Question : It has become a fashion, these days, to opt for cremation even when there is a Dokhma say in a city like Mumbai. In some cases the survivors even ask the priests to recite the Geh Sarna, etc. before the body is taken for cremation. At least two questions arise :
a) What exactly happens when a Zoroastrian body is cremated ?
b) Can or should one perform the ceremonies of a Zoroastrian who is cremated and do they help the soul ?
Dr. Homi A. Press, Bombay.
Answer : (a). In the sixties (1961) all the Dasturs (High Priests) of India had resolved that where there was a Dakhma, no priest should preform the first four day ceremonies in case the body was buried or cremated. But the rule was honoured more in the breach than in its observance. Luckily in India, it is the survivors who decide how the body is to be disposed, though occasionally, today it is the cranky survivor who decides that the deceased should not get the benefit of Dokhmenashini.
What those who opt for cremation conveniently forget is that you try to burn a body and create yet another phantasmagoric form in the atmosphere. How does this all happen ?
First of all when a corpse is burnt, either through a conventional or an electric crematorium the smoke that emanates passes through the dense atmosphere layers on the earth and goes on to the higher subtle atmospheric layer. Normally this latter layer, which is pure (in Pahlavi it is called Vayu-Veh, literally, the good air) is polluted by the putridities carried from the burning body from the lower atmosphere.
Thus the very point to be noted is that the upper strata of atmosphere, that is normally healthy and full of oxygen, is vitiated by the carbonic acid fumes spreading from a burning body in the lower atmosphere. The Vahu Veh becomes Vayu-saritar - an extremely unfriendly act for ecology and environment.
Secondly, and this is an ultra physical point : the Sun's rays, which are always parallel, have infinite creative powers, many of which like the X - rays, Ultra-violet and infra red rays, gamma rays, cosmic rays are used for benevolent purposes by medical and other sciences. These rays destroy all infection and microbes, whereas in cremation, the heat generated creates infection and contagion.
The Sun's rays - Khurshed Nagirashni destroys not only the infection emanating from the corpse inside a Dakhma, but also the druj, highly subtle putridity, which is the concomitant of infection. Nay, not only that, it changes the subtle form of druj, converts it to electric particles and sends it upwards to where it belongs.
On the other hand, any other method of burning (besides the Sun), throws up convergent rays, which meet at a point, that is they ae not parallel rays. At this point of convergence, an unseen invisible new form emerges. Thus in cremation the physical body, which is burnt to cinders, takes a new invisible subtle form that remains in the upper strata of the atmosphere, because in nature, nothing is destroyed. It only gets transformed into another form.
In Khurshed Nagirashni, which is a concomitant of Dokhmenashini, because the Sun's rays are parallel, they don't meet or converge at a point. Hence no such lingering invisible form anywhere in space is created.
What is noteworthy is that even when a body is cremated, after the subtle form hangs in the earth's atmosphere for many years as shown above, the basic elements therein are taken to their destination by the Sun's rays only. Thus we have a situation where our cremation enthusiasts, if they want to go to Delhi, instead of flying non stop, they travel from Mumbai to Jaipur by bullock cart and then take a flight to Delhi!
Coming to the teaching and admonitions of the Zoroastrian religion, for three days and three nights, the soul sits near the head of the corpse kept on the stone platform after Sachkar. When the Geh Sarna ceremony is performed, the deceased's last thoughts and desires which have crystallised into a "shell" are shattered to bits. If this "shell" is not smashed, it grows denser and then it becomes well-nigh impossible to destroy it. This happens if the Sachkar and the Geh Sarna ceremonies are not performed. The shell is then taken control of by the hovering spirits, and other dark forces.
One shudders to visualise what would happen to a Zoroastrian soul, the physical body pertaining to which is cremated.
1. Because invariably since there is no Sachkar and Geh Sarna, the thought cum desire shell becomes dense and crusty.
2. After Cremation, the convergent rays of the fire of the electric furnace help establish another subtle "form" in the atmosphere where the basic element of the millions of cells that formed the physical body are trapped.
So there are two ultra - physical forms which keep bothering and dragging the soul towards the earth.
3. A Zoroastrian soul, after death, is supposed to reach Chinvat on the dawn of the 4th day provided the four corner stones (Sachkar, geh Sarna, Dokhmenashini and Sarosh ceremonies) are present. If the body is cremated, besides the two phantasmogoric forms mentioned above that are created, the soul itself is in a state of suspended animation : it is neither on earth nor on the threshold of Chinvat but virtually captured by the forces of Ahriman, midway. The soul then indulges in a most heart rending lamentation, which if a living human were to see and hear he would either go mad or remain in a dazed condition through the rest of his life.
4. The basic elements of the myriad cells of a Zoroastrian are supposed to the entrusted to be Custodian of these elements Dahm Yazad, on and after the 4th day after death. That is why the last ceremony to be performed just after the Chahram ceremonies is the Daham Afringaan. At least the Zoroastrian soul which has had the benefit of all the four requisites, sits at the threshold of Chinvat in meditation, waiting for the baisc elements to arrive. But the soul of a cremated Zoroastrian is hanging in space in suspense, tormented by the wicked forces surrounding it, and hounded by the thought that the two crystallised "forms" belonging to it, will take ages for the trapped basic elements to be released !
(b). It is therefore pointless and wasteful to perform ceremonies for a cremated Zoroastrian, because they just don't reach or help the besieged soul in its hour of need. The ceremonies are helpful only for those Zoroastrian souls who have reached the threshold of Chinvat !
Adi Doctor - Dini Avaz - Vol. 21, No.5
Can Zoroastrians attend funeral ceremonies for those Z corpses being Cremated?
Question : One has a very good friend, who is a Zoroastrian. He is either to be cremated or buried after death. Can one attend such a funeral ceremony ?
Mrs. S.P.M. Mumbai.
Answer : In all such matters, the best guide for all faithful is the Vendidad, wherein burial and cremation are severely castigated. If such a devoted Zoroastrian attends or participates in the funeral ceremony he aids and abets in the wrong act of cremation or burial of a Zoroastrian. The two sins of making a mockery of our rituals and ceremonies and of polluting and defiling the elements will be on the head of such faithful Zoroastrian, who attends the funeral.
What most Parsees completely forget is that in nature, emotions and sentiments are completely discounted. What matters is duty towards one's religion, its tenets and doctrines.
Adi Doctor - Dini Avaz - Vol 26, No.3.
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