5

It is said that a person need to lean in panchabhootas in his life. But what happens if any person doesn't meet one of the panchabhoothas i.e fire due to body or organs donation? Will he/she gets moksha or not?

There is also a myth if a person donates his eyes after death, he will not be able to see in the next birth and also during his travel towards Hell/Heaven, he will be blind. How true is this? This is a controversial myth and hence most don't donate any of their organs after death.

Also, this leads to another question: Apart from Brahmin religions, people are burried or placed in coffin. Will they meet moksha too as they wont undergo panchabhootas?

3
  • The physical body does not survive death. It is the annamayakosa. The fine body permeates the outer sheath, not the reverse. What happens to your physical organs after death is of no consequence to your fine body. See here - hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/6758/… Dec 31, 2020 at 5:12
  • @SwamiVishwananda - The physical body or gross body should undergo all the rituals too if not why one gets bath after death and burned or buried? My question is different, please rephrase what you are trying to convey in a layman fashion. Dec 31, 2020 at 5:23
  • A duplicate of: hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/3045/…? Even the same answer is reproduced here.
    – Rickross
    Jan 10, 2021 at 5:58

1 Answer 1

3
+25

I am posting an excerpt from Mahabharata that supports organ donation:

The Deities said,-…The Asuras are being aggrandised, while we are being weakened. It behoveth thee, therefore, to ordain what is for our good. –After the deities ceased, the Grandsire replied, - The great Rishi Dadhichi of Bhrigu’s race is now engaged in performing severe austerities. Go, ye deities, unto him and solicit a boon from him. Do ye so arrange that he may cast off his body. With his bones let a new weapon be created called the Thunderbolt. Thus instructed by the Grandsire, the deities proceeded to that place where the holy Rishi Dadhichi was engaged in his austerities. The deities with Indra at their head addressed the sage, saying,- O holy one, your austerities, we hope, are being well performed and uninterrupted. – Unto them the sage Dadhichi said, - Welcome to all of you. Tell me what I should do for you. I shall certainly do what you will say. They then told him, - It behoveth thee to cast off thy body for benefiting all the worlds. Thus solicited, the sage Dadhichi who was a great Yogin and who regarded happiness and misery in the same light, without being all cheerless, concentrated his Soul by his Yoga power and cast off his body. When his Soul left its temporary tenement of clay, Dhatri taking his bones, created an irresistible weapon called the Thunder-Bolt. With the Thunder-Bolt thus made with the bones of a Brahmana, which was impenetrable by other weapons and irresistible and pervaded by the energy of Vishnu, Indra struck Vishwarupa the son of Tashtri….

[Mahabharata Santi Parva Section CCCXLIII]

Organ donation is a splendid thing to do. It is the Atman that is important and not the physical body which is only a 'temporary tenement of clay'.

5
  • Dadichi's example is that of a great sacrifice that a Rishi has made for the sake of entire world. It can not be compared to organ donation. Dadichi had to die to make it possible that the weapon can be made from his bones. And, organ donations occur when people are already dead. So, no comparison between the two. Secondly, the Atman is not the only important thing. Body is too. Atman only while staying in the body can seek for self realization otherwise it can't. So, the body is not insignificant by any means. (1)
    – Rickross
    Jan 7, 2021 at 7:00
  • Take for example how much pain a blind person goes thru and it's because of a bodily defect. So, I highly doubt the correctness of this answer. Rishi Dadichi's great sacrifice does not prove anything about whether organ donation (after death) is approved or not. In Hinduism we cremate, one reason for that the body needs to be completely destroyed so that the soul does not feel any sort of attachment towards the body after death. Now, if the eye is still living whether the soul will still find attachment to that eye or not is debatable. (2).
    – Rickross
    Jan 7, 2021 at 7:04
  • @Rickross en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shibi_(king)#Story is it considerable?
    – hanugm
    Jan 8, 2021 at 16:47
  • 1
    You mean " He was most famous for willingly offering flesh to an eagle"? .. Yeah something like self sacrifice. If the Eagle ate flesh from his body eventually the person will die. @hanugm
    – Rickross
    Jan 9, 2021 at 6:15
  • @Rickross Yeah true...
    – hanugm
    Jan 9, 2021 at 6:49

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .