Shraadh – A
commemoration for the departed souls
Jyotikar Pattni -
“Hands and
minds that help another without a selfish motive are greater than lips and
voices that pray without divine intentions. One must earn one’s true efforts.
However, one must realise that sometimes, one can only give and expect nothing
back in return. When one does something helpful to another everyday for which
one does not get paid nor rewarded, it is that particular deed that wipes the
slat of one’s collective karma. Our human karma is the reason and cause for
every single suffering or happiness we encounter. To do a kind and generous
deed without any expectation in return is one of the most beautiful
compensations of this life because in return we have helped our own soul divine
and our own hearts to attain fuller joy, the larger spiritual delight of many
lights!” - Jyotikar Pattni
The Vedic
wisdom never ceases to call upon the three worlds all together in a communion
of grand congress of prayer mode. Essentially when we pray in the evenings or
light deepam jyott towards the night sky, we invoke the three worlds at the
dusk - ‘samndhya vandana’ when two hands of the clock merge to meet at the
number 6. Some of us believe that when two hands merge together on the clock on
the numerical 6, we must not leave the house, or we must not be inbetween an
entrance door, or we must not commence eating, or we must not begin any happy
occasion. The same applies to when the two hands of the clock meet at the
numerical 12. As such these are kaal yogs or times and if one observes closely
one might understand why our forefathers whom we refer to as our “Pittarah” –
collective ancestry always use to tell us never to part when the two hands of
the clock are together on numerical 6 in particular. The ancient counsel from
our forefathers hold such divine truths and such divinity in their words that
we tend to follow them even today in the modern world that is filled with
noise, chaos, haste, conflict, camouflage and epiphanies. We call these in
variety of connotations like for example; family traditions and family values,
family culture and family ethos, family ethics and family morals, and, family
beliefs, rites, rituals and customs.
The month of
Bhadrapad (Bhadarvo), falling around September is considered the time when the
celestial world is at semi conscious sleeping mode or dream state rest and the
spiritual world is wide awake and watchful. Its second half of the month the
fifteen days of the dark cycle of the moon (Krishnapaksha-vad) are considered
the days of giving homage to the spiritual world whereat all our departed souls
have transmigrated and to give peace to the spiritual world. The spiritual
world ‘param-swarga-dham’ is the space between the ether eternal sky the celestial
divinity ‘eishwaar-dham’ (and the terrestrial earth - “manushya bhoomi”. Our
Vedic science has boon of great divine spirituality upon the constellations of
the stars and the specific conditions and circumstances resulting from the
position of the planets and the cosmic sky altogether. Hence, the Vedic wisdom
encapsulates science and spiritualism combined together in divine integration
of cosmic astronomy.
Shraadh is a
ritualistic custom unique to the Vedic religion. The ‘Sannattan-Hindu’
scriptures which include the Vedas and the Puranas (anthologies) like the Agni
puran, Garud puran, Vayu puran etc. explain the significance of “shradh”, for
whom it should be performed, who performs it, when and how it should be done. It
is believed that when one performs the rituals of “shraadh”, the soul of the
dead relative is appeased and it attains moksha. This rite should be performed
for ones own parents, grand parents from either mother’s side or father’s side,
great grandparents, step mother, father and also wife, son, daughter, sister,
brother, uncle, aunt, parents-in-law, teachers, guru, any relative or friend
who does not have any body to perform this ritual. Shraadh is a ritual
performed in memory of dead near and dear ones such as mother, father, son, daughter,
etc. wherein an offering is made in the form of “pind” (round balls made of
either jaggery and flour or five different things) and together with water milk
and “panchamrutt” and water in small quantities and these are offered to the
flowing water lighting a deepam and offering flowers and reciting prayers to
the DUSK
Among the
Hindus, the shraadh is a religious ceremony, often performed annually, in
propitiation of departed ancestors who
are technically known as pitrus, the word shraadh, according to sage Pulastya,
is derived as follows: "Shraadhaya deyathe yasmath sraddam
ithyabhidheeyathee”: i.e., that which is performed with great faith. The faith
referred to here is the faith in the Vedas, whose dictates are taken as
incontrovertible and which enjoin its performance as a duty. It is interesting
to note that shraadh or spiritual faith, and medha or intelligence, are
actually sanctified in the Vedas. Among the important items of a shraadh
are the argya (water oblation); hommamm/
Holy Brahmins
are fed in a worshipful manner, after invoking of them the souls of the
departed ancestors of three generations identified with vasus, rudra and
adithya, on the paternal or maternal side, as the case may be. The pitrus; who
live in the pitru-loka in the form of spirits, are fetched into the shraadh
venue by the vishvedevas or the universal soul. The darbha or kusa grass and
til sesame are two significant materials used in the performance of shraadh. The
padmapurana states that the kusa grass and black til sprang from the body of
Vishnu. Aswalayana Gruhya sutra points out that the essence of waters became
darbha, alluding to a Vedic story. Since Vishnu in anathema to evil spirits,
the use of til prevents shraadh offering from being pilfered by them. Use of
kusa, being the essence of all holy waters, makes the whole rite holy and pure
in divine intentions. Silver vessels for argya and pinda in sraddaa are highly
recommended because, the ancient pitrus milked svadha in a silver vessel and
they are highly pleased with the sight, use and gift of such vessels. The shraadh
became an important limb of Hindu religious life. Shradh is performed every year on the anniversary
of the death of the person as per the Hindu Calendar (Panchang). Mahalaya
shradh is performed during a fortnight called as the “Sarvah-Pitruh Bhadra-paksha”
in the month of Ashwin of the Hindu Vikram samvat. This year this period falls
between
Shraadh
ritual usually performed at the flowing river and best performed with the dusk
sun albeit it may be performed at the sunrise or dawn equally. I personally
recommend the dusk for the ritual:
Take flowers,
akshat, black til, jav, and coins in the palm of your right hand. With your
left hand pour water on the right palm, remember the deceased in whose honour
you are performing this rite and then remember all the deceased relations.
