The ashes from his cremation, which took place at the Phoenix cemetery yesterday, will be scattered at sea this morning. After a ceremony full of intensity and emotion, the effects of which forced several members of the audience to demonstrate their inability to hold back their tears, at his home located in Trait-d’Union, in Vacoas, it is today Today Dev Manraj, the former financial secretary who died on the night of Monday June 17, will bid a final farewell to his loved ones and, in turn, to the entire island of Mauritius. This will be during the execution of a ritual according to the pure tradition of Vedism.
For Pandit Amar Geerjanan, the purpose of this ritual is to entrust water, one of the five elements, with this part of Dev Manraj’s body. During the last days of his existence, the man showed another side which deeply marked the pandit, who was at his side before his final departure from this earth. “It was he who prepared his passage from this spatio-temporal world to this dimension that every human must face after his death. In the smallest details.”
Many personalities from the political world, and from the private and social sectors have paid their last respects to Dev Manraj. Among them, Dr. Jean Claude Autrey, chancellor of the University of Mauritius, who knew him for several decades. “Since 2022, we have been very close when he took over as chairman of the board of directors of the Mauritius Institute of Biotechnology of which I am a member and responsible for the steering committee on green biotechnology. Dev Manraj firmly believed that biotechnology would become our sixth pole of economic development. He spared no effort to this end. He devoted himself to it with enthusiasm and his hard work was reflected in WhatsApp messages in the early hours of the morning, including Sundays. He was an exceptional leader with both strategic and operational vision. He was a giant. A true Mauritian in all the appellation that this term implies. We will miss him, but we should be faithful to his legacy to ensure that his vision for the biotechnology sector is realized in the years to come. We owe him that.”
