This Shradh Ekadashi Help Pooja Sharma In Cremating The Unclaimed Bodies

My name is Pooja Sharma, and for the past few years I have been performing the last rites of those who leave this world with no one to call their own. 

More than 4,000 unclaimed souls have passed through my hands, people whose families never came, people who died alone, abandoned, and forgotten.

When I walk into the crematorium carrying their bodies on a bamboo stretcher, I remind myself: “I am their everything now.”

They are unclaimed. Nobody showed up for them, but I have. I tie their shroud with my own hands, I light the fire, I whisper a prayer, and I give them the dignity they deserve in their final journey.

This was not the life I had planned. But in 2022, my brother died in front of me.  No one else came forward to do his rites. My father was in the hospital suffering from a sudden coma. 

Overcome with grief, I did it myself, breaking every tradition I had grown up with. In that moment of loss, I realized how sacred this final goodbye is. And I made a promise that no soul should ever leave this world without dignity.

Since that day, I have lived for this mission. I started Bright the Soul Foundation to help the forgotten.

But I will not hide the truth sometimes, I find it very hard. Every cremation costs money. The wood, the ghee for the fire, the cremation ground fees, the ambulance to bring the body, none of it is free. And I am always afraid of the day when I might not have enough to do the next cremation.

There are days I ask myself: What if I cannot arrange the money? What if this soul leaves without honor because I could not afford it? That thought breaks me more than anything. Because in that moment, I am not just performing a ritual. I am being their daughter, their sister, their family. If I don’t show up, then who will?

I have given everything I can. I even sold the wedding jewelry my late mother had bought for me, every rupee went into cremating the unclaimed. But I can’t do it alone anymore.

Every call I receive from the mortuary is another soul waiting for me. Another soul who cannot leave without dignity. And I cannot turn away, because I know what it means to say a final goodbye.

This Pitra Paksh, when you honor your ancestors, I ask you to also think of these souls who have no one. They too deserve prayers, dignity, and respect. Your support can be their last honor. Your donation is not just money, it is wood for their pyre, ghee for their flame, and love for their soul.

I am their everything in their last moment. But I cannot do this without you. Please, stand with me, so that no human being ever has to leave this world abandoned. Please donate now, because I, we need you.”