What is death?
As per medical science when individual's body is not able to perform certain basic functions than the individual is declared medically dead. In Hinduism, it's not so. When I declare something, it's purely my assumption based on my knowledge or exposure, but l can be wrong at some point of time. As per the taitriya upnishad, the existence of life is defined in 5 different layers. So when the doctor declare individual dead that means the Panch Pranas starts depleting from Pranamaya kosha leaving behind Anna kosha ( physical body) as a heap of five elements ( air,fire, water, Earth and ether).
Reaction of energy body
When death happens, it's for us that particular individual is no more among us. But for that individual, the whole scene is like as if he has slipped off out of the body. This is really confusing and matter of surprise for him and it has never happened before. He has no such information in his Manomaya kosha. In his entire life he ( the energy body, atma) identified himself as body. And now he is seeing his body lying apart. So ancient Indian culture has emphasized over the knowledge of understanding the true self.
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Should the energy body allowed to re-enter the dead body.
In Hindu culture death rituals does not mean only cremation of the body. By somehow ( by natural death, accidentally death), the energy body gets slipped out of the body. It will try to regain the body. The energy body has certain intelligence because it's Pranamaya kosha and Manomaya kosha are still intact. This energy body has ability to sense the prana in the body. It takes around 14 days for Panch prana to leave body completely. So the Atma ( energy Body) will hover around the body and keep attempting to enter in the body. So when the death happens and the body is declared dead , the body should be cremated within 3-5 hours. Keeping it more duration is not advisable. It's not good for the people and the individual who has died.
North-south alignment
The first thing to be done with the dead body is to put it in North-South direction. Head towards north direction and legs towards south. when it is in North-south alignment, Atma will have some difficulty in approaching the body. A certain partition is imposed.
Importance of Muladhar chakra
Second most important thing is to tie the toes of both feet together so that the muladhar Chakra area gets intact completely. Reason being, when prana starts leaving the body the Saman Vayu remains active in muladhar Chakra for bit longer period. Having this knowledge energy Body will try to to get into the body from this area.
Washing body with water
The dead body should be cleaned through running water. This we do because it will help the residual prana vayu to leave body quickly and easily. Once the prana vayu leaves the body completely, then various activities and processes related to thoughts come to halt. This can be noticed even when we are alive. When we take shower, our thought activities comes down suddenly. This is called jal shudhi.
Cover the Body with white clothe
The dead body should be covered with white colour. The property of white colour is to reflect all the light which falling on it. Now a days people have started using colourful clothes. In some places they cover the body with black colour. That is not good at all. Because black colour absorb whole lot of heat and light. This will initiate decay of the body and production of microorganisms at much higher rate.
Don't touch and sleep near the dead body
No one should sleep near the dead body because when we are sleeping we are not in our control. Our body becomes feeble. So there are chances of miss happening with our body. Secondly touching, hugging the dead body should be avoided. Most of the natural deaths happen due to some disease or infection. After death, the fighting force of body is no more available. Prevailing disease or infection will be increased manifolds. Therfore touching and hugging the dead body will led to spreading of the infection. That's why Hindu culture emphasize on cremation of dead body without unnecessary delay.
Don't cook and eat where death has happened
In Hinduism, it has been emphasized that one should not cook and eat at the place of death. That's why no food is being cooked at the house where death has happened. . As per the ancient scriptures, the atma is intact with prana and memory. It has senses. It will get attracted towards the smell and a certain amount of energy get mixed with the food being cooked in the house. This is not good for the the people who eat that food.
Shaving off the heads
In Hinduism, there is a ritual of shaving off the heads of individuals who belongs to next generations of the dead person. There is a scientific reason behind it. The Atma is a energy body. After death, this atma will try to interact with close relatives. As we all know that the hairs are the most conductive part of our body. Due to continuous interactions, some part of the energy body get induced on our hairs. This will create problem to the living ones.
Distribute or destroy the belongings of the dead individual
The belongings and clothes of the person who has died should not be kept at house. They should be burned as soon as possible. Ornament and costly things of the individual should be distributed among many people. It should not be given to single person. It should be done within 2-3 day of death. It will confuse the energy body and it will not hold position in the house.
Spread the ashes in large area
Again after cremation the ashes of the dead body should not be left at the place of cremation. The energy body has memory of Vyan vayu that would last for 14 day. Thinking this, the energy body will hover around the ashes. In order to confuse it, the ashes of the dead body should be spreaded in a larger area.
As per the Hindu culture, carrying out all these retuals will help the energy body to detach itself from the dead body and take its own path for next birth.
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