Question: Before I became a disciple, I donated my body tissue to a tissue bank — like a hospital where you can donate organs of your body when you die. Should I try to get out of that obligation?

Sri Chinmoy: Now that you have accepted our path, what is your immediate reaction?

Question: My present feeling is that it doesn't make any difference to me.

Sri Chinmoy: It is a matter of individual opinion. In India, a body is burned for purification. In the West it is usually buried. My feeling is that the body has to be purified to the end. As long as it is a physical body, the need for purification remains, and as long as the body as such remains, it must get a chance for purification. For this, Agni, the Fire-God, is invoked.

In the West, people feel that if they donate their dead body to science, they will be making an offering. The body has made tremendous sacrifices to mankind, to Mother Earth; but as long as it isn't totally disintegrated, they may feel they have to offer it again. Here it is a question of sacrifice. If you are convinced that by sacrificing your body to medical science you are going to help medical science to gain knowledge and wisdom, then you can do it. Again, although you will be dead, the body has an inner consciousness which will be there. In order to gain a little knowledge, some doctors will take pleasure in torturing your body. They will say they are making the supreme discovery. Now, it is you who have to make the final decision. If you pray and meditate, you will try to do the right thing. If you dive deep within, you will get the message.

From:Sri Chinmoy,The inner world and the outer world, Agni Press, 1988
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