After chanting the following mantra put all the things on your palm into a
bowl. Bring to your mind all the forms
of Gods and chant the mantras:
Vishnavay
swaha times three
Brahmane
swaha times three
Rudraya Swaha
times three
Sarva
Devebhyo swaha times three
Again take flowers, akshat, black til and jav in your right hand.
Request the rishis and sages to be present and then pour water over your right
palm and put all the items in your palm into the bowl while saying the
following mantra: Bring to your mind the rishis and the sages and
chant the mantras:
Vasishtahaya
swaha three times
Angiraya
swaha three times
Bharadwajaya
swaha three times
Sarva
Rishibhyo swaha three times
Saptarishibhyo
swaha three times
Again take
flowers, akshat, black til and jav in your right hand. Request the Yamaraj to
be present and then pour water over your right palm and put all the items in
your palm into the bowl while saying the following mantra. Bring
to your mind the Court of The Yamaraj and chant the mantra:
Yamarajaya swaha three times
Chitraguptaya swaha three times
Dharmarajaya swaha three times
Again take flowers,
akshat, black til and jav in your right hand. Say:
Iti-deena/divasa, yog
cha tithi – time, date and year etc. mama (I) pitru shraadh pujan karishyasa,
iti shraadh idamnam-mama niswarth cha pavitra bhavana prarambha-sankalpa
karashyasa mama kutumbh-pitru svargwasi ya nama– name of the departed soul,
shree krishna arpanamastuteh. Say “ this
day (the year, month, paksha and date according to the Hindu Calendar
e.g.Vikram samwat 2062, Ashwin maas, Krishna paksha, Ekam/Dwitiya....) I, (your
name), son of (your father’s name and surname), gotra (your gotra), whose
nakshattara is ……, do hereby undertake to perform the ritual of Shraddha for my
(Father/Mother/ Grandfather/ Grandmother/ Great grandfather / mother), (Say
aloud the name of the concerned person). Bring
to your mind the deceased souls and forefathers and chant the mantra:
“Aum mata-pita swadhanamah”
“Aum Pitribhyah
swadhayibhyah swadhanamah" (recently departed)
“Aum Pitamahebhayah
swadhayibhyah swadhanamah" - grandparents
“Aum Prapitamahebhyah
swadhayibhyah swadhanam" - great grand parents.
"Aum Akshanna
pitaro meemdantah pitaroti tripant pitarah shundh-dhwam, Aum Sarvah-Pitarebhyah
swadhayibhyah namah"
Take in five small
plates, small portions of all the food that has been made and offer one portion
each to the fire (agni devata), cow, dog, creatures of the water (fish) and
creatures with wings (birds- crows in particular).
The person/persons whom
you have invited to represent the deceased should now be asked to partake of
the meal and his/their hunger should be satiated completely.
Then recite the following mantra three
times:
PITAHI PARAMAM TAP AH,
PITARI PRITI -MAPANNEY ,
PRIYANTEY SARVA DEVTA.
