DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.636#0289
Death, Funeral Rites, and Ancestor-worship. 277
trial gross body which has just been destroyed by fire, and
the new terrestrial body which it is compelled ultimately to
assume. The creation bf such an intervenient frame—com-
posed of gross elements, though less gross than those of
earth—becomes necessary, because the individualized spirit
of man, after cremation of the terrestrial body, has nothing
left to withhold it from re-absorption into the universal soul,
except its incombustible subtle body, which, as composed
of the subtle elements, is not only proof against the fire
of the funeral pile, but is incapable of any sensations in
the temporary heaven or temporary hell, through one or
other of which every separate human spirit is forced to pass
before returning to earth and becoming reinvested with a
terrestrial gross body.
Were it not for this intermediate frame—believed to be
created by the offerings made during the funeral ceremonies
—the spirit would remain with its subtle body in the con-
dition of an impure and unquiet ghost (preta) wandering
about on the earth or in the air among demons and evil
spirits, and condemned itself to become an evil spirit1. Its
reception of the intervenient body converts it from a Preta
or ghost into a Pitri or ancestor; but this does not satisfy
all its needs. The new body it has received, though not
so gross as that of earth, must be developed and sup-
ported. It must, if possible, be rescued from the fire of
purgatory. It must be assisted onwards in its course
from lower to higher worlds and back again to earth.
And these results can only be accomplished by the cere-
monies called Sraddha— ceremonies which may in some
1 It is curious that the Hindu notion of the restless state of the soul
until the Sraddha is performed agrees with the ancient classical super-
stition that the ghosts of the dead wandered about as long as their
bodies remained unburied, and were not suffered to mingle with those
of the other dead. See Od. xi. 54; II. xxiii. 72 ; and cf. /En. vi. 325 ;
Lucan, i, ii; Eur. Hec. 30.
trial gross body which has just been destroyed by fire, and
the new terrestrial body which it is compelled ultimately to
assume. The creation bf such an intervenient frame—com-
posed of gross elements, though less gross than those of
earth—becomes necessary, because the individualized spirit
of man, after cremation of the terrestrial body, has nothing
left to withhold it from re-absorption into the universal soul,
except its incombustible subtle body, which, as composed
of the subtle elements, is not only proof against the fire
of the funeral pile, but is incapable of any sensations in
the temporary heaven or temporary hell, through one or
other of which every separate human spirit is forced to pass
before returning to earth and becoming reinvested with a
terrestrial gross body.
Were it not for this intermediate frame—believed to be
created by the offerings made during the funeral ceremonies
—the spirit would remain with its subtle body in the con-
dition of an impure and unquiet ghost (preta) wandering
about on the earth or in the air among demons and evil
spirits, and condemned itself to become an evil spirit1. Its
reception of the intervenient body converts it from a Preta
or ghost into a Pitri or ancestor; but this does not satisfy
all its needs. The new body it has received, though not
so gross as that of earth, must be developed and sup-
ported. It must, if possible, be rescued from the fire of
purgatory. It must be assisted onwards in its course
from lower to higher worlds and back again to earth.
And these results can only be accomplished by the cere-
monies called Sraddha— ceremonies which may in some
1 It is curious that the Hindu notion of the restless state of the soul
until the Sraddha is performed agrees with the ancient classical super-
stition that the ghosts of the dead wandered about as long as their
bodies remained unburied, and were not suffered to mingle with those
of the other dead. See Od. xi. 54; II. xxiii. 72 ; and cf. /En. vi. 325 ;
Lucan, i, ii; Eur. Hec. 30.