Questioner: Should we sing devotional songs or say
prayers for the dying? What good does it do?
Dadashri: The dying person has nothing to do with it.
Questioner: So are all the religious rituals carried out during
the time of someone’s death right or wrong?
Dadashri: Nothing about these rituals is right. Those who
are gone are gone. People do these rituals without much thought.
When asked to do something that is meaningful for their spiritual
progress, they would complain about lack of time. They would
refuse to do this for the sake of their deceased parents. However,
because of societal pressures they do all these rituals grudgingly.
Questioner: So what is the significance of reading the
Garuda Purana?
Dadashri: The reading sessions are to console people in
mourning and to make them feel at peace.
It Is All A Display Of Pride
Questioner: How significant are the rituals and dinners
held on the twelfth and thirteenth day after a person’s death? And
why are gifts of kitchen utensils distributed to everyone attending
the dinner?
Dadashri: It is not mandatory. They simply do it to be
ostentatious. For some, if they did not spend money in this way,
their tendency for greed would increase. The son would be
preoccupied with trying to accumulate his money, but when he is
made to spend the money on such rituals, at least his mind would
begin to purify and his greed would lessen. But all this is not
mandatory. One should only do so if he can afford to.
The True Understanding Of Shraddha
(Ceremonial Offerings Of Food To Ancestral Spirits)
Questioner: Is it true that the spirits of one’s ancestral
fathers (pitrus) are summoned in the ritual of Shraddha?
Dadashri: Who can be called an ancestral father? It is the
son, the father and the grandfather – they will become the ancestral
fathers eventually. The fact that a father dies is because his ties are
completely over with the son or anyone else in the family. The
current body is discarded when all accounts with current relatives
are settled. They never meet again. If, however, a new relationship
has been established in this life, they will take birth in situations
where they may meet again.
Questioner: So are all these rituals created to remember
the dead?
Dadashri: No, they were not devised for remembering
the dead. They were devised because people were not otherwise
prepared to spend a dime on charity and that is why they are told
to do something in the memory of their late father. They are told
that whatever they do in their father’s name will benefit their father.
It was a way to pressure them into spending money in their father’s
name. If it were not for their father, they would not spend a single
penny. This is all done in blind faith.
When people fast, it is done for health benefits according
to Ayurveda. The practice of fasting is established for the benefit
of everyone. Even fools will benefit from this. That is why several
different days have been established for fasting, one of them being
the Shraddha. So the ritual of Shraddha is for a very good reason.
Questioner: Dada what is the purpose of the ceremonial
offerings of vaas - dinner with kheer (rice pudding) etc. on the
anniversary of the death of a relative? Is this done out of ignorance
also?
Dadashri: No, that is not ignorance. There is a long history
behind this ceremony of vaas. Shraddha lasts for period of sixteen
days, beginning on the eleventh month from the bright half of the
lunar month. Now, why did people start such a ritual? These people
were indeed very clever! It is a very scientific ploy and this was
discovered many years ago.
In India the rainy season occurs during the eleventh month
of the Indian calendar. During this time, malaria is widespread
because of the increase in mosquitoes. At least one person in
every household would contract it. The inflicted person would
become bed-ridden and lie on the cot outside his home with fever
and other symptoms common to malaria. The fever due to malaria,
is the fever of pitta (the forces that stimulate bile production) and
not that of kapha or vayu (excessive mucus or gas respectively.
Pitta, kapha and vayu are Ayurvedic terms, which denotes the
three main bio-physiologic compositions of human beings.) During
a bout of malaria, one produces an excessive amount of pitta,
which attracts mosquitoes. People realized that the disease of
malaria would destroy half the population, so they had to come
up with a solution to fast. In order to bring down the fever, they
discovered that a diet high in milk products reduces the excessive
production of bile. That is how kheer and other dishes made
from milk became popular during shradhha. Ordinarily people
could not afford to make kheer everyday.
In reality, the dead do not benefit from these rituals at all.
But people have so much greed that they are not willing to give
even a dime to charity. That is why the ceremony of Shraddha
was contrived so that they would spend their money indirectly
and feed people to honor their late father. And this is how people
became convinced. If an obstinate person like myself does not
follow the tradition, people around him will nag and pressure him
to do so.
Throughout the sixteen days of Shraddha, beginning with
the full moon, families would take turns to feed everyone and this
is how eating kheer for fifteen days became a common practice.
This tradition became convenient because the responsibility to
prepare the meals fell on everyone equally and so people did not
object. At that time people would even say that if a sick person
lived through the sixteen days of Shraddha, he would be fortunate
enough to welcome in the Navratri (festival of the worship of
goddesses during the nine days of the bright halves of Chaitra and
Ashvin months)!
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