The great advantage of working in a Central government department is that it enables a person to serve in different parts of the country and visit famous pilgrimage towns and tourist attractions. While serving in Patna as Commissioner, the holy town of Gaya was in my jurisdiction. I had known that it was a renowned place of pilgrimage, hence expressed my keen desire to visit the place. Gaya was about 100 km from Patna, and we set out on a pilgrimage. En route, I was informed that Gaya Pind Daan or Shraadh was an auspicious ceremony performed for the well-being of ancestors, so I decided to have this ceremony done.
At the appointed time, we reached the banks of the Phalgu River for the performance of the rituals. The Phalgu River is revered by both Hindus and Buddhists. It is also known as Niranjana. The water in the river flows only during the monsoon months and is said to be flowing at other times under the riverbed due to the curse of Goddess Sita.
The pious Brahmin priest started the proceedings by enlightening the need for performing the Shraadh ceremony. This ceremony is performed by the living as a humble offering for the well-being of the souls of dead ancestors. We are what we are today, because of the toil, hardships and sufferings of our bygone ancestors. They never had the pleasures or the comforts we enjoy today, the innumerable facilities that make our living easy, healthy and satisfying. Their lives were a constant struggle with inclement weather, famine, droughts, barbaric invaders, killings, destruction and abductions of women and children by foreign marauders. Each succeeding generation of our ancestors struggled so that the next generation could be safer and happier.
Birth and death are a phenomenon for all living beings on this planet. It occurs 24×7, and check-in and check-out are happening in millions, it is an amazing and bewildering happening, as the vertical becomes the horizontal! While birth happens in specific ways and even the time of occurrence can be estimated, death occurs in innumerable ways and manners. This routine has been going on for millions of years, yet, the next journey of the soul is unknown to all. The simple Shraadh ceremony is a gift by the living, to their ancestors, an expression of solidarity, which would enable the souls of ancestors to ascend to higher planes of existence, without stagnating at any of those levels.
The Shraadh performed at Gaya gets a hallowed status because Lord Brahma performed the first Pind Daan here. Lord Shiva and Lord Rama had also performed the ritual on this sacred land, hence the special importance of Gaya Shraadh. Lord Rama, who lived approximately 12 lakh years ago in the Treta Yuga, is believed to have performed this ceremony for his father King Dashrath, at the spot called Sita Kunda. Gaya also derives importance from the fact that it is the site where Maharishi Veda Vyas wrote the Bhagavad Gita and the Puranas.
The rituals started on the banks of the Phalgu River. The Kurma Purana (34/7-8) explains that all forefathers accept Shraadh rituals performed at Gaya by their descendants. The souls of ancestors expect that some descendant will one day come to Gaya and perform the Shraadh for their benefit. Once it is performed in Gaya, the doer is blessed and seven generations from the paternal and maternal side are benefited along with the personal self who achieve moksha or liberation, from the level where they exist.
Imagine, the ceremony covers seven previous generations, and if their life span is reckoned as 50 years for each person, each Shraadh ceremony performed covers an amazing time span of a minimum of 350 years! Such a ceremony is unparalleled in any other belief system in this world. The Vishnu Purana, one of the 18 major Purana texts of Hinduism, mentions the number of species on earth to be around 84 lahks or 8.4 million. In the holy Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna reveals to Arjuna that the soul passes through 8.4 million bodies and in the end gets a human life. The journey covers a broad spectrum comprising beings that are born in water, immovables like plants and trees, microbes, insects, reptiles, birds, animals and humans. In this itself, there are those that are egg born, seed born, sweat born, and womb born. Today, scientists opine that nearly 8.7 million Eukaryotic species exist on Earth!
Hinduism views death as part of the greater cycle of life and rebirth, known as Samsara or “flowing around.” After the human birth, the soul moves into different celestial dimensions.
Verse 7.25.1 from Chandogya Upanishad is illuminating:
“स एवाधस्तात्स उपरिष्टात्स पश्चात्स पुरस्तात्स दक्षिणतः स उत्तरतः स एवेदं सर्वमित्यथातोऽहंकारादेश एवाहमेवाधस्तादहमुपरिष्टादहं पश्चादहं पुरस्तादहं दक्षिणतोऽहमुत्तरतोऽहमेवेदं सर्वमिति ॥ ७.२५.१ ॥
“That bhūmā is below; it is above; it is behind; it is in front; it is to the right; it is to the left. All this is bhūmā. Now, as regards one’s own identity: I am below; I am above; I am behind; I am in front; I am to the right; I am to the left. I am all this.”
