Manner of how final rites should be performed ....

When arrangements are being taking place in a big hurry to conduct the cremation ceremony of the Late Venerable Sobitha Thera with the
participation of a large gathering and on a wide scale too, a video which poses the question as to how far the said procedures are justified, was located. The manner that his funeral activities should be conducted in the simplest manner is explained in this video recorded at the time he was living. 

The Late Thera has mentioned therein not to carry his body in a funeral procession, not to conduct a funeral ceremony on behalf of his bereavement and to get the cheapest possible coffin and to finish off everything in one day. 

"I am the Chief Advisor of the Eye Donation Society. Give the body to the Eye Donation Society. They will remove the necessary organs from my body and hand over the rest. Bury that. Don't take a coffin amounting to lakhs of rupees ... buy the cheapest coffin. I don't like funeral ceremonies being held. Don't hold funeral processions and keep school children in the sun. Don't worry the village by organising decorations, committees, almsgiving ceremonies. I don't like any ceremony being held because of the death. I don't like asking anybody anything on behalf of me. Don't conduct a funeral ceremony on my behalf. Finish off everything in one day.

Many form committees and spend lakhs of money. There's no point in that for me after I die. A Chief Thero that I like so much is Rerukane Chanda Wimala Thero. That Thero said, 'I sleep on a wooden plank. When I die ... take me on the plank itself and put me in the tomb'. My final rites ... do likewise. There's no use in spending even a cent".

The video tape in which he makes this statement, from below