Cremation. In the Hindu family only the son can conduct the last rites-saraddha-the all-important ceremony that sends the soul on its journey. Riven by grief, the youngest son in the family must cremate his mother. The Lord of Death indiscriminately devours living beings of strong, weak and medium constitutions, Yet we are somehow deceived by the sense That we ourselves enjoy immortality. I send forth this pure aspiration: May I live with a constant awareness of death And in knowledge that I could be dead in a moment, So that I might transcend the materialistic mind And pass my days and nights in spiritual ways.
Hindu cremation ritual along the banks of the Bagmati, Pashupatinath.
