Among Hindus the Shradh ceremony has to be done when someone dies in the family. When a death happens in a Hindu family, obviously the event brings lot of grief in the family, but at the same time it becomes a great opportunity for the Bramhin purohits to mint money.
In the Shradh ceremony a purohit has to be invited who would perform various spiritual rituals, like peforming pooja and and reading mantras in Sanskrit from some old books. In return he gets a hefty amount as dakshina(donation) along with other gifts.
In India there are around 9 million deaths per year. 80% of India follows Hinduism, hence each year 7.2 million Shradhs are performed across India. Even if a Purohit gets an average Rs 3000 per Shradh, that would mean that across the nation ,just by doing shradhs the purohits make around Rs 2,100 crore(Rs 2.1 billion) per year.
The reason given for doing this Shardh are also funny. The major reason given is that reading of this mantras in front of a fire would result in peace to the soul of the dead person and also if this ceremony is not performed then the soul of the dead won't find peace and then he/she may return as ghost and haunt others. Thousands of other absurd reasoning are given, one of them is - the family may have bad luck and they may be ruined.
In reality the priests are all upper caste Hindus. I have mentioned in my previous articles about the rigid caste system of India in the past. In earlier times even 120 years ago the Bramhins called the shots. Most of the nation was illiterate, as education was rigidly controlled by the Bramhins. Huge discrimination were made on the basis of caste. The Bramhins set the rules for the society to follow, if someone didn't follow the rules they made, harsh punishment was meted out to them.
All kinds of nonsense ceremonies were made for different occasions like marriages, thread ceremony, giving name to a child, shradh, starting a new business, harvesting crops etc. In each ceremony donation of money or gifts to the Bramhin priest was compulsory.
Non performance of this ceremonies would have lead to ostracization of the family from the society. Ostracization is still followed in some rural parts of India, such families even won't be able to buy essential goods from the village shops. No one back then dared to go against the societal norms. Hence generations after generations such practices got embedded into the culture of the country.
Cut back to the present times. Today people have no fear of being persecuted or ostracized if they don't perform shradh. But still majority of the people perform this nonsense rituals even now. In Hinduism the body of the deceased person is burnt and the ashes are thrown in river.
Today we live in an era where science has made tremendous progress. In present times it is possible to use parts of the body of a dead person for better purposes. If they eyes are removed within a couple of hours of death of an individual, it is possible to transplant those eyes to two blind people. They would be able to see again.
Depending on the age and health of the person who died if other parts of they body like liver, heart, kidneys etc can be useful to other patients who may die without the transplant of any of these organs. So immediately after the death of a person if useful organs are removed , preserved and transplanted to the needy; it can bring happiness to the lives of lots of people.
Even if the body is donated for medical research it would do more good than burying it or burning it up in fire. No such rituals are needed at all , shradh is just a stupid ancient practice that must end. It is nothing but a set of superstitions followed for thousands of years.
In the Shradh ceremony a purohit has to be invited who would perform various spiritual rituals, like peforming pooja and and reading mantras in Sanskrit from some old books. In return he gets a hefty amount as dakshina(donation) along with other gifts.
In India there are around 9 million deaths per year. 80% of India follows Hinduism, hence each year 7.2 million Shradhs are performed across India. Even if a Purohit gets an average Rs 3000 per Shradh, that would mean that across the nation ,just by doing shradhs the purohits make around Rs 2,100 crore(Rs 2.1 billion) per year.
The reason given for doing this Shardh are also funny. The major reason given is that reading of this mantras in front of a fire would result in peace to the soul of the dead person and also if this ceremony is not performed then the soul of the dead won't find peace and then he/she may return as ghost and haunt others. Thousands of other absurd reasoning are given, one of them is - the family may have bad luck and they may be ruined.
In reality the priests are all upper caste Hindus. I have mentioned in my previous articles about the rigid caste system of India in the past. In earlier times even 120 years ago the Bramhins called the shots. Most of the nation was illiterate, as education was rigidly controlled by the Bramhins. Huge discrimination were made on the basis of caste. The Bramhins set the rules for the society to follow, if someone didn't follow the rules they made, harsh punishment was meted out to them.
All kinds of nonsense ceremonies were made for different occasions like marriages, thread ceremony, giving name to a child, shradh, starting a new business, harvesting crops etc. In each ceremony donation of money or gifts to the Bramhin priest was compulsory.
Non performance of this ceremonies would have lead to ostracization of the family from the society. Ostracization is still followed in some rural parts of India, such families even won't be able to buy essential goods from the village shops. No one back then dared to go against the societal norms. Hence generations after generations such practices got embedded into the culture of the country.
Cut back to the present times. Today people have no fear of being persecuted or ostracized if they don't perform shradh. But still majority of the people perform this nonsense rituals even now. In Hinduism the body of the deceased person is burnt and the ashes are thrown in river.
Today we live in an era where science has made tremendous progress. In present times it is possible to use parts of the body of a dead person for better purposes. If they eyes are removed within a couple of hours of death of an individual, it is possible to transplant those eyes to two blind people. They would be able to see again.
Depending on the age and health of the person who died if other parts of they body like liver, heart, kidneys etc can be useful to other patients who may die without the transplant of any of these organs. So immediately after the death of a person if useful organs are removed , preserved and transplanted to the needy; it can bring happiness to the lives of lots of people.
Even if the body is donated for medical research it would do more good than burying it or burning it up in fire. No such rituals are needed at all , shradh is just a stupid ancient practice that must end. It is nothing but a set of superstitions followed for thousands of years.
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