Essay On Death And Afterlife

Death and the afterlife are two important topics in religions with most having different ideas about what happens when someone dies as well as where they go or become. Hinduism and Buddhism are often grouped together when discussing religions, however, when it comes to these topics they have very different ideas. At the surface they may seem similar to an outsider but when really studied it is obvious that they are two totally separate concepts. They have fragments of their thoughts and rites that are the same, but it is important to understand that they, as a whole, are not. Hindus believe that everything has a soul and that when something dies the soul is reincarnated. This means that death is not the end, but rather a part of the cycle of samsara. The only way this cycle can be stopped is if the soul is liberated, or receives moksha. Hindus will often prepare themselves for death or even travel to Varanasi so that they may receive moksha because being a part of samsara is not desirable. Hindus believe that a good death would be one that they could control for the most part when their natural time has come, and a bad death would be a violent or early death. If someone does not obtain moksha then they are reincarnated …show more content…
Some of these differences can be seen in their death rituals as well as their beliefs of the afterlife. They each have a class of people that perform burial rituals and each view these classes as low in society, however, their burial rituals are vastly different from one another. Death may seem like a terrible thing, but to both Hindus and Buddhist death does not always lead to another reincarnation but sometimes a person was enlightened and then their soul or entity never has to go through the process ever again. Death is a natural part of life that is inevitable so they made it more desirable through religion and