|| "Shradh" Paksh ||

Question : As we all know from tomorrow onwards shradh paksha is going to start..we all pray for our dear ones who are not with us..we do believe in as our family is following these rituals since years..but still dont know what is the real way to do..what if we cant give food to cow..! What if we cant put food on the terrace..really..are these the ways to do shradh..? Or there are other ways as well....please share may be many of us dont know about it. Please mention the importance of shradh too and why?

Answer: Very nice question , Many of us do not understand the meaning and importance of shradh and knowingly became a victim of "Pitru Dosh" ,The importance and execution of shradh is been explained in Garud Puran(majory recite during the time when someone die. )

Reason: Many of our forefather who was not  liberated and destined to live in Pitrulok because of  the reasons ,such as  attachment to ancestors, attachment to Material Objects ,Karmic reactions etc, In this zone the soul serves out its karmic correction sentences. Pitrus are not able to get relief from the sensory demands and conditions of the body ( mainly Hunger , thrust ,pain , fatigue) because their material body is destroyed and they are not able to satisfy any of these sensual demands ,the deep routed attachment and suffering became a cause of their sufferings ,

  In search of relief, they are attracted to living entities on the earth planet that are their descendants from previous and current lifetimes and are karmic debtors to them. The ancestors are fed once a day (once in 24 hours) according to their time zone. This is equivalent to every 12 months on the earth plane. This once-a-year period is recognized as the 'Shradh' period.

      During these period we cook the best food (generally the most favourite items of the departed souls )and offer it to the Cows or Crows , its says that these animals and birds became the channel to communicate  with those departed souls.

 Pros and Cons : its very essential to perform shradh as it says in Geeta chapter 1.41

                        " Due to the non performance of rituals like pinda shraddha and offering water to deceased ancestors etc. the ancestors of such people (who do not perform Shraddha) have to reside in the Hell region. " 

 

 take a example of Jail  ,if we are in jail and suffer with the kind of hunger, thrust ,the family living outside of jail arrange our food stuff so we could finish our tenure peacefully , in returns we will be thankful to them  and give a tons of blessing , same way by executing this ritual we , being a responsible family member execute a service of providing arrangements of our loved once who left from this planets , pitra benedictions  plays a  very important role of being happy materially  , who don't do that , became a victim of pitra dosha and effect by material calamities ( List of calamities is mention in Astrology ) .

What are the Best way to Execute this Shradh  ?: as you mention if we are living out side of india then how could we find cow or crow to eat those food stuff ?

Ans : there are many people who is been effected by Ghost or Vitness the Ghost or spirit in their house , sometimes those are forefathers or sometime someone was not happy during their  departure from this planet and seen many times in daily life !!! The solution for those issue is "Narayan Bali Shradh" , this is the Top Most Shradh available on this planet to deliver  the suffering souls  in  the Ghost body ,   when we check in details , those narayan bali shradh is basically making  laddu  of atta, ghee , gud etc and offers them to lord narayan and later offer it to your forefathers

so in short its a prashad of narayan being offered to your forefather and by eating those prashad they get delivered !!!

So this process was easily approachable in Bhakti Yoga , by bhakti yoga we can do this narayanbali shradh every day :) , how ? you prepared the best items which your forefathers likes , offer it with love and devotion to Lord Narayan ( krishna , Ram) and later in your mind pray your forefather to accept it , is that hard ? i am sure we all can do it very easily and deliver  our forefather , and why only during shradh time , do this every day , wouldn't they be happy and putt on weight :) ,

Bhakti Yog is very effective though very simple , gives a highest benefit though very easy to execute , if you want to do it more professionally , then offer feast in nearest Krishna temple( any temple who keep voshnu /krishna in center and cook the items with topmost protocol ) then they will offered it to Krishna and then to  the devotes or bhakt , its much higher then looking for Cows or Crows ,

on the same incident it reminds me the story of Ramanuja charya , when he was a student , his teacher was a very famous karma kandi and was famous in dealing with ghost and rakshas , once upon a time , the king;s daughter was  possessed  by a BrahmaRakshas , so they called the Teacher of Ramanuja , he tries many times but girls situation wasn't change     , then the brahma rakshas speak ," O Yadavprakash ( Teacher of Ramanuj) you was a  lizard in your last birth , was leaving in a well , who was situated near a temple of Narayan ,people passing by ,through their remnant of prashad and by eating  you became human in this life , you do not have  power to tackle   me , and O king if you want to save your girl then please call the student of this yadavprakash whose name is ramanuja and ask him to place his feet on this girl ! immediately king call shree ramanuja and he place his feet on that girl and brahma rakshas delivered , so that's a power of prashad  and devotee, a soul living in a low body got delivered ( lizard to Braman, and Brahma rakshas liberated)  , same way the forefather living in pitra lok will delivered by executing this process by you :),

        and if you are smart enough you do not want to go in these pitra loka as you never know what kind of grandson and great grandson you will get !! so eat every time The  Lord  Narayan's prashad  while you are in this body and make your life successful , so after we die we don't need to depends on anyone ,

the same process in the western country is known as Halloween , if we read the history of these festival you will understand that its the same process of shradh what  we execute in india , its a different story that how and why its been degraded and adopt a face of festival of Ghost !!