deifying the sacrificial lamb

Today i saw the most stunning video of my life. It depicted procession in which the archpriest of my community took his samadhi. Or was it his cremation? I couldnt tell. Certainly the man was immobile throughout the whole ritual so there was no way to figure out if he was dead or alive. I had no time to watch the whole video (and certainly not the inclination) but there was also a whole crowd of my community people watching this murder(?) go on in eager anticipation as if they were watching some kind of a miracle happen. And it might have been a minor miracle which i missed thanks to my lack of patience.
So, the swamiji was washed, prayers were performed and the mantle was transferred to a junior. Once that was done the man was shoved into a very very small room (more like a concrete box), packed in books and other prayer articles and sealed in by an unnecessarily large and uncoordinated bunch of helpers and volunteers.
all this under the watchful eye of the police.
so how do i feel about this? not necessarily bad. i dont even know how the man felt about being put in a wall.
one thing though, is for sure. there was no scope to turn back. he probably had no choice but to accept his fate. guess when you are archpriest you can handle such things. trained for it? i dont know