Aum sarvah
pittarih swadha swadha swadha
Aum shantih
shantih shantih
Tarpana should be performed facing the Southern
western direction, reciting the following mantras and offering water
panchamrutt and water after the words Swadhaa:
OM AGNAYE SWADHA, ANTARIKSHAYE SWADHA
,
VAYAVE SWADHA, SURYAYE SWADHA,
DIGBHAYE SWADHA, CHANDRAYE SWADHA,
NAKSHAT-REBHAYESWADHA,VARUNAYE SWADHA,
NABHIAYE SWADHA, VAACHE SWADHA,
PRANAYE SWADHA, CHAKSHUSHE SWADHA,
SHROTRAYA SWADHA, LQMABHAYA SWADHA,
TWACHE SWADHA, LOHITAYE SWADHA,
MEDHEBHYO SWADHA, MAMSEBHYA SWADHA,
ASTHIBAYA SWADHA, MAJJABHAYA SWADHA,
RETESHA SWADHA, PAYAVE SWADHA,
TAPASE SWADHA, DHARMAYE SWADHA,
PRAYA CHITTAI SWADHA, BHESHAJAYE SWADHA ,
YAMAYE SWADHA, MRITYAVE SWADHA,
BRAHMANE SWADHA, SARVEVAI PURNAJNAM SWADHA
(3 times)
(Yajur Veda Ch:39 V .10-13)
Aum shree krishna sharannam mama (11
times)
Muktee-shanti-sarvah pitarih mama
dehih. Aum Pita swargah – pita dharmah – pitahi paramam tapah pitari
pritiimapanney priyantey sarva debatah.
Aum shree Ram sharannam mama (11
times)
Aum yaam medham devganah pitarasche
upasate, taya mamadya medhayagne medhavinam kuru. Aum shantih shantih shantih.
Aum pitaribhyah sadhayibhyah swadha namah; Pita-mahebhyah swadha
namah----Prapitamahebhyah swadhayibhyah namah. "Aum Akshanna pitaro meemdantah pitaroti
tripant pitarah shundh-dhwam, Aum Sarvah-Pitarebhyah swadhayibhyah namah"
Aum sarvah pitarih shantih shantih
shantih.
Aum sarve pitaribhyoh swadhayibhyah
swadha
Aum shree krishnaye arpanaam, Aum
shree Brahman arpanaam
Aum bhur bhuvah svah Aum Tat Savitur
Varenyam Bhargo Devasya Dhimahi Dhiyo Yo
Aum Tat Sat.<!--mstheme-->
Conclusion:
“Let us all together realise that we are different
rivers, with different names, dissolving in time, elapsing in time, to loose
our names, forms, and identities to merge in all together grand ocean of seven
seas. Our destiny is one therefore and no other divine truth can supersede this
truth. If this being so, how could our mother and our father be different? How
did we manage to create so much conflict and confusion over time that we even
have lack of religion in religion itself. All said and done, truth is one. Truth
does not have two meanings. If truth is being interpreted in more than one
meaning, than that is no more truth, it is dualism and in dualism GOD cannot
manifest. Sattyam ekam – Eishwaar Ekam – Ekam Aum- only one truth and only one
god – the grand cosmic spirit of Purusha-Param_Atman_Jagadish_Hari – the
supreme divine God who resides in every soul divine alike. If we remove the so
called institutional religions and the so called political religions and just
for one moment all together congress to worship the cosmic religion for the
purpose of creating a divine vibration of universal divine delight of many
lights put together, we will realise beyond the shadow of the doubts that the
real truth is one – that which is HUMANITY. Satt-Dharma is essentially righteousness
of intent, righteousness of speech, righteousness of karma, righteousness of
reflections, righteousness of chitt (vichaar) and righteousness of livelihood –
ie.; to live a life of honesty, truthfulness, sincerity, humanity, compassion,
love, and above all righteous self-respect. When we condemn or even deliberate
the integrity, self-respect and purity of another with a selfish personal
purpose of building up empirical empire if “ISM” or missions, we fail to
firstly be honest to our own soul divine and secondly we fail to generate truth
to the others because to our own soul divine we have cheated! Dada, Bapu, and
all great Indian forefathers used to say the same thing.
Who is right? Who is wrong? We
constantly make divisions and segregations out of the truth – universal
righteousness - “SATT-DHARMAH”. In dividing ‘satt-dharma’ the one religion of
mankind (manushya-jati) that was based upon the cosmic laws of karma and
cosmological science and cosmic astrology, we have, as mankind collectively over
the history created so many man made religions, cults and so many sects. We
continue to create more missions, more umbrellas and more individualism out of
manas and budhi (mind and intellect), aham (ego), ichas (desires), yet
hypocritically condemn the ways of one another by enacting and giving birth to
man made rules and regulations to build monumental religious institutions all
of which render political policies. Each of the individually created religious
institutions embodied with the highest commercial propagandas and the most
sophisticated charity formulations have geared to render us with more
confusion, more chaos and more conflicts. These major man made religious
institutions operate upon highest political hierarchies and run worldwide
projects all of which are commercial. People become followers of one religious
institution and condemn others. For example ISKCON will hypocritically dissect
the Swami-Narayana mission, Chinmaya Mission and vice versa.
