Sati

"The first point to realise about Sati is that Goddess Sati, consort of Lord Mahdeva, after whom the practice is named, did not commit Sati in the form that it is known today. In modern times sati is supposed to be committed by a widow on the funeral pyre of her husband. Lord, Mahadeva, consort of Goddess Sati, is swayambhu, i.e., is self-born and without parents and is eternal and lives forever. He was very much alive when Goddess Sati created yogagni which consumed Her body. Only the likes of Goddess Sati have the spiritual powers to create yogagni. What has been practised as Sati in recent times is just plain murder. When Rani Padmawati killed herself she did it to prevent herself from falling in the hands of the enemies. But then so many men have committed suicide to avoid falling in the hands of their enemies. Why isn’t this called Sati? In our scriptures there are hardly any instances of women self immolating themselves upon the death of their husbands. The three queens of King Dasratha were widowed but none committed self immolation. All the wives of Lord Krishna were widowed, but none committed self immolation. The original Ramayana, the Valmiki Ramayana, does not say that the widow of Meghnada, committed self immolation. This is mentioned only in later versions which were written during the middle ages and when, probably, widowed girls killed themselves to avoid facing dishonour. This was later exalted to the status of a good religious practice by so-called pundits who saw, in this practice, the opportunity to make bucks, quick as well as sustained as sati shrines became venerated among the population. Madri, widow of Pandu, did self immolate herself on her husband’s funeral pyre but she did this of her own volition and, probably out of a sense of guilt, since their coming together in love, according to the Mahabharata, was the cause of Pandu’s death. Hence, let us be clear: Sanatana Dharma does not advocate or sanctify sati."*
“Sati Pratha is nowhere mentioned in Hindu scriptures. Not a hint of it. There is no case of forceful widow burning in any of our scriptures. News about Sati Pratha started surfacing only with the advent of Christian Missionaries in India. They with their mission of converting the wretched idolaters, i.e., Hindus to Christianity started slandering Hinduism. For they quickly perceived that Hindus were an unyielding, staunch lot. They would not yield to the treacherous methods of Christian Missionaries. So they devised a new way for accomplishing their Harvest. They decided to slander Hinduism in front of Hindus, so as to shake their belief in it, and also in front of global community so as to justify their demonic agendas of Conversion. And for that they had a new tool in their hands to which Hindus had no access. This tool was the combined institution of Modern British Education System and the newly born media, i.e., the propaganda machine. (How they developed these mediums in India is another topic, related to Macaulay and many others and too long to be discussed here). (…)
‘Sati’ is an ancient Sanskrit term, meaning a chaste woman who thinks of no other man than her own husband. The famous examples are Sati Anusuiya, Savitri, Ahilya etc. None of them committed suicide, let alone being forcible burned. So how is that that they are called Sati? The word ‘Sati’ means a chaste woman, and it has no co-relations with either suicide or murder. The term ‘Sati’ was never accompanied by ‘Pratha’. The phrase, ‘Sati Pratha’ was a Christian Missionary invention. Sati was taken form the above quoted source and ‘Pratha’ was taken from the practice of Johar’, (by distorting its meaning from ‘suicide’ to ‘murder’) and the myth of ‘Sati Pratha’ was born to haunt Hindus forever.
So ‘Sati Pratha’ (in its modern avatar of forcible widow burning) is not a fault of Hinduism but a crime of Islam. Islam is the perpetrator of crime here, and Hinduism, the victim. It is a joint crime of Islam and Christianity. The crime of Islam was transposed on Hinduism (absolving Islam in the process) by the historical connivance of anti-Hindu forces (Islam, Christianity and Marxism).” **


* Raghbendra Jha - Women and the Vedas - http://www.ivarta.com/columns/OL_070503.htm
** Prabhat Varun - Sati Pratha and its origins - http://www.ivarta.com/columns/OL_060328.htm