In The Theosophist magazine, June
1883, a reader wrote the following letter:
« To the writer of the “Occult Fragments.”
Dear Sir And Brother,
In your article on “Devachan” you have explained at length the enjoyment
that the Spiritual Ego in combination with the higher essence of the fifth
principle, feels in a sort of rosy sleep extending over an enormous period.
The Ego that takes its birth in Devachan, after the period of gestation,
is unconscious of what passes here on earth to which it cannot be attracted. It
is only the shell formed of the fourth and the lower remnant of the fifth
principle that remains wandering in Kama-Loka, and it is this reliquiae that
often makes its appearance under certain conditions in the Séance room of the
Spiritualist.
All this has been clearly taught in the “Fragments” which will help to
dispel many a doubt. The information however that could be gathered from the
“Fragments” does not explain how far the shell made up of the 4th and lower 5th
is conscious of its past existence, and whether it consciously suffers for its
past misdeeds in any shape.
To the Hindus and Parsees again it is of the highest importance to know
whether any obsequial ceremonies are of any the least benefit to this shell or to
the Ego resting in Devachan.
Enlightened reason rejects the idea that the blundering ceremonial acts
performed mechanically could be of any avail to the disembodied portion of man,
and yet the Parsees and the Hindus have to spend large sums of money from year
to year to allay a superstitious dread lest they might unconsciously do injury
to the departed soul.
The funeral ceremonies are a real curse to the Parsee, and the middle
classes are ground down by needless expenses which lie heavy upon them. Their
civilization has been greatly retarded by this crushing superstition. It will
therefore be no small boon to learn the opinion of the Occultists as to how far
men on earth can if at all—benefit the four remaining principles of a deceased
person.
At page 179 of the 4th volume of The Theosophist Mr. Chidambaram Iyer
quotes a Shastra which says that “he who omits to perform Sraddha on the
anniversary of the day of death will be born a chandala a crore of times.”
This is evidently the writing of an uninitiated priest† who scarcely
knew anything about the true doctrine of rebirths. But sentences like these
sway the populace, and thoughtful persons for want of a correct knowledge of
the occult teaching on this point are themselves troubled with doubts.
This subject very conveniently falls in with the subject of “Devachan”
and the promised article on “Avitchi,” and I sincerely trust you will be good
enough to enlarge upon this point as it is of the highest moment to the Asiatic
races to know what their funeral ceremonies are really worth.
Yours fraternally,
“N. D. K.,” F.T.S. »
Below that letter, Blavatsky responded as follows:
« The writer of the “Fragments” having gone to England,
some time has to elapse of course before he can answer the questions. Until
then as a student of the same school we may, perhaps, be permitted to say a few
words upon the subject.
In every country, as among all the peoples of the world from the
beginning of history, we see that some kind of burial is performed — but that
very few among the so-called savage primitive races had or have any funeral
rites or ceremonies.
The well-meaning tenderness felt by us for the dead bodies of those whom
we loved or respected, may have suggested, apart from the expression of natural
grief, some additional marks of family respect for them who have left us
forever.
But rites and ceremonies as prescribed by our respective Churches and
their theologians, are an afterthought of the priest, an outgrowth of
theological and clerical ambition, seeking to impress upon the laity a
superstition, a well-paying awe and dread of a punishment of which the priest
himself knows nothing beyond mere speculative and often very illogical
hypotheses.
The Brahmin, the Mobed, the Augur, the Rabbi, the Moolah and the Priest,
impressed with the fact that their physical welfare depended far more upon his
parishioners, whether dead or alive, than the spiritual welfare of the latter
on his alleged mediatorship between men and God, found the device expedient and
good, and ever since worked on this line.
Funeral rites have originated among the theocratically governed nations,
such as the ancient Egyptians, Aryans, and Jews. Interwoven with, and
consecrated by the ceremonies of theology, these rites have been adopted by the
respective religions of nearly all the nations, and are preserved by them to
this day; for while religions differ considerably among themselves, the rites
often surviving the people as the religion to which they owed their origin have
passed from one people to another.
Thus, for instance, the threefold sprinkling with earth with which the
Christian is consigned to the tomb, is handed down to the Westerners from the
Pagan Greeks, and Romans; and modern Parseeism owes a considerable portion of
its prescribed funeral rites, we believe, to the Hindus, much in their present
mode of worship being due to the grafts of Hinduism.
Abraham and other Patriarchs were buried without any rites, and even in
Leviticus (chap. xix, 28) the Israelites are forbidden to “make any cuttings in
your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks” upon themselves.
