Guru Gangeshwaranandji Maharaj

THE BENEFITS OF SHRAADH SUPPORTED BY VEDIC PRINCIPLES

In the previous chapter you heard the story that our ancestors do bless us when they are happy. In the VARAHA PURANA (chapter), there is a story wherein Yogiraj Sanat Kumar narrated to Ramya Muni the following:

While Ramya Muni was in deep meditation, Sanat Kumar approached him and said, "Son, I am attracted to you due to the love you have shown. You are the best among the Brahmins and worthy of applause."
Ramya Muni bowed and said, "Why do you say that I am blessed. I have no special qualities."
Sanat Kumar replied, "You are always steeped in the teachings of Vedas and duly perform Pind Daan, Tarpan (oblations with water and black sesame) in Gaya regularly that is why I praise you."

Sanat Kumar narrates the following story:

Vishal, the king of Vishala (Ujjain) was a very intelligent and good ruler. He regularly performed Yagnas and other rituals and yet he did not have any children. He remained worried due to this.
One day he called several well versed Brahmins and sought help regarding the birth of his heir.
The visionary Brahmins advised the King to go to Gaya and distribute different types of grains and to perform Shraadh. By doing this, the ancestors would be pleased and indeed bless him with an heir. "The divine energy of the Pitrs is sure to bless you with a son who would rule the world." said the learned Brahmins.

"He would be charitable, kind and bring fame to the family."

"Our divine knowledge shows that the ancestors are DISSATISFIED and are therefore not showering you with the blessings." King Vishal was overjoyed to hear the solution and proceeded to Gaya. He performed all the rituals in the correct Vedic ways and offered the Brahmins food and other articles.

A strange incident occurred while he was performing Shraadh.

Three people suddenly stood in front of him. One was fair and the second one was red and the third dark.

King Vishal was astonished and asked them with folded hands, "Who are you and what do you want? Please do not hesitate to tell me. I shall do my best to satisfy your wishes. I am most perturbed to see three of you in different colours."

The fair person said, "Son, I am your father -Siit. During my life time I carried out several tasks to achieve glory, but I never performed Shraadh. Due to the good deeds that I performed that I have this FAIR colour and due to my SATTVIC Karmas I am now in HEAVEN."

He further said "The red colored person is your grandfather. He was a terrible and heartless ruler during his lifetime. He performed many RAJASIC deeds and therefore he has got this red colour. He got the name AVICHI and a place in hell.

This dark person is the father of AVICHI and he performed very heinous Karmas and full of Tamas. During his lifetime, he killed God fearing old Rishis. The result of those Karmas is the dark colour and he looks so terrible. He got a place in the lowest world.

After introducing everyone, father Siit said "Son today, in this land of Gaya, you have performed the Shraadh ceremony of your father and forefathers wherein you gave gold and other articles to a Brahmin well versed in the Vedas. Hence your forefathers have been relieved from the lower worlds and are now free and were able to meet me. I was happy in Devlok except that I lacked freedom. I was under the others but now you have released me from all mental problems. I shall now take the other two to Pitrloka with me and enjoy all freedom and luxuries."

King Vishal fell at the feet of all three and his father Siit said, "It seems you still have doubts about the ability of Shraadh to give results. You are wondering why I was not able to release my father and grandfather by good deeds. I indeed performed good deeds but with the belief that only I could enjoy the fruit of it and no one else. You performed Shraadh with the intention (Sankalp) of giving us freedom and its fruits did come to us. We are all satisfied and bless you. May all your wishes be fulfilled. May your kingdom flourish. We feel free now and are proceeding to PITRLOKA."

King Vishal was indeed blessed with a son who became a famous emperor.

You may have understood from the story of King Vishal that even though a person may be very charitable and noble, he will not be able to satisfy his ancestors. For that he has to perform the rituals of Shraadh.

Now we shall illustrate what happens when we DO NOT do the Shraadh.

1. The story of KingVishal itself shows us what happens when we do not do Shraadh. His noble father had to feel enslaved in heaven, for he had not performed Shraadh and his father and grandfather were being tormented in RAURAV NARAK (hell called Raurav). The family also had no heirs.

