Fundamentals of Indian Culture: Ancient Traditions Explained

                                                            Pilgrimage :      Tirthayatra   Pilgrimage to holy places is a practice common to all religions. Followers of every religion look upon certain places specially sacred and they cherish the desire to visit those places at least once in their life. Jerusalem is sacred to both, the Jews and Christian. A devout Christians finds his love for Christ greatly deepened , as all incidents in the life of Christ come alive to him when he visits Jerusalem . Similarly Macca and Madina, two places where prophet Mohammed spent major part of   his life, are sacred to Muslims. It has been laid down in the holy Koran that every Muslim must perform Haj-pilgrimage to Mecca and Madina atleast once in his life. Buddhists from all over the world visit Gaya , Sarnath, Kushinagar and Lumbini. When a Buddhist   goes to Gaya and looks at the sacred, peepal   tree under which Siddharth Gautam attained bodhi   i.e.enlightenment, hence he is called th

ANTYESHTI – The Funeral Rites The last sacrament of the Hindus is Antyeshti or the funeral rites. Like the phenomenon of death, rites and customs connected with the disposal of the dead body are also universal. Man consciously realizes that death is an inevitable end of every human being. As such it is but natural that every actual occurrence of death should provide an occasion for the living to react to this fact by appropriate behavior. After death, a sentiment of dread is created in the survivors. There is a belief that even the deceased continues to have some kind of interest in the family property and relatives whom he is unwilling to quit. It is also believed that although after death the man is alienated from the survivors, he may cause some harm to them. In the formal farewell given to him he is requested to depart and is provided with all the articles considered necessary for a traveler, so that he could complete his journey comfortably to the next world. As the P