Question & Answer sessions with HH Sri Datta Vijayananda Teertha Swamiji – 2015
Human Organ Donation
Question :
Many people donate their body or body parts after death. According to Hindu Dharma, Karma Kanda / the funeral rite has tob e performed fort he body after death. If the body is not available, how can the Karma Kanda be performed? What will bet he fate of the departed soul if the rites are not performed?
Answer :
This is a good question. I am very happy. People like me cannot answer some questions like this in public because some conformists have preconceived notions that someone like me should be bound by the tenets of certain Sastras and should speak accordingly.
However, I have some opinions. I have given considerable thought to this topic, searched the literature to see if any great souls have donated their bodies, and also studied what the Vedas have to say about this. I have come to the conclusion that donating organs such as the eyes is meritorious. I am convinced about the virtue of my judgment. I boldly support it.
Those who wish to do it, may do so. This body will perish, regardless.
It is said that certain rites have to be performed to the body after death for the soul to attain liberation. There was an 85 year old devotee in Mysuru called Ayyappa. He and his wife, both of them decided while they were in their sixties to donate their bodies after death, and pledged to do so.
Science has declared that certain organs such as the eyes, the heart and so on, are useful for transplants if retrieved right after death. In my opinion, there is nothing wrong in donating
body parts to give life to another individual and thereby help another family.
Now, the question of scriptures.
The children of this couple asked: Once you are dead, the doctors will claim and take away your bodies. How do we then perform the Karma Kanda? The parents have given away their bodies and it is a sin to take back what one has already given away.
The parents were in a dilemma and asked for guidance.
The answer given to them was: It is not good to take back what has been given away. Since the children are asking, you may tell them this. There is a ritual called Pishta Deha Samskara. An image is made with flour of the departed being and rituals are addressed to it. The image is placed on a funeral pyre and prayers are offered. It is done in the case of Sarpa Samskara, offering of funeral rites to a serpent that we or our forefathers might have killed knowingly or unknowingly, and failed to offer it funeral rites. Such an omission brings sin upon us and its negative consequences. To atone for that, this ritual and also a Sarpa Santi are done to appease the soul of the departed snake.
The Agama Sastras declare that doing this ritual with the flour image will cancel the sins accrued.
If your children perform the rituals to a human figure representing you, made with flour, then, they will derive the benefit of having performed the funeral rites for your dead bodies.
We have to now search to see if any great souls have set a precedent for organ donation.
Sage Dadheechi donated his entire body. Indra took Dadheechi’s spinal column and fashioned his Vajra weapon from it. Dadheechi’s body was not available for performing the funeral rites. However, Indra announced that Dadheechi and his progeny would acquire all the merits and the higher worlds as if all the required rites had been properly performed to his dead body.
Dadheechi sacrificed his body to help the gods in heaven who were in trouble, which is a highly meritorious deed. Helping others in trouble is a virtue. Tormenting others is a sin.Dadheechi is a great sage and a rishi. His example affirms that organ donation is certainly permitted.
Sometimes when people die in horrible accidents or natural calamities, as occurred in Badrinath and Kedarnath, the body gets completely burned to ashes more than it does on the funeral pyre. Only a few pieces of flesh may be retrieved when a large number of victims perish. Rites are offered to the pieces of flesh, whether or not those pieces belong to their relatives. The soul gets liberated. Here, the feeling is important.
If a person gets washed away in a flood, the scriptures say that one should wait for seven years with the hope that the person will return. If a person’s age was in the fifties, one should wait for five years. If the person was in the sixties, then six years, and so on. If they do not return, then the funeral rites should be offered. The merit due will be obtained both to the departed souls and to the survivors. One should not refrain from doing the rites. The rites should be done with genuine feeling. The body should not be insulted. It should be shown respect.
I have gone through a great internal conflict on this issue, trying to decide on the merits and demerits of encouraging this activity of organ donation in this day and age of rapid medical advancement.
We see that while still living, people are donating kidneys to save the lives of others and both parties are living comfortably. It is my belief that there is nothing wrong in donating organs.
Our scriptures support my decision.
Jaya Guru Datta.