When I want to feel good about charitable giving in South Asia, I look to ordinary people, not the super rich. Despite religious and cultural taboos against organ donation, there is one town in India where tens of thousands of people have pledged to donate their eyes when they pass away. And it’s not just talk, the people of Neemuch in Madhya Pradesh have already given sight to 3,000 others across India.
This large scale kindness to strangers started out in a more modest and typically desi way, with a gift of a cornea within a family:
Neemuch’s reputation as the town of eye donors began some three decades back when a venerable local politician Shyammukh Garg pledged his eyes before passing away at the age of 55. Mr Garg had pledged his eyes for a simple reason: his grandson had lost his vision after his birth, and he was keen that the little boy should try regaining his sight with his grandfather’s corneas… his grandson … received his grandfather’s eyes and got his vision back.
Inspired by Mr Garg, all his family members donated their eyes. [Link]
Where this story becomes unusual is that this tradition went beyond the family, and prevailed over superstition to become a local tradition:
The Garg family persuaded a local club to push a campaign for eye donation – newspapers, billboards, door-to-door visits – were used to extol its virtues.It was not an easy mission. There were religious taboos to counter, including one that held that an eye donor is born blind in his next birth. The club members were also attacked by family members when they turned up at homes where somebody had died with a plea to donate the deceased person’s eyes.
But people soon began converting to the good cause – so much so that even the police began allowing removal of eyes before post mortems were conducted on people who had died unnatural deaths. [Link]
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p>Lastly, they surmounted technical obstacles. In the beginning, many donated corneas were going to waste because they had to be transported on dry ice to a hospital 160 miles away and would not be usable upon arrival.
It was then that a local philanthropist, GD Agarwal, stepped in and launched an eye hospital in 1992. Besides corneal transplant, the hospital has facilities for cataract, retinal detachment and glaucoma surgery – so far it has performed over 6,000 surgeries of which nearly 4,000 were free of cost. [Link]
I hope that someday the Mittals and Premjis and Ambanis and Birlas can learn something from the Agarwals and Gargs of this world ..
Never heard of this before. On the contrary, organ donors are held in the highest regard in Hindu stories. Philosophically, upon death the soul moves on to the next body – it does not matter whether the previous body is cremated, eaten by vultures or donated to science. Socially it is cremated because that was considered the cheapest, easiest and most hygenical way of disposing it off.
BBC seems to be making this up.
M. Nam
Moor Nam, you might be right. Or these beliefs might be local to Madhya Hindus of a particular caste. A quick google finds reference to this belief amongst Chinese Singaporeans, but I can’t say further than that.
this was the feeling of some hindu religious leaders expressed during a meeting at the last Kumbh Mela (source: Hinduism Today), backing what MoorNam is saying. but there seems to be this belief, misguided according to the swamis, that donating eyes makes one blind in the next life.
Organ donation: The swamis were universal in their approval of organ donation. They did not accept the concept sometimes heard in India that if one donated their eyes in this life, they would be blind in the next. Shri Mahant Krishan Nath Ji, based in Haryana, explained, “If someone donates an organ willingly, then there is nothing wrong in that. And it is wrong to say that if you donate eyes in this birth, next birth you would be born without eyes. We have the story of Baba Sheel Nath of Nath Sampradaya who transferred the sight of one of his eyes to that of a blind lady by his yogic powers. So our Nath Sampradaya has had such realized saints who even made people immortal. To them, eye donation was a very small thing.”
I knew this title sounded familiar.
This is a very heartwarming story Ennis. Thanx for sharing. Even in the west it’s as simple as stating it as part of a will and/or signing the back of your drivers license. (Yes it’s important to have a will after the whole Terri Schiavo fiasco) Especially organ donation. So many young people die every year without thinking of something like this.
What a great post Ennis!!! Thank you!
Ennis, actually the birlas are involved in a number of charitable foundations. The AV birla group is contructing a hospital (www.adityabirlahospital.com)and has special emphasis on education (BITS, Pilani) and rural health. The other branches of the family (other than AV Birla) are also involved in charity, especially in building temples etc.
