As a Hindu, we believe that a person’s body is temporary. It’s simply a vessel to carry their athma, or their eternal soul. Your soul stays consistent but comes back in different forms in different lifetimes but the goal is to escape samsara, the cycle of death and rebirth, and achieve moksha. Your actions and words is what will dictate whether you are reborn again, and in what form, or whether you are liberated from the cycle and achieve moksha. This ties in to how Hindu funerals are conducted as well as the grieving process. In Hinduism, the body is cremated and then ashes are spread at a sacred body of water or some other place of importance to the person who passed. At the funeral, you wear white, there are prayers conducted asking for liberation of the person’s soul and acceptance of them. You wear white. You share memories. And you pray.
My Friend’s Parents
As a kid, I would go to India with my parents and we’d be dragged to random people’s houses for chai and a quick visit. Sometimes it would be family members, but from time to time, my parents would go visit the parents of their friends. I never really understood why–they weren’t necessarily close with their friends’ parents, why go visit them? I’m finally understanding why.
My Advice to Parents
A lot of my friends are married and having babies. A lot. How many you ask? Enough that I can tell you about breastfeeding and tongue ties and different sleep training methods and feeding techniques as well as personal parenting styles and bedtime routines. I can change a diaper, I can carry a kid with one hand (leaving the other one free for having a drink), I’m perfecting my raspberries, and I genuinely believe that having a baby/kid fall asleep in your arms or on your chest is one of the best feelings in the world.