Tome And Plume: Pitra Paksha Is Time To Remember Ancestors, Get Their Blessings

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): One’s ancestors can become restless and cause trouble without proper Antyeshti and Shraddha rites. So, Tarpan is performed to satisfy their souls – Puranas

The Hindus remember their ancestors during the Pitra Paksha beginning 15 days before the nine-day Shardiya Navratri. During this period, they offer food, water, and ‘Til’ (sesame seeds) to departed souls.

Maintaining celibacy, or Brahmacharya, is necessary during this period. So, people avoid delicious food, luxurious life, buying new clothes, new houses and starting new projects.

The Mahabharata says Karna, after being killed by Arjuna, went to heaven where gods offered him food consisting of gold and jewels. When Karna said there was nothing to eat, the gods told him he was known for charity, but he donated gold and jewels. He never offered food to anyone. Nor did he ever perform any duty for his parents and ancestors.

Karna replied he had no parents. Gods advised him to return to the earth to satisfy the souls of his ancestors for a fortnight before Shardiya Navratri. Afterwards, when he returned to heaven, he was offered food.

The Garuda Purana says soon after death, a soul remains in the air; it is shelterless: “Akasasya Nilambara Vayurbhuta Nirashraya.” After ‘Shraddha Samaskar,’ the soul, it is believed, attains ‘Pitraloka’. Ergo, the Hindus regard the departed souls as gods.

The Garuda Purana and the Vishnu Purana say the departed souls come closer to the earth during the ‘Pitrapaksha’ to receive food.

Pitra Paksha does not mean only remembering fathers. Men and women are incomplete without one another. There is a word in Sanskrit, ‘Pitaro’, in the dual number, which means both ‘father'' and ‘mother’.

The ‘Tattiriya Samhita’ says every man, irrespective of their caste and religion, has five debts (Rina): ‘Deva-Rina’ (debt to gods), ‘Pitri-Rina’ (debt to ancestors), and ‘Rishi-Rina’ (debt to sages or teachers).

The ‘Brihadaranyak Upanishad’ says men pay their debts to gods by performing Yagnas and to the teachers by studying religious scriptures.

To pay debts to parents, they procreate children, but that does not mean their duty is over after childbirth. They need to endure the same kind of sufferings as their parents did to raise them.

There are two other debts called Bhuta-Rina (debt to nature) and Manushya-Rina (debt to humans). To pay for it, they feed cows, dogs, birds and ants and water Tulshi plant during Pitra Paksha. They offer food to the poor to pay debt to humans.

Tome And Plume: Raag Bhopali, Sooorma Bhopali, And Bhopal

Mahalaya, Tarpan and Pind Daan

Karna performed the Shraddha Samskar of his ancestors on the day of Mahalaya, the last day of Pitra Paksha. What is the meaning of Mahalaya? Sankhya Philosophy says the first evolute of the tangible world was Mahat, or Buddhi (cosmic intellect), which also signifies Brahma.

Thus, Mahat is the primordial matter, and ‘Aalay’ means shelter. If ‘a’ is removed from ‘Aalay’ what remains is ‘lay’ (destruction). It signifies after all the five organs stop functioning, they take shelter in the intellect before the soul separates from the body.

So, after the physical death intellect remains. The Hindus perform ‘Tarpan’ to satisfy the souls. ‘Tarpan’ has been derived from Sanskrit word ‘Tripta’.

As they believe all souls descend from ‘Pitraloka’ on the occasion of Mahalaya (Mahan means grand; Aalay signifies abode), people can perform the Shraddha Samskar of their ancestors, and of those who they may not even know. This is the reason that the day of Mahalaya is important for Hindus.

The Garuda Purana says ‘Pinda,’ or a ball of rice with sesame seeds and water, should be offered to the dead because it is supposed to constitute the body of the ‘Pret,’ which is a compound word derived from Sanskrit – ‘Pre’ plus ‘Ita’ – which means ‘the one who has gone.’

Thus, the word ‘Pret’ has nothing to do with something inauspicious, as people generally believe. This is the reason that in Indian philosophy, birth is not the beginning. Nor is death the end.