SHARADH

SHRAADDH
Shraaddh have begun from yesterday.( September 12, 2011; MONDAY)

Shraaddh is a kind of memorial ceremony to remember the Dead Ancestors. It goes up to three generations of both parental sides (father and mother's side) . Shraaddh continue for 16 days from the Poornimaa of Bhaadrapad up to Amaavasyaa of Aashwin month ( the whole dark fortnight of Aashwin month ) . This Amaavasyaa is thus called Pitri Samokinee Amaavasyaa. This Amaavasyaa has one more characteristic that if one forgets to perform Shraaddh on a prescribed day ( the date of the death of the ancestor) then he can perform it on this last day.

It is as much a son's duty to perform Shraaddh of his parents and grandparents, as he is supposed to look after them while they are alive. In most cases, it is performed by the eldest son but others my also participate.Thus this is Pitri Poojaa in a way and the method to perform it is prescribed in Shaastra. In our family, my grandfather used to do it in a grand way for his father by inviting Brahamins for Pooja and BHOJAN at the lunch time, not in the evening. Invitation to Brahamins for this ceremony was given only in the morning of the day of the ceremony while for other Poojas, it has to be in advance, some times even a few days earlier. It used to be a feast for other immediate members of the family. For other ancestors, it used to be only TARPAN (Remembrance of the ancestor with some token money and water; water is offered to the SUN while the money is donated to the Brahamins).

Note: 1. On the last day of Shraaddh - on Amaavasyaa day, final TARPAN is done for the forgotten ancestors and for others who are even unknown who may be expecting remembrance from their family but there is nobody to remember them.

2. Shraaddh for Nana and Nani (parents of the mother ) is done only when there is no son in that family to perform this Pooja and Tarpan; In my own case, I am supposed to do it for my Nani not for Nana as my Nana has the son and grandson etc. from his previous wife, but in case of Sameer, he and Shalabh are supposed to do it for their mother's parents as they don't have son to do it for them.

3. In my own case, as I lived abroad (Nigeria, Ethiopia, USA and Canada ) even in India in different regions of the country due to nature of my job, it was not conducive or possible for me to perform the rituals according to required norms, I used to do only TARPAN on the day of Amaavasyaa because I did not remember the exact Tithi /day of the death of my mother, Nani and other ancestors. I feel that this is the best way of performing this important ritual, but one must do it.

4. BACKGROUND of the ritual:

These are only my personal views and thoughts about it. In observe it main thing is to remember our ancestors at least once a year and do some charity work in their remembrance - like donating money, materials (clothes, and anything else) etc; meeting some social obligations, planting trees in their memory etc etc.Our ancestors do not come personally, directly and physically to accept these offerings but certainly acknowledge them indirectly in one way or the other.
As it is believed that the Soul lives with three different kind of bodies namely; PHYSICAL- the organic structure mainly composed of five elements-the earth, water, fire, air and ether with main function to perform physical activities; and this is very temporary for one life only in any living form (human beings, animals, birds etc .male, female etc.) After completing the life, it is destroyed by death.; SUBTLE BODY ( Sookshm Shareer) and CAUSAL BODY (Kaaran Shareer); these two bodies always remain with the soul and keep an account of their actions day to day and life to life. Depending upon the balance sheet (cumulative account of actions) of the previous lives (Praarabdh), the soul takes another Physical Body in any form in any specific place at some specific time. These two bodies wherever they are in any form are interconnected to other souls according to their relationships in previous lives in a very a complicated network. So, whenever we do anything in the names of the known bodies, they are accepted , acknowledged and appreciated and our accounts are readjusted accordingly.
Our FINANCIAL Capital, converted into SOCIAL Capital finally gets deposited into our SPIRITUAL Capital -the ultimate balance which goes with us after our death.