Unless some of us have experienced a death of a close one during the Covid-19, you will not have quite appreciated the outstanding selfless contribution and support that various community organisations have given to the bereaved.
I am sure there are various other support services, but the support provided by the Lohana Community North London (LCNL) has been truly outstanding. North London has been the epicentre of the Corona crises in the UK and our Asians have had their disproportionately higher share of deaths.
The LCNL is amongst the fewer organisations that has a dedicated bereavement service led by Shri Vinubhai Kotecha and ably supported by Natubhai Nathwani, Rameshbhai Devani,Jayantibhai Raithatha,Girishbhai and others. Vinubhai’s dedication to the service of the community has been felt in the Lohana Community and also in the wider society when he was conferred with public honour of BEM by the Queen.
When I asked him on what has been his experience during this heavy death time in the community, he said that in normal times , he would be conducting about 2 bereavement engagements per week. These would include either public prayers or conducting last rights on the day of the funeral. His recent experience has been 6 such engagements per day! This is a massive jump. Of course, these engagements were somewhat eased by the use and support of the the digitisation process.
And all this is totally free and with complete humility!
Again, the LCNL digital team members, Amit Karia, Amit Chandarana and 11 others have done a sterling job in supporting Vinubhai and his team and of course under able guidance from the LCNL President, Yatinbhai Dawda. This was in addition to wider community communication ranging from linking community to volunteers for shopping, health and wellbeing guidance, business support and on line entertainment. Its good to see young people lending their special skills for the benefit of community.
In this period, Vinubhai and his team have sent out nearly 600,000 bereavement notices to the community database of over 3000 further extending to 1500 in Leicester and over 1000 in other parts of the UK.
There have been numerous funerals that have taken place without any presence of the family or conducting the last rites of the departed soul. This is where this team has done an outstanding job. They have stood shoulder to shoulder with the grieving family and helped them with digitised public prayers, remotely conducting the last rights using a white cloth and the photo of the departed. This involves a dedicated puja after the departed soul to pray for his or her journey ahead. Ghee is applied on the forehead and there are five pinds (a mixed dumpling representing the 5 elements) that are placed in the coffin. Where the coffin could not be opened, the funeral directors were requested to apply the ghee when preparing the body. The white cloth with all puja samagri is then taken to the crematorium and placed on the coffin when it is placed in the incinerator.
Such adopted procedures were not followed casually but properly developed after consultations with dedicated knowledgeable Brahmins and Hindu scholars. Vinubhai recalls a strong feeling of families really appreciating this service and getting that final closure during a very difficult time having lost their close one.
There have been some benefactors from the community who have also helped. It is noteworthy that V B & Sons and Nita Cash & Carry have provided full package of the required puja items free of charge to bereaved families. One family has also given a commitment to the bereavement team to provide whatever financial support the families might need to cover the cost of the funeral.
There have been some funeral directors who have seen this as a great season of opportunity and either hiked up charges or brought in extra charges. Others have actually done the right thing of cutting their costs to reflect reduced costs of not taking the coffins to the homes. Typical funeral can cost between £2000 to £3000!
I must also mention the dedicated service of the Jalaram Mandir of Greenford who, lead by Acharya Palkeshbai , have been conducting public bhajans dedicated to the departed soul. I know the Mandir also did provide free prasadi to the bereaved families and relatives on the day of the funeral.
Looking at the future, Vinubhai , who is a devotee of Hanumanji but follows the Jain principles, believes that all members of the community should read the Gitaji as it teaches a lot about life and death. It will be up to the families but the benefit of digitised pujas, bhajans and funerals will be there to stay in addition to physical meetings. Indeed digitisation has helped many more people from around the world to join in the prayers for the departed soul.
After all when death has occurred the family must dedicate themselves for 13 days to pray for the departed soul.
