M. R. Montandon, ai the International Spiritualist Congress at Queen's Gate Hall, Kensington.
In many districts, said M. Montandon, there were crematoriums, and the number of people who demanded the purification of fire after death was increasing. Many scientists favoured cremation. Were they right or wrong?
The question had to be considered from the sentimental and hygienic standpoints, and hitherto doctors had neglected the occult side of the problem. They reasoned from a materialistic point of view, ignoring all the things of the soul and of the afterlife. Man was both spirit and matter, immortal and mortal, divine and earthly.
Spiritualists admitted that the physical body, which was the only one officially known to science had subtle bodies which interpenetrated the material body. After the adventure of death, decomposition and disintegration of the material elements occurred. What were the advantages or dangers of cremation ?
Cremation should be avoided during the first three days after death, because it caused disintegration of the vital body, and if destruction of the body of fire was carried out too soon after death the spirit, which had just been liberated, might suffer.
Except in cases in which the body was absolutely dead cremation, as practised in Europe, in a sealed vessel and a short time after the appearance of the first symptoms of death occurred might cause suffering. It was wiser to avoid the means of destroying the physical body unless a number of days had elapsed after death.
M. Montandon said it was a greater shock to the soul if death was accidental instead of natural. The time necessary for the physical dissolution varied according to the evolution of
the individual, Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat