Up in smoke

Less cruel than burning at the stake is cremation, since it takes place post mortem, after a presumably natural death. For religions whose dogma incorporates reincarnation, cremation is the moment the soul separates from the body. It rises through the flames toward the sun, a sine qua non of reincarnation.

Hundreds of thousands of people came to watch the funeral cremation of Pandit Nehru, a hero of Indian independence and father of Indian democracy. Nowadays cremation is an increasingly common funeral rite in the West. Families can even remake the ashes into a synthetic diamond!