Death and the Ashes: A Lesson from the Smashan

Death and the Ashes: A Lesson from the Smashan

Last week, I witnessed my close relative’s wife passed away.

And as part of the final rites, I found myself walking into a smashan, the cremation ground.

A person Once Loved,

We givien names to it.

We create memories with it.

We call them mother, father, sister, wife.

We cry with them. Laugh with them.

We fear losing them.

But when life leaves the body... it is no longer who you thought it was.

The Fire Tells the Truth

The body was laid upon the wooden pyre.

Rituals were performed.

And then fired it.

Within hours, everything we once associated with that person… was gone.

The body turned to ashes. A few bones remained.

Some of these were taken for immersion in the river.

The rest of the ashes were poured near a plant.

That’s it.

All those years of living… condensed into dust in air.

Watching this, a question hit me

Who am I?

This body I obsess over…

This image I protect in society…

These relationships I cling to so tightly…

If all of this will end in a pile of ashes

What truly is?

The Smashan and the society

In our tradition, the smashan is not just a funeral ground.

It is sacred.

It is where Maa Kali resides.

Because Kali is truth.

And the smashan is the mirror of that truth.

No ego survives here.

No title, no pride,no mask.

Just hard reality.

On the other side, we have society Kalipurush’s playground.

Here, only Maya runs

We get caught up in roles, illusions, expectations, fears.

But step into the smashan,the Maya crumbles.

Maa Kali doesn’t ask you to renounce the world.

She asks you to see through it.

In the end, all we leave is ashes 451 - vibhutih

Jai Maa Adya MahaKaali

Shri gurubhyo namaha

*Sharan kumar