A photo that reflects your own state of mind at the moment you took it.

No. MB was not placed on top of a funeral pyre and just about to be set alight!

The first part of the actual burning of a dead body on a Hindu ‘funeral pyre’ is to set alight some straw that is stuffed into the mouth of the dead person, after placement on a bed of timber logs. This is considered to release the soul to be reborn again through reincarnation, on its journey through multiple reincarnations to eventual Nirvana. Later the body is covered with timber and straw, the entire pyre set alight and the body is reduced to ashes, which are washed with a few buckets of river water, into the holy Bagmati River, in the case of the below  photo which MB took in Kathmandu, Nepal, approx three years back.

There is a state of wonderment and awe at the whole funeral ceremony and burning of the body amongst all the relatives and onlookers. The funeral ceremonies are considered happy occasions because of the whole reincarnation idea, unlike the West where much sadness and shedding of tears will be part of the service. And wonderment and awe was equally on the mind of MB as he had the privilege to witness the whole event from start to finish.