In the same manner the oldest Zoroastrian books, the old and the new
Desatir, with the exception of a few acts of charity (to the poor, not to the
Mobeds) and the reading of sacred books, prescribe no special ceremonies. We
find in the Book of the Prophet Abad (Desatir) simply the following:
-
“154. A corpse you may place in a vase of aqua fortis,
or consign it to the fire, or to the earth, (when cleansed of its Nasâ or dead
matter).”
And again:
-
“At the birth of a child or the death of a relative,
read the Nosk, and give something in the road of Mazdam (for Ormuzd's sake, or
in charity).”
That's all, and nowhere will one find in the oldest books the injunction
of the ceremonies now in use, least of all that of spending large sums of money
which often entails ruin upon the survivors.
Nor, from the occult standpoint, do such rites benefit in the least the
departed soul. The correct comprehension of the law of Karma is entirely
opposed to the idea.
As no person's karma can be either lightened or overburdened with the
good or bad actions of the next of kin of the departed one, every man having
his karma independent and distinct from that of his neighbour—no more can the
departed soul be made responsible for the doings of those it left behind. As
some make the credulous believe that the four principles may be made to suffer
from colics, if the survivors ate immoderately of some fruit.
Zoroastrianism and Hinduism have wise laws — far wiser than those of the
Christians — for the disposal of their dead, but their superstitions are still
very great. For while the idea that the presence of the dead brings pollution
to the living is no better than a superstition, unworthy of the enlightened age
we live in, the real cause of the religious prohibition to handle too closely
the dead and to bury them without first subjecting the bodies to the
disinfectant process of either fire, vultures or aqua fortis (the latter the
prevailing method of the Parsees in days of old) was as beneficent in its
results as it was wise, since it was the best and most necessary sanitary
precaution against epidemics.
The Christians might do worse than borrow that law from the “Pagans,”
since no further than a few years back, a whole province of Russia was nearly
depopulated, in consequence of the crowded condition of its burial ground.
Too numerous interments within a limited space and a comparatively short
time saturate the earth with the products of decomposition to such a degree, as
to make it incapable of further absorbing them, and the decomposition under
such a condition being retarded its products escape directly into the
atmosphere, bringing on epidemic diseases and plagues.
“Let the dead bury their dead” — were wise words, though to this day no
theologian seems to have understood their real and profound meaning. There were
no funeral rites or ceremonies at the death of either Zoroaster, Moses, or
Buddha, beyond the simple putting out of the way of the living the corpses of
them who had gone before.
Though neither the Dabistan nor the Desatir can, strictly speaking, be
included in the number of orthodox Parsee books — the contents of both of these
if not the works themselves anteceding by several millenniums the ordinances in
the Avesta as we have now good reasons to know — we yet find the first command
repudiated but the second corroborated in the latter.
In Fargard VIII, 74(233) of the Vendidad, Ahura Mazda's command:
-
“They shall kill the man that cooks the Nasâ,” etc.,
is thus commented upon: “He who burns Nasâ [dead matter] must be killed.
Burning or cooking Nasâ from the dead is a capital crime,” for: “Thereupon came
Angra-Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created a sin for which there is
no atonement, the [immediate] cooking of corpses.”
Ahriman being man's own ignorance and selfishness.
But as regards the rites observed after the funeral of the corpse, we
find no more than this — a repetition of the injunction given in the Book of
Abad (Desatir), “An Âthravan shall first go along the way and shall say aloud
these victorious words: 'Yathâ ahû vairyô' — The will of the Lord is the law of
righteousness. The gifts of Vohu-Manô [paradise; Vohu-Manô or Good Thought
being the doorkeeper of heaven — see Farg. XIX, 31] to the deeds done in this
world for Mazda. He who relieves the poor makes Ahura king.”
Thus while abrogating the Fersendajian usage of burning the dead among
the devotees of Mah-Abad, Zerdusht the 13th (of the Persian prophets), who
introduces many improvements and reforms, commands yet no other rites than
charity. »
(The Theosophist, Vol. IV, No. 9, June, 1883, p.221-222;
Collected Writings 4, p.504-508)
OBSERVATIONS
There are certain rituals that
were established in religions, by true initiates, to help the soul in its
encounter with death. But unfortunately, over time, these rituals have been
altered, and mercantilism has also led to the creation of new rituals that only
serve to get money from believers.
For example, in Christianity, the
sacrament of the anointing, yes, it serves, but not to free the dying man from
his sins as he has subsequently ensured, but to help the soul to be able to
make that transition from separating from his physical body with greater ease.
On the other hand, all the
paraphernalia that has been invented later, with the embalming of the body,
makeup, decorating it, putting it inside a coffin and burying it in a cemetery.
Not only does it not serve, but on the contrary, it is detrimental to society
because of the heavy expenses that it implies, plus the physical and vibratory
contamination that the corpse produces.
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