Hindu Response to Dying and Death in the Time of COVID-19.

Purushottama Bilimoria

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.636384

Abstract

We wake each morning to news on the glaring statistics of people infected by COVID-19 and others reportedly dying from complications thereto; the numbers are not receding in at least a number of countries across the world (barring a few that imposed strict lockdowns, testing and quarantining measures, such as Australia, Singapore, New Zealand and Vietnam). It is hard to imagine a moment such as this that most of us have lived through in our life-time; but it is a reality and public challenge that we can neither ignore nor look away from. In what follows I will explore perspectives on death from the Hindu tradition and the kinds of response—and solace or wisdom—afforded by the tradition to the angst and fears evoked by this pandemic situation. In concluding the discussion, I shall offer tentative reflections on how the Hindu perspective may be universalized, such as might invite conversations with therapists and care workers who may be seeking alternative resources to help expand the therapeutic space in more beneficent ways during the Covid-19 pandemic and its after-effects

Highlights

Reviewed by: Jeffery Long, Elizabethtown College, United States Stephan De Beer, University of Pretoria, South Africa
WHO reports in the closing week of January 2021 that there have been some 1 billion and 500,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 infections across the globe, half of which have been in the Americas (4.4 million, with close to 25.2 million alone in the United States); Europe has had 33.5 million cases and South-East Asia 12.7 million; Brazil 9 million
Since the large percentage of those infected and dying from COVID-19 in South Asia, are Hindus it behooves me to focus on the Hindu perspective on dying, death, and dealing with the traumas associated with the challenges of mortality

Summary

Introduction

Reviewed by: Jeffery Long, Elizabethtown College, United States Stephan De Beer, University of Pretoria, South Africa. I shall offer tentative reflections on how the Hindu perspective may be universalized, such as might invite conversations with therapists and care workers who may be seeking alternative resources to help expand the therapeutic space in more beneficent ways during the Covid-19 pandemic and its after-effects

Results

Conclusion