Death is inevitable. Everyone must die sooner or later. And if the deceased was lucky enough to be remembered positively, then many people wish to express their condolences. Social media is not untouched by this pouring of post-mortem remembrances.
However a lot of people make mistakes in writing messages of rememberance, which I presume are unintentional. So here is a rough guide to writing such messages, in private or in public fora.
1. If the deceased was Christian or Muslim, it is a good idea to understand that both these religions, along with Judaism, are Abrahamic in origin. They have common prophets like Adam and Eve, Abraham, Moses and Noah etc. (E.g. in Islam, these figures are represented by the names आदम , हव्वा, इब्राहिम, मूसा and नूह respectively.) These religions do not believe in reincarnation and believe that souls are sent on Earth for one lifetime and after death the souls wait to be judged (Judgement Day or क़यामत का दिन). If the deceased was a practitioner and believer of one of these religions then the appropriate remark would be "Rest in Peace" or "RIP". There are of course variations to this belief amongst the various sects (more on that later) but this broad guideline fits most people of these religions.
2. If the deceased was Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh or Jain then the guideline changes. These religions (with a few exceptions again) believe in reincarnation and the common phrase "RIP" is certainly NOT applicable or acceptable in such cases. A lot of people in India and on social media, have started copying this phrase from the west mindlessly. By writing RIP in front of such people's names, may be you are doing something that that person may have disliked. In such cases the correct phrase can be "May God grant peace to the soul", "भगवान उनकी आत्मा को शांति दे", "Om Shanti Shanti Shanti" etc.
3. If the deceased was an athiest or agnostic, do respect her/his belief systems by talking only of their positive impact on the world or how the world will remember him. Make no religious references in such cases. Such references are welcome in case 1 and 2 also 
:)
4. Some sects of some religions believe in things that are different from what the majority of that religion believes in. E.g. Practictioners of the Theravada Buddhism branch of Buddhism do not generally believe in reincarnation. In such cases, case 3 should be followed.
5. In case you are not sure about the personal belief system of an individual, follow rule 3. Better safe than sorry!
Please note that this is not about being pedantic, but respecting the personal belief systems of the people whom you respect and wish to pay your respects to. Your words, if carefully chosen, will hopefully not leave a sore impression of you :)
This is a repost of my old post from 2016
No comments:
Post a Comment