It never been so easy to say good bye. Especially to people living close by or to people who form an integral part of our life. Today with so sorrow heart and loads of pain inside we did say good bye to our eldest member of family. Our beloved uncle Ji (chacha ji in hindi).
Having 89 years of experince behind him, he is one of the most sought member of family. Always devoted to God and well wishers of everyone. He was dedicated himself into farming and allow other brother to study. He always insisted on looking after our native village and palatial property. And rightly so he he always stand for it. With grief , he did said goodbye to all of yesterday. Even though he was in pain for last couple of days. And we all wanted home to get rid of it easily. And seems God listen to our prayer and in obtuse the soul departed our holy home.
As a custom and our teadition, we did said home adieu in grand way. We had firecrackers we had music's. We had dhol, in his final walk to pyre. It's in Hindu culture to set the dead body in pyre and sets the soul free from this materialistic world. As a part of last respect, we offer him kafan, and bamboo cot to take him to his final rites.
Before setting the body to fire, we have to prepare chita a wooden platform to place the body into it. In cities we have many shops at the cremation ground offering the lofs of woods but in village thr local people arrange the wooden logs from their hike or from the jungle. These logs needs to be dried combustible so that it catches fire easily. After that we prepare a makeshift wooden base using the logs as like of a bed to place the body into it before setting it on fire
Before placing it on the pyre, the body needs to be washed and the we apply turmeric and oil paste . There were fee rituals to be compkted. And we manage to complete them in due time.
Once the body is placed into the pyre, again theore were few prayers and rituals, before thr family member set the body on fire. The process is called mukh agni. It was one of the painful scene to watch with naked eye. In actual we are saying good bye thr departed soul and that was the last time we can see the body once it was lit , the body caches fire sooner.
As per thr village calculation and estimate, a body takes around 3-4 hrs to completely burn into ashes. And rightly so none of us would move out from the cremation ground. Once the body burns into ashes, we moved on to respective home with further rituals. It will rake another 12 days to compete the formality.
Finally we said adieu to our dear uncle, our backbone and symbol of strength. We lost someone who was dear to us. Hoping and praying that the departed soul will Rest In Peace....somewhere up in the heaven.
