The final destination!

Nigambodh Ghat is indeed a great leveler and the real final destination. Its holy pyres do not differentiate between the men in power and those shorn of it, super rich and the super poor, brahmin and the shudra, male and female. A visit to its premises therefore does much to cleanse the heart and the brain of thoughts that are not in conformity with the fundamental tenets of humanity, even if only momentarily.  

“Ram naam satya hai, satya hi mukti hain” is always repeated by the men carrying the body for its last rites. The premises of the ghat also reverberate with the sounds of these words. Satya means truth and Ram is the name of the divine hindu god, yet I wonder why this saying is reserved only for the last journey? Is truth not an important and essential pillar during the journey of life itself? Why many of us who generally err on the side of falsity throughout our lives, repeat these words that underline the importance of truth only when one of our close ones leaves for his heavenly abode?

Watching a pyre in full flames is also an exhilarating experience. The final destination of each and every single one of us, the funeral pyre obliterates the very existence of people who considered the world of themselves and for whom till then death was something that happened to others. A view of the pyre has the capacity to bring down to earth even those who regard earthly pleasures as the ultimate goal of life and so it does to me. Power, position and wealth ceases to matter at that very moment and for the next couple of hours till the materialistic world takes over.

Yet life has to go on and so it does.

Amen!