Newcastle Hindu Healer Babaji Davender Ghai Reignites Funeral Pyre Plans

11395051034uk-map1UNITED KINGDOM, February 1, 2015 (Chronicle Live): A Hindu healer who fought to legalize open-air cremations is ready to make them commonplace — five years after winning a landmark court battle. Babaji Davender Ghai spent years battling the system and almost went bankrupt fighting to make funeral pyres legal.

Mr. Ghai, president of the Newcastle-based Anglo Asian Friendship Society, said: “We, as a society, are offering people the chance to stick to their beliefs and have an open-air cremation; a funeral pyre. “We will do this as a charity, for free. They only need to find the land.” “It is a service that Hindus, Sikhs and others deserve to have if they so wish, he said.”

Judges said they can be carried out as long as the cremation is conducted in an enclosed building away from the public’s gaze and abides by environmental regulations. But shortly after the ruling the vision of Mr. Ghai, now 76, hit a set-back as the trials and tribulations of an arduous battle caused him ill health, resulting in a minor stroke. Speaking from his home in Gosforth, he said: “After we won the fight I got too ill to carry on my work. Now, I have been healed back to full health and am pressing on with what all our hard work earned us the right to do.

Source: Hinduism Today