Fighting over the dead!

By Dr Upul Wijayawardhana

I wonder where we wander once shuffle off this mortal coil. Maybe nowhere. The only certainty is that we have no say, at all, over what is left behind; leaving it to relations or friends and, if there aren’t any, for the state to get rid of the decomposing body before it starts to stink. Some may leave specific instructions, even stipulate in the last-will, as to how the remains should be disposed of but there is no guarantee and there is absolutely no way of checking! Well, looking at it from a different perspective, perhaps more positive, one can die in the knowledge that it is a problem for others! But it is difficult to die in complete peace as disposal sometimes arouses controversy, as has happened recently. Though this is about the disposal, in my working life I have seen relatives fighting over the ‘ownership’ of a dead body and have had to mediate sometimes. Who said death is peaceful?

What is done, or wished to be done, after death, is dictated mostly by views held regarding what happens after death. When we have a problem, we often turn to science for answers but, unfortunately, in this instance science cannot provide a positive answer. All that science can tell us is that there is no proof for the existence of an afterlife. It can easily be argued that science is a continuing process of discovery and afterlife is one of those things yet to be discovered. Rationalists may disagree with this but it is not easy to counter this argument. Therefore, the best option may be to keep an open mind.

At times, I have wondered whether, when the Buddha referred to Nirvana, what He meant was that there is nothing beyond. If that is the case, rebirth would refer to being reborn every second of one’s life, perhaps with improvements, but not to any births after death. For the human mind, driven by the never-ending attachment to one’s own self and the craving for something better next, the concept of nothing beyond is alien and maybe that is why Nirvana is so difficult to attain. It is a thought, which I am sure many experts in Buddhism would condemn me for.

Before the various sciences were born, it was religion that gave answers to questions and when we cannot find answers, even now, instinctively we turn to religion. Unfortunately, there is a lot in religion that could be questioned because religions depend more on belief and dogma than proven facts, the views on the afterlife being the best example.

Some religions believe in resurrection. For one to be resurrected one has to be buried intact as resurrection from ashes is, of course, an impossibility. However, those who believe in this fail to realise that the buried body does not remain stable for resurrection but it decays. Another question: “Does one want to be resurrected as a grey-haired, wrinkled, toothless individual or one in the prime of youth?” The super-rich, with the help of some scientists, have started their own version of resurrection, freezing their bodies and keeping in store till medicine advances enough for them to be thawed! Would a body, sans mind, wake up? Worse still, would one be waking up with the mind of someone else!

Reincarnation also faces the same questions as resurrection, rebirth being the only concept that faces the least number of problems. In rebirth the body after death does not come into the picture, the only thing transferred being the mind ‘Chuti Citta’. If anything is there after death, perhaps this is it.

For those who believe in resurrection, burial is the preferred mode of disposal of the dead but, interestingly and increasingly, many Christians are opting for cremation. Judaism considers cremation to be an implied statement of rejection of the concept of resurrection but some born to that religion, too, opt for cremation even though their ashes may not be allowed to be buried in a Jewish cemetery. Most resistant to cremation are those following Islam and this has become a big problem during the current Covid-19 pandemic in Sri Lanka.

I am no authority to go into the scientific aspects of this debate but as an ardent admirer of the Buddha and His philosophy, I am saddened and shocked by the behaviour of some Buddhist monks regarding this issue. The Buddha spread tolerance towards other religions and other views and expected His followers to show due respect to other religions. In this situation, Buddhist priests shouting out against burials, rather than allowing scientists and experts to decide what is suited to conditions in our country, is abhorrent, to say the least. The demand that all funeral rites be performed, regardless of health concerns, is equally foolish.

We are facing a pandemic, which is far from over. Though there seems some light at the end of the tunnel due to many vaccines reportedly proving efficacious, no one can predict when this nightmare would end. Super natural forces, some of us believe in, have not been able to put a stop to this epidemic. Whatever it may be, it has become a problem for us humans to get together and solve. Though things appear to be pretty bad in Sri Lanka, from a global perspective what is happening is very mild. In Sri Lanka deaths average around four or five a day, even in this worst part of the epidemic, but in the UK, which has a population thrice that of Sri Lanka, the average this week is around 600 a day! Those who shout that Sri Lanka is failing in its efforts to control the epidemic should take these facts into consideration.

If experts do decide that cremation is the safer option, let all Sri Lankans accept this for the sake of survival in an unprecedent epidemic. Perhaps, the government should bear the cost of cremations of all who, unfortunately, succumb to the invisible enemy, Covid-19; cremating all similarly in simple but safe coffins. This will show, at last, that we are all equal in one thing—death!