Dead persons ashes waiting for liberation at Vaikunth crematorium

Payal Kale

Pune – Human relationships are complicated. It is not often that you want some people in relations. From that time, they try to ignore them. It seems many people have not been able to forgive their relatives even after death. After the funeral in Hindu religion, it is considered necessary to immerse the bones,ashes  of a dead person into the river. It is said that the soul will not get salvation without this ritual. However, in the Vaikunth crematorium in Navi Peth, Pune, many red clothes containing ashes, bones of dead persons are hanging for years as the relatives of dead persons have not bothered to collect them and immerse them in rivers. Thus the souls are still waiting for ‘liberation’.

In any caste or religion there is a big celebration or welcome of birth of one’s. Everyone have to take care of responsibilities, work, job, marriage life, and their relations at the same time in the lifelong. From birth till the death many situations comes up like happy as well as sad. Although we maintain our emotional balance and comes to the old age stage of life. In old age when a person is waiting for the peace, life starts searching for interpretations. 

In this century also there are peoples who are just facing negation, sadness and disappointment . Nowadays the problems of elderly people are increasing. In a city like Pune there is a huge growth in the number of single elderly people. So there is growth of old-age homes also. As the  values of land are increasing day by day the relations in families are going apart. Many of them are facing the emotional as well as physical persecution because of family disputes are coming up day by day. Nowadays The relations are balanced through business mind and this is becoming a new trend. 

If in someone’s  life there is only disappointments and negations in their destiny then they think after death they will get some relief but in Vaikunth crematorium the room where the bundles of bone-ashes are kept is showing the picture of insensitivity. How human relations can go to the worst level we can see in this example. For years, the bundles of bones of dead people are lying.  

Like we leave someone at a destination all alone. Same happened to those bones. They are preserved there in middle of their journey towards heaven or peace. Now all the bone-ashes are witnesses of each others sorrow. No one is ready to touch these bones. Some of them are lying four or five years. The name of the deceased has been written by sketch pen on the clothes. 

Hindu funeral rituals
• After the funeral the bone-ash is collected together. After collecting ashes they are bound in a red or white clothes. 
• Later ashes are released in the flow of river water. And after this the procedure is completed as per Hindu religion scriptures.

But in Vaikunth crematorium, the ashes are kept in a room from  many years as no one came to collect the ashes. The staffs at the crematorium are also surprised.  How can people be so merciless? They don’t have time to immerse the bone-ashes of their own people who were very close to them once. This is so sad. 

The staffs said that they wait for years and when no one comes, they immerse the ashes themselves.  There is no option for them other than this, said an employee.