The Jains and Buddhists will disown all
forms of sectarianism idolism and cultism, and sub divisions of religions and
believe that our own atman is our own param guru and the homage to our
forefathers render us with much comfort to follow our righteous guru. Guru like
Buddha and Maha-Veer are rare to find as both teach us to stop identifying our
spirituality to religious institutions and man made ideologies of institutional
missions. The main purport of abolishing differences and differentiations those
which collectively create such humongous cultural differences between one
Indian and another Indian is to begin afresh a clean slat with a clean purpose
– “SATT-DHARMA”. Let us therefore learn all together from the history and our
forefathers that our ancient wisdom and our ancient wise counsel emanating from
our forefathers are not just antique words of wisdom but divine truth that we
have somehow forgotten to remember and to cherish! Gandhiji use to say that it
is better to be doing something in kindness, something in love, something to
make earth happy and someone to smile than to be praying with mind wondering in
million directions. This beautiful truth is so divine.
We are all journeying in the passage of
time and each of our footsteps manifest only once. No one progressive journey
in the passage of time can ever be repeated. If therefore, there be any
kindness, any humanity, then let us show it now and here. For any good thing,
any good deed, any good thought we can do for another here and now, let us
offer it now for this time shall not come back to us, this time shall not
repeat itself. If someone listens, or stretches out a hand or whispers a word
of encouragement or attempts to understand a lonely person, then extra ordinary
things do happen – this is dharma- this is param-dharma or eternally supreme
religion. Not the strategies and management filled propagandas that sell
packages to companies and make money at the expense of the mass poor, the mass
ignorant and the mass confused. Compared to what we ought to be, we are
considerably only half awake. We are making use of only a small part of our
physical and mental resources. We habitually fail to utilise our true divine
faculties and no matter what the level of our abilities we have more potential
greater hope and much much greater divinity in each one of us to develop in a
lifetime. Only we need take the first step towards our own soul divine. There
is only one corner of the universe whereat one can be certain of improving and
illuminating in fullest and that is one’s own soul divine spirit of life. Our
greatest obligation is towards our own soul. If we deprive our own souls of the
truth, by ushering and intellectually bringing ideological infrastructures of
institutional religions, we have not only cheated others but we have cheated
our own souls! Our biggest dilemma is that we constantly compare ourselves with
others and in doing so create inferiority and superiority and yet we continue
to form strategies, life coaching packages, and game plans and maps to manage
human sorrow, human success, humanity and much more. We give various names and
when one becomes successful; we give them brand names and patent rights and
make them more important. Truly, one’s success is not in comparison to another
but to one’s own divine accomplishments and one’s own divine capabilities. Each
soul divine can give the best one can with all one has to the best of one’s
divine capabilities and divine intentions.
From all the departed souls, each one of
whom have given a ray of light to this earth upon their departure; let us altogether
learn divine lessons from all those whom we have lost to the spiritual world.
The grief of hurt cannot be understood
by strategies or management and if one tells another that there are management
techniques and strategies to manage the grief of sorrow then firstly this
person is the grandest hypocrite and secondly it is the grandest lie or false
or untruth.
Grief of hurt can only be self-realised
in time through one’s own divine experiences and one’s one divinity.
One does not need strategies to be
simple and to laugh and to be lovingly compassionate and to be humane. One does
not need game plans to plan when to respect others and when to win or earn the
respect of intelligent persons and the affection of spontaneous children. One
does not need powerful institutional umbrellas and powerful religious
institutions to earn the appreciation of honest critics and to endure the
betrayal of false friends. One does not need strategies to appreciate beauty,
to become beautiful, and to envision divine beauty. One does not need rules to
find the best in others and to infer the best in others. One does not need
guidelines to leave the world a little bit better place of habitation, whether
a healthier child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition. One does not
require missions and mission statements to know that one life breathed easier
because another better human being lived to create hope, light and happiness.
To give happiness and wish for happiness upon others as if one is part of all
is to have become truthful, honest and sincerely successful in all. So, the
bridge between the spiritual world and the terrestrial world albeit unseen is a
very short distance. We need only remember our forefathers and our great
forefathers who upheld righteously our family traditions, our family values and
our family culture and customs. Freedom entails total fearlessness and total
fearlessness manifests in a social environment that is happy, with happy
families and happy homes. Our homes therefore are the places of worship,
traditions and family values.
This article is dedicated to all the departed
souls. May everyone’s soul divine whom we dearly and divinely loved; and; whom
we cherish in our hearts innately in spirit, rest in eternal peace. AUM SHANTIH
SHANTIH SHANTIH
Jaya Shree Rama
Jyotikar Pattni © September 10th 2006.