When We Worship Our Ancestors and Feed Them

 When We Worship Our Ancestors and Feed Them

During the Indian rainstorm - between Ganesh Utsav and Navratri - Hindus notice Pitr-paksha, a fortnight of the pitr, precursors. This is a dim fortnight of the lunar month, in obscurity half of the year. It is a chance to take care of the dead. Confronting the south, Hindu men across India are seen putting crushed rice balls blended in with dark sesame seeds, known as pinda, on pieces of sod, close to water bodies. They pour water on these pinda in a curious manner, known as tarpana, over the thumb of the right hand that is extended outwards away from the body. Crows are urged to eat this rice.

Each retailer realizes business will be delayed right now. Without a doubt, numerous Hindu families try not to purchase vehicles, houses, or even new garments. No agreements are agreed upon. No weddings directed. This aversion is fascinating for what it uncovers of the equivocal relationship Hindus have with the dead. The progenitors are worshiped and should be taken care of, it's valid. Nonetheless, everything related to death is additionally considered unfavorable and unclean.

Obviously, not all Hindus follow these practices and customs. Hinduism is assorted