Page:An Indian Study of Love and Death.pdf/72

68 of departed souls, “on behalf of those who have none to offer the pinda for them.”

In this giving of the Viaticum after death, and its re-consecration at every shraddh, the Hindu doctrine is implicit that no act by itself is of saving efﬁcacy, that no rite or ceremony is more than symbolistic, and that all alike is to be determined and valued by its effect upon the mind. In concentration alone can we behold the truth. All that aids in the attainment of concentration is to be welcomed and practised.

One by one, at the burning-ghât, each who is present stands, to take leave of him, before the dead. In his heart, then, he calls him by his name, and silently asks his pardon for all wherein, consciously or unconsciously, he has offended him, and here it may be the priest intones the solemn farewell, “Thy friends have