If the Hindu man's wife dies, he is free to go and find another beautiful woman when he wants. But if the Hindu woman's husband dies, not only is she prohibited to remarry but she should be cremated along with her dead husband ("Sati"). According to the Haria, the woman who follows her husband in death purifies three families - her father's, her mother's and her husband's. These Brahmin theologians propagate the theory based in the Vedas that a woman who did not burn herself would never become free of being born as a woman again. If a woman's husband was guilty of the murder of a Brahmin or guilty of "ingratitude" - then the wife who died clasping his body was said to purify him of his sins. When His "Holiness" Puri Shankaracharya was asked about the fate of the widow's children, he replied - "it is fate! Let the children suffer or die without a mother. But SATI has to be performed according to Hinduism".
