The Sanskrit word bhasma literally means ‘disintegration’. Bha implies bhartsanam (to destroy), while sma implies smaranam (to remember).

The Sanskrit word bhasma literally means ‘disintegration’. Bha implies bhartsanam (to destroy), while sma implies smaranam (to remember). Bhasma is thus a reminder to us of the ephemeral nature of life. Also, if we wish to unite with God (or the ‘supreme self’) and remember him constantly, our ego or little self has first to be disintegrated or burnt to ashes. Bhasma is a symbol of this process. It is also called raksha because it protects one from all fears. When applied to the forehead before sleep, it is said to keep away spirits or ghosts, whether external or those which manifest from the depths of the mind in the form of nightmares.
Bhasma symbolises the burning of our false identification with the mortal body, and freedom from the limitations of the painfully illusive cycle of birth and death. It also reminds us of the perishable quality of the body, which will one day be reduced to mere ashes. As it says in the Bible, “Ashes to ashes; soul to soul” – the body will return to dust but the soul will continue its journey until it unites with God. All the saints and sages beseech us to remember the ephemeral nature of our earthly existence. In the Rubayyat of Omar Khyyam the poet tells us to, “ . . . make the most of what we yet may spend, before we too into the dust descend, dust into dust, and under dust to lie.” Here he calls for us to seek the eternal, not the temporal. Ash or dust, on the other hand, can be said to represent permanency (or the soul itself), because the ash, just like imperishable truth, does not itself decay. The realised soul is said to rise from the ashes, of the individual self, as the mythical phoenix. The Sufis say, “To reach the goal we have to be burned with the fire of love, so that nothing remains but ashes, and from the ashes will resurrect the new being. Only then can there be real creation!”