‘Such is the close affinity between Hinduism and Sikhism that many Hindu families engage Sikh priests, instead of Hindu persists for the entire duration of the ceremony. The Sikh priests read from their holy text, the Granth Sahib, recite poems from Hindu religious texts, preach sermons from the Puranas, sing a varitey of devotional songs of Kabir, Mirabai, Surdas, and even of the well known Muslim sufis such as Shaikh Nizam ud-din Auliya of the famous Christi order of the sufis, which still continues to exercise a strong hold in parts of North India.’
Hindu funerals in Britain, and by extension in Australia, ‘…look rather like a Christian Funeral. On the day of the funeral, the undertakes – unsuitably dressed in black, in sharp contrast with the bereaved who are all dressed in white – bring the body into the crematorium in a closed coffin…Hindus carry their dead in a bier -not a closed coffin. It is quite inappropriate but nevertheless common for undertakers to deprive the rest of the mourners of the devoutly wished for opportunity of becoming pall bearers and thereby acquiring virtue, A vital act of virtue, so easily fulfilled, is as easily frustrated. If the use of a coffin is unavoidable, one might wish to suggest that funeral directors explore the feasibility of re-designing coffins which might be in keeping with Hindu customs and traditions….’
Colin Parkes, Pittu Laungani and Bill Young, Death and Bereavement Across Cultures (2ed, 2015) Routledge Taylor & Francis at [45] and [55].
