As per ‘Logakshi Grah Sutra’ (Shastra) of Kashmir, we have been entrusted 24 Sanskars to follow from our birth till death. Kashmiri Hindus are performing all these 24 Sanskars with full religious belief, as these Sanskars are regarded very essential for our human life as per religious scriptures.
This time I am not going to elaborate these 24 sanskars which are very important for as per our Dharma. However I usually explain all these at the time of Mekhal/Yagopaveet Sanskar. But I will try to make you understand briefly. The first Sanskar is ‘Garbadaan’, it happens when the foetus starts to developing in the mother’s womb. And the last Sanskar is Antim Sanskar which happens when the pious soul leaves human body for final journey i.e., Pitra Lok.
Our all religious and holy scriptures including Vedas, Upanishads, Purans and Shastras have shown us the path, by which we can perform all these 24 Sanskars, with religious sanctity, including the last rites (Antim Sanskar) of the human body from where the Pious Soul departed for Vaikunthdaam.
We are doing this ritual pooja Padati (Anteshti) for past thousands of years as per our Kashmiri religious sanctity. But after migration from Kashmir, we have faced a lot of issues and problems in this regard in order to perform Kashmiri pooja Vidhi / Antim Sanskar Vidhi as per Kashmiri sanctity and our satisfaction. Somehow, we have been managing this from last 30 years with great difficulties. In future also we may manage to keep all our Pooja Vidhies intact.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, whole world remained under lockdown. We had to postpone all Dev Kriyas, but birth and death is not in our hands. It goes on as per God’s wish, and will continue in future as well. During lockdown our number of KP brothers and sisters breathed their last. I too got many calls in this regard from their respective family members to perform last rites. But it was not possible to visit any place due to Lockdown and coronavirus threat.
So, in these emergency cases, people wanted to know, what they can do themselves during this period. How they can perform the Pooja? I guided many people on audio as well as video call.
But this is not the end of our miseries. Situation is very grim and new for all of us. To handle the situation, I consulted many learned and elderly Gurujis and books. Finally, I came to this conclusion that this funeral pooja, which is one of the 24th sanskars (Puran Ahoti) for the body of the departed soul, is very important to be performed as per religious sanctity/Vidhi.
As I already mentioned that I guided many families to do the pooja of Antim sanskar through video call. I was quite satisfied after the pooja, especially when the pooja vidhi finished with the Arti.
Now the question was about the 10th day, 11th day and 12th day. In this regard, I suggested 10th day is very important because we offer a new body to the departed soul. Otherwise the departed soul will remain in disturbance. It is equally important to perform 11th and 12th day, but because of lock down it was not possible immediately. So, I suggested them to perform the puja on any Pachvar or Masvar which is quite possible as per Vidhi/religious sanctity, but before Shadmos.
In the situation of coronavirus, I personally experienced if Antim Sanskar can be done through video call by which we can serve entire Kashmiri Hindu world. At some places, Gurujis are available but not everywhere who can perform pooja as per our Vidhi. Sometimes there are emergency situations, e.g., at the time of death, sometimes Gurujis are not available or some Gurujis put forth conditions to perform the last rites. Keeping in view the above conditions, I have personal suggestion in this regard that last rites (Antim Sanskar) should be done through video call. We should continue this practice in the future also after the coronavirus pandemic subsides.
To start the process of last rites pooja (Antim Sanskar) through video call, I have trained few Gurujis too. We all will be available online for the benefit of our Kashmiri Hindu community.
It is a proposal and I would like any valuable suggestions from our own brethren. Please suggest for the benefit of our community which is on verge of losing its methodology.
