AS THE CRISIS INCREASES, CREMATIONS INCREASES, TOO

USA: IN TOUGH TIMES, A BOOM IN
CREMATIONS AS A WAY TO SAVE MONEY

New York - As Toni Kelly battled lymphoma she worried obsessively that her four-year struggle would destroy her family’s finances. She knew that after she died, which she did on Sept. 29, there was one way she could keep from adding to the $200,000 in medical debt she would leave behind. Like a growing proportion of Americans, she said she wanted her body to be cremated.  All but taboo in the United States 50 years ago, cremation is now chosen over burial in 41 % of American deaths, up from 15 % in 1985, according to the Cremation Association of North America. The association projects it will pass 50 % by 2017 (still lagging behind Canada and much of Europe and Asia). Economics is clearly one of the factors driving that change.

The percentage of bodies that are cremated has risen steadily for years, for reasons ranging from spiritual to environmental. But a recent study shows that the increase has accelerated during the downturn, and many funeral home directors say they believe the economy is leading people to look for less expensive options.  The disposition of Ms. Kelly’s remains cost about $1,600, and that total included a death notice, a death certificate and an urn bought online. It was a fraction of the $10,000 to $16,000 that is typically spent on a traditional funeral and burial.  Most mainstream religions have relaxed objections to cremation, which were tied to biblically based views of the body as a vessel for the soul and of a heaven populated by human forms.

“America is becoming Hinduized in this way,” says Stephen Prothero, a professor of religion at Boston University and the author of “Purified by Fire: A History of Cremation in America.” “We’re increasingly seeing the human as essentially spiritual and gradually giving up on the Judeo-Christian idea of the person in the afterlife.”  Because of ignorance about life after death, man laments for the dead body and wants to preserve it; nevertheless it is recommended to burn the lifeless body.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

Apparently the queens continued lamenting for the dead body, the lump of matter, and would not allow it to be taken away for burning. This illustrates the strong grip of illusion among foolish persons who consider the body the self. ... Because of ignorance only, the queens thought of the dead body as their husband and somehow or other thought that if the body were kept their husband would remain with them. ... Thus the bodily concept of life is extremely strong among foolish persons, who are compared to cows and asses. Nowadays, great scientists are trying to freeze dead bodies so that in the future these frozen bodies may again be brought to life.

Śrīla A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda :
Śrīmad Bhāgavatam - Canto 7: The Science of God  
Chapter 2: Hiranyakaśipu, King of the Demons
Verse 35 - Bhaktivedanta VedaBase