The Final Rite

Antam Sanskar is the Sikh funeral rite. The body is washed and dressed, including the five articles of faith worn by initiated Sikhs, and is normally cremated, though burial and other means are accepted where circumstances require, for Sikh teaching holds that once the soul has departed the body is without further significance. Mourning is deliberately restrained: the tradition discourages loud lamentation and elaborate death customs, teaching instead acceptance of the divine will (hukam), and the emphasis falls not on grief for the body but on remembrance of God.

As the body is prepared and cremated the night prayer Kirtan Sohila is recited, and in the days that follow the family and community undertake a complete reading of the Guru Granth Sahib, concluding with prayers and the sharing of karah prasad. The rite gives ritual expression to the Sikh conviction that death is a passage in the soul's journey toward union with God rather than an ending to be feared.