Touching the simple offerings of flowers, fruits, water, rice-ball and sesame seeds, all different from me in texture, size, and composition, was instilling in me, a greater truth, that everything is connected divinely. This global interconnectedness is spelt out in the Yogic philosophy “isavasyam idam sarvam” – everything in the entire universe is enveloped by God.
The Brahmin priest kept up the incantations, imploring souls of many past generations, to partake in the Shraadh ceremony, unknown faces, names, that could not be recalled; the invite to partake was extended to even souls of those who served in the households, long departed pets, even trees, flowers, as all had the yearning that someday, some descendant would come to Gaya and perform Shraadh rites which would benefit those inhabiting different cosmic dimensions and those continuing on Earth, for a repeat life, for Karmic improvements, to understand the magnificent truth of ‘Aham Brahmasmi’, a Mahavakya.
This term derived from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad when the sage, in the context of meditation on the Self, in reply to the query ‘What did that Brahman know by which It became all?’ states: “ब्रह्म वा इदमग्र आसीत्, तदात्मनामेवावेत्, अहं ब्रह्मास्मीति | तस्मात्तत्सर्वमभवत्; तद्यो यो देवानां प्रत्यबुध्यत स एव तदभवत्, तदषीर्णाम् तथा मनुष्याणाम्,..”
“This (self) was indeed Brahman in the beginning; It knew only Itself as “I am Brahman”. Therefore, It became all; and whoever among the gods knew, It also became That; and the same with sages and men…” – (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad I.iv.10) – “Aham Brahmasmi” – “I am one with the Universe and the Universe is part of me.”
This linkage and interconnectedness, deep and sweeping, this great association of all living beings, the expansive bio-diversity, souls inhabiting different levels of cosmic worlds, all stand united in the Shraadh ceremony, epitomising that all belong to one grand universal family, as proclaimed in Chapter 6 of Maha Upanishad VI.71-73.
“अयं निजः परो वेति गणना लघुचेतसाम्। (Ayam Nijah Paro Veti Ganana Laghucetasam)
उदारचरितानां तु वसुधैव कुटुम्बकम्॥ (Udaracaritanam Tu Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam)”
No belief system, anywhere else in the world, has such an astonishing breadth of vision, to encompass every living entity from a blade of grass to a human being – ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’. What a great proclamation!
Proceeding to the Garbha Griha or the Sanctum Sanctorum of the famous Vishnupad Temple for completion of the Shraadh ceremony culminates by worshipping a 40 cm long unique footprint of Lord Vishnu, imprinted on a rock. The Rig Veda mantra (1.22.20) says: “तद्विष्णो॑: पर॒मं प॒दं सदा॑ पश्यन्ति सू॒रय॑: । दि॒वी॑व॒ चक्षु॒रात॑तम् ॥“
“The divine feet of our holy Lord are like the sun above our heads.”
This feet is unique having nine symbols of Lord Vishnu. It is a constant reminder that this Universe is controlled by many unseen and intangible forces. The human brain has around 10,000,000,000, to 14,000,000,000 nerve cells in the cerebral cortex, arranged in a definite pattern. These help not only in communication but also to comprehend, in a limited way, the intangible forces that control the entire Universe. The simple act, of symbolically touching the Lord’s feet reverentially, spurs a mental stimulation that enables us to understand in a small way, the intangible force, that connects all beings to the stupendous universal energy pervading the cosmos. “तत् त्वम् असि” is the central theme of Advaita philosophy, and is frequently repeated in the sixth chapter of the Chandogya Upanishad, (6.8.7). The doctrine of “तत् त्वम् असि” unites the macrocosmic ideas of God and universal consciousness with the microcosmic individual expression of the Self.
Stepping out of the temple, there is a deep satisfaction that the Shraadh ceremony was a thought impulse sent to the supreme power governing the Universe to keep the souls of the departed, peaceful and contented, wherever they be, whether in some unknown celestial zone or being reprocessed on Earth, into fresh life-forms for further Karmic refinements.
Dr G Shreekumar Menon IRS (Rtd), PhD (Narcotics), is Former Director General, National Academy of Customs, Indirect Taxes & Narcotics. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
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