2. There are daily Karmas prescribed in the scriptures which also give the benefit of Shraadh.
When we do not do Shraadh, we can be called UNGRATEFUL. There is no way we can be forgiven for ungratefulness. We thus allow our ancestors to suffer in lesser worlds and different and lesser births of animals etc.

A son will be a called a son only when he helps his ancestors from such hell. We should never be lazy about this.

3. We may say that there is mention of Shraadh in the Puranas and texts of religion but where is the mention of this in the VEDAS?

There are various places in the Vedas where we can find reference to Shraadh.

In Rig Ved there is one complete Sukta called PITRASUKT which has 14 mantras. (Mandal 10 sukt 1)

In Shukla Yajur Ved in the 2nd chapter from the 29th to the 34th verses, all the verses are on PITRYAGNA.
In Shukla Yajur Ved in the 3rd chapter, 51 and 52 verses are proof of Pitryagna.
In the 19th chapter from 49 to 61 we find mention of Shraadh.
Lastly in the 35th chapter, all the verses mention Pitryagna.

(Max Mueller-younger Days)
It is for this reason that the well known scholar from Germany Max Mueller has written, "More than any other topic, the Vedas most strongly advocate and illustrate the importance of Shraadh. A believer in the Vedas will always accept the importance of Shraadh."

Once in Vazirabad, there was a scholarly written debate on the topic "Shraadh for the dead" and Max Mueller was chosen as the moderator. The papers were sent to him and he passed his opinion and the above mentioned were his comments.

Now we shall tell you the Ved Mantras where the Shraadh rituals have been glorified.

The first one is recited while doing the Shraadh invoking and welcoming the Pitrs and saluting them- (Rig Ved 10-15-2: Shukla Yajur Ved 19-68: Krishna Yajur Ved 2-3-19-9) Meaning-The task that we have started today--- Pitryagna---- we make our offerings (ahuti) and salute (pranaam) those who have gone to heaven and those who are liberated and those born before us.

Our elder brothers, mother, father, grandfather and others who have become PITRS. Our younger brothers, sons and others who have died and gone to Pitrloka.

Also, to those who die due to the attachment to this world (Prithvi) stemming out of RAJOGUNA and are surely there somewhere attending the ceremony.

Also, to those deceased who have faith in this ritual and thus are happy to attend the ceremony.

The next mantra- (Rig Ved 10-15-11: Krishna Yajur Ved 2-6-12-5)

Here the prayer is made to the Pitrs to bless us with wealth and sons.

Meaning-
"O AGNISHVAATA (those who have been cremated thus having been scorched by Agni .Those Pitrs are called AGNISHVAATA). Please come to this PitrYagna and after we have prayed to you, go and sit where I have kept a seat for you. Then, accept the offerings that have been kept on the Kusha Grass and bless us with the wealth and the best of sons."

Do we need any more proof then?
The Vedas do glorify the Shraadh rituals.

We shall give more proof-
(Rig Ved 10-15-14, Yajur Ved 19-60)Meaning: Oh Lustrous, shining AGNI DEV, give our ancestors the Prana and the form by which they can consume the oblations we are offering.
May they attend the ritual and gratify themselves.
We want all those whose last rites have been performed or not for whatever reason. They may be roaming in the cosmos or may be in heaven.

The next one-------- (ATHARVA VED 18-2-34)

This is a remarkable mantra of the Vedas where all the deceased in the world are invited to partake the oblations so that they can be liberated.
Meaning: Oh Fire invite all those Pitrs who have been BURIED, or have DROWNED or those who have BURNT to death. Also, those who were BURIED but for some reason were removed and then cremated.

The next famous mantra is from SHUKLA YAJUR VED 19-58
Meaning: Those who are worthy of nectar (som paan) and those who have been burnt by AGNISHVAATA (our pitrs who travel to the earth in the company of the Devtas come via the route called DEVYAAN); we call and invite them here to accept the food we have offered with faith and do bless us in return. May they bless us with bounty and may they protect us.