Can the family do more and give away more of their wealth, a la gates & buffet? Sure, but I guess every little bit helps!!!
Moornam, you are right that this belief is not supported by the tenets of Hinduism. But it is surprisingly popular. My father and I pledged our eyes in one such campaign, but my mother refused to pledge hers precisely because of this belief. I don’t have any data, but I have heard this argument several times – even from people you would not expect to be superstitious.
i have theory on why some indian folk are afraid of organ donation after death.
it is not written in any hindu texts that organ donation is not allowed. i think the fear is based on inferences people make.
one of the steps in the ‘kriyakaram’ (the rituals during cremation process) involves cracking of the skull. not many people know about this (i didn’t till a uni class) and they try to be discreet about this step in front of family members (for obvious reasons). the idea is for the ‘spirit’ to leave the body via the sahasrara chakra, which the the chakra (or energy portal) at the tope of the head. this is considered to be the ‘highest’ chakra and so it is the most ‘auspicious exit of spirit’. it is also the ‘portal’ via which a spirit leaves if it is to enter moksha. i have found that this belief is much more common among shaivaite and tantrik followers, and more so in south indian cultures (eg. tamil nadu). if the person is not ‘worthy of moksha’ then the spirit is thought to leave via a ‘lower’ chakra or energy portal.
i think people believe that if there are organs missing in the body, it messes up the ‘energy portal’ in that area and it can prevent the spirit from finding its way out. this is also why some people dont give bodies in for post-mortems in many parts of india, out of fear of disturbing the ‘chakras’ in the body.
i am not including links or references here because i don’t have time to look them up , but these beliefs are true and have been documented in some anthropological texts and religious perspective books i read in undergrad. i have also received some of this feedback from some ‘gurus’ and have heard these explanations from various people, so these views do exist.
i am not of these opinions, and yes a more mature understanding of hindu philosophy can explain why the above is not valid.
however, we have to understand that a great proportion of india is still illiterate and does not have access to religious philosophy to build sophisticated theories. they are fighters that are constantly struggling, in this struggle they find strength in ‘God’. There is also this notion among indians that by being ‘God-fearing’ they are religious and are being ‘good’, therefore their troubles will be taken care of…. (this drives me up the wall!!!). They follow religious protocol ‘just because’ and out of ‘fear’… anything to please the Gods… to prevent more troubles and to make their current lives easier. Same goes for all the rites to ensure the ancestors’ ‘happiness’ in Pitrloka and for the cremation rites to ensure a good afterlife or future lives. People do these to cover their bases mostly. There may be some truth or validation behind the rites, I don’t know… but they are no longer practiced with proper knowledge, explanations or understanding.
Anyway, I think these views and beliefs and lack of proper knowledge drive the superstitions… hope this wasn’t too far-fetched for you guys!
Fascinating. I’m pretty sure that isn’t the case for Sikhs. I was present for my grandfather’s cremation and we did no such thing, although this was in the USA.
yes ennis… sikh cremations are different. the above is mostly prominent among hindu brahmins. i think the supposed ‘importance and elitism’ of these rites were ‘created’ because of the need for brahmins to feel superior… that is why they are not always congruent with hindu philosophy. there has been a lot of damage done to hinduism during the caste system days… that’s when i think evrything got so complicated and real explanations got mixed up with those propagated by brahmin men to create a social/financial security for themselves.
In hinduism next birth is determined by the karma a person has accumulated when he was “alive”, so donating ones eyes adds positive points to his karma since karma is about intention inthe action, and the act of removing eyes from “dead” body doesn’t affect the person’s karma.
Moornam, dead bodies are cremated because hindus consider fire as an intermediary to Gods –anything offered to fire reaches heaven. During yagnas food and other stuff are offered to fire and in traditional wedding ceremonies fire is used as witness(agnisakshi) in lieu of Gods.
