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Radio 4,2 mins

Thought for the day - 27/09/2013 - Akhandadhi Das - A Vaishnav Hindu Teacher and Theologian

Thought for the Day

Available for over a year

Good morning. This is the third and final day of national mourning for those who died in the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi. A nation's period of mourning is necessarily limited, - a symbolic recognition that the personal grief of those who lost loved-ones will continue for a long time. Kenya is home to a significant Hindu community and many of them will be conscious that this period of mourning has coincided with pitr-paksha - an annual fortnight of ceremonies in which they hold in their memory all those who have departed. Certain days within the fortnight focus on commemorating those close to us who have died recently, but Hindus are also encouraged to remember our forebears for at least three generations back. The Hindu tradition is that we should express gratitude to them for making us who we are. And we can try to repay our debt by performing charity in their name, so that some of the credit ripples back up the genealogical line to be shared with those who came before us. Depending on the quality of our character and actions, that effect is said potentially to reach to twenty-one generations before us. That, according to the teachings of several Hindus texts such as the Garuda Purana, is of significant benefit to the earlier members of our family tree, because we believe they live on - and, not just within our memories. Hindus believe in reincarnation - specifically, reincarnation as transmigration of the soul. The body is the material vehicle for the spirit soul - or atma. When the atma departs from its current body at the time of death, it transmigrates in due course into another to begin a fresh phase of existence...

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