Swamiji continues:

Sajno... You can see how explicit these mantras are.
Note that these mantras are from all the four Vedas:-
1. Rig Ved

2. Yajur Ved (both Shukla and Krishna Yajur Ved)

3. Atharva Ved

4. In the Sam Ved there are 19 mantras that illustrate Shraadh Karmas.

Thus supported by the Vedic mantras from all the four Vedas, we can say with authority that the root of the rituals are the Vedas and their mention in the Puranas, Shrout Sutras and other religious texts is just a branching of the knowledge in later years.

It is known that India is the only country in the world where people always show their indebtedness to anyone and everyone. Being grateful is inborn in Indians and they should be praised for this quality. The sons of India can never miss out on being grateful to their ancestors who have given them birth, reared them and then entrusted them with the wealth earned by their hard work and sweat.

Now you must have understood that we should never be LAZY to perform this important ritual.
This is not an imagination of the mind nor is it greed of some people or a business.

By doing the ritual we receive benefits and by not doing them we cannot say what repercussions will be there!

Hearing the proof of this ceremony, the non-believers are sure to be extremely unhappy.
They may not believe in the Puranas but are sure to quote the following story to say that the rituals are not important and necessary. They try to hoodwink people but instead their story in fact becomes another proof to support our theory of SHRAADH.

The story:
Some ladies perform a fast that falls on Bhadrapad Shukla Panchami called (RISHI PANCAHAMI FAST). This story is about that fast.

When some people who have not performed the thread ceremony (JANAU) during the course of their life time and due to laziness knowingly or unknowingly perform a ritual to atone their mistakes by a ritual called UPAKARMA . In the same way, some ladies who knowingly or unknowingly made mistakes when they are menstruating perform the Rishi Panchami Fast.

The prayers are made to the seven Rishis.

The story goes like this:

There was a Brahmin whose parents died and were reborn as a female dog and a bullock and came to stay in their old house. One day when the Brahmin was performing his father's Shraadh, his wife made rice pudding to feed the Brahmin. The dog came and ate a bit of the pudding which made the Brahmin extremely angry. He hit her with a cane and asked his wife to prepare fresh pudding. After that he was able to perform Shraadh and offer food to the invited Brahmins. In this commotion he forgot to feed the bullock in the evening and thus the bullock remained hungry. In the night the dog cried in front of the bullock and told her the story. The bullock also complained about his hunger.

Non-believers of Shraadh often quote this story to say that the ancestors do not come and partake the food offered as we have suggested earlier. The father and mother were in the house itself as animals and yet one was beaten and the other went hungry that night.

But no, we have only heard half the story.

The story says that the bullock and the dog were a Brahmin couple in their previous lifetime. The Brahmin's wife was menstruating at the time the Brahmin had to conduct the Shraadh of his father. She did not reveal this to her husband and yet prepared the food in that state which is considered 'impure'. Nevertheless, the Brahmin did find out the fact but he chose to ignore the matter and went ahead and performed the Shraadh.

This was not according to prescribed rules and hence in the next birth they were both born as animals. On the day of their own Shraadh, when their son was performing the Shraadh, they both went hungry and also the Brahmin's wife (dog in that birth) was beaten up when she ate the pudding. The dog had not gone to eat the pudding out of greed but she had seen a snake put its mouth to the pudding. She feared the Brahmins would die as a consequence so she went and ate it up and hence the pudding had to be thrown. She meant well but was beaten up for it.

She had defaulted in the earlier life so she was beaten up in this lifetime even though her intentions were good. The bullock had to go hungry as he had been a silent witness to his wife's mistake in the previous birth.

The Brahmin's son performed the Shraadh at dusk after lighting the lamp due to the delay in preparing fresh pudding. This was against the rules laid down in the scriptures. The whole ceremony was thus not proper. Besides this, on the day the Shraadh is performed, one has to stay away from anger, be pure, remain a celibate for that day and these rules apply to the doer and the acceptor of the ceremony. On such ceremonies, the forefathers do not come and hence the articles and the food are not accepted. The sinners were in the house as animals and yet remained hungry.

The story thus makes it loud and clear that Indians MUST perform Shraadh as per the rules so that they get merit. The rituals not performed as per the rules will indeed give negative results. (Pratyavaya Dosh).

20^TH OCTOBER 1938