The skull-cracking ritual is grim, yet fascinating and somehow profound. It is called Kapala Kriya (the skull ritual) and is fairly standard in hindus. When my grandmother died, I performed it with my father. It goes like this:
They wait a half hour or so after lighting the pyre, so that the flesh is burnt away and the relatives have departed. Then the cremation guy brings a long bamboo pole, which is “sanctified” by the priest. They expose the skull on the pyre so the top is clearly visible. Then the eldest male hiers grab one end of the pole and try and fracture the skull with the other end. It takes two or three butts to crack it, and you can hear and see it crack (not pretty). All the while the priest chants mantras and throws holy water on the skull, making the entire process seem surreal and significant. After this they add more wood to the fire to make it hot enough to fuse the bones – so that rogue tantriks don’t steal the bones for “black magic”.
I later read up on the significance of this ritual, and Sumiti is spot on – it is performed to allow the spirit to leave from the highest chakra. The mantras used are those rare ones that invoke Yamraja, and plead with him for safe passage of the spirit to the other world. Apparently the body is laid on the pyre with the head facing south, towards the kingdom of Yama.
Ennis,
Agreed. I’m no expert on the topic, but I think it’s unlikely, for the following reasons:
As we know, Sikhs these days dispose of the deceased via cremations, but this isn’t actually mandatory within Sikhism. According to the teachings of the faith, it makes no difference exactly how a body is disposed of (cremation, burial, submersion in rivers/oceans etc), as long as it is done respectfully.
The most famous examples of Sikh funerals that I know about involve Guru Nanak, Guru Tegh Bahadur, and Guru Gobind Singh. The last two were cremated, and to my knowledge there was no “cracking of the skull to allow the soul to escape” in any of these cases.
The Sikh view of the soul is that it is a part of God and therefore does not consist of “matter”; therefore, I doubt that the physical form of the body would act as a barrier preventing the soul from “leaving” until a suitable exit point was created. Such things are also regarded as being in God’s hands so I don’t think it would require any human intervention before the soul could return to God.
Just my own thoughts on the subject.
Jai, you know better than I that all sorts of practices with little theological affinity to Sikhism are routine amongst Sikhs. It was more of a sociological point – I’m pretty sure that Sikhs don’t do Kapala Kriya.
My grandfather in Chennai chose to donate his eyes. When he died and the hospital came to collect them, they asked my family to put a line in his obituary to say that he had donated his eyes because they’re trying to publicise and promote the practice as much as possible to encourage more people to do it.
I wasn’t there for the funeral, but I was told that after they removed the eyes, they did an excellent job of preparing the body to ensure that it was impossible just by looking to tell that the eyes had been removed.
Well, I’m a Muslim born to a practising Brahmin mother and have closely participated in her observance of Hindu rituals. When my grandmother (Nani) passed away, I did go to the cremation ground where my uncle (mama) performed the last rites.The Kapal Kriya was a disturbing and yet most awe-inspring ritual. Although sometimes, the skull bursts on its own and doesn’t require any external agency to facilitate it.
What disturbed me was the way the people there use the body as “fuel” for the wood, taking a leaf out of the Hindu belief that ‘The Body’ is just an ephemeral mixture of the five elements to which it must return, and the soul is the actual unborn existence(atma, a part of the Param Atma and union of the two becoming the goal of the human soul)…hence they literally broke my Nani’s pelvic bones and skwered the body a couple of times to make the woods burn faster. My relatives on my Mum’s side told me that it is common to do this, lest the body remain partially unburnt. Similarly, a man’s rib cage is ‘worked upon’ with bamboo sticks.Although several people were disturbed( I positively screamed my lungs out), people let these people ‘do their work’….
But nowadays, a lot of practising Hindus are donating organs despite religious silence on the issue(no Hindu text composed 4000 years ago censure organ donations simply because there was no knowledge of it at that time).Its a good start.My Dad’s side of the family has a more vehenment opposition to eye-donation because Muslims believe in the concept of Judegement Day, when souls will rise from their graves to meet their maker nad their final destiny, a deeply cherished dream which practising Muslims, Christians and Jews who hold it dear to their heart and need their eyes for that. Hence their specific oppsition to eye donation!