Representative Image of a tree (Pexels)
NEW DELHI: For 37-year-old Shalu Saini, performing the last rites of unclaimed bodies is an act of service to the poor. It was the first time though that she carried out the funeral of a tree.
A 200-year-old gigantic Semal tree, which has been around for 4-5 generations of people, fell on Wednesday, Saini told PTI.
The last rites of the tree were performed on Friday at Nai Mandi Shamshan Ghat in Muzaffarnagar. Saini used some part of the tree and consigned them to flames, as per Hindu cremation rituals.
Its stories have been passed on through village elders, said Saini, a single mother of two children.
Saini said it was a call from inside to help the tree in getting 'mukti'. “I felt sad as if I had lost a family elder," she said of the first time she saw the tree on Friday.
She consulted a Hindu priest, before collecting some part of the tree and carried out the rituals.
Saini said she did not tell anyone about the funeral of the tree. "People came to know about it later.”
"I will continue to perform such funerals of trees if I get the orders from Baba Mahakaal (Lord Shiva). The trees give us oxygen, shade, flowers and fruits, and I feel that they deserve a decent farewell," she said.
Saini said she will also perform a ‘havan’ for the tree during the upcoming ‘Pitr Visarjan Amavasya’ – a Hindu ceremony held to honour their ancestors.
She has been performing the last rites of unclaimed bodies in the district and helping the poor with funeral rituals of their near and dear ones for the past five years. Saini said she has performed funeral of over 3,000 people.
Reacting to the Semal tree’s funeral ceremony, convenor of the Prayagraj-based Ram Naam Bank Ashutosh Varshney told PTI, "Shalu Saini definitely deserves applause from all sections of society.
If people perform last rites of pets, who are treated as family, then why not a tree, he said.
Varshney said the Ram Naam Bank, which is a religious organisation devoted to Lord Ram, will honour Saini at the Maha Kumbh in Prayagraj in 2025. It will also hold a series of seminars and discussions, where novel and noble ideas like these, which uphold the spirit of Hinduism and other aspects of spirituality, will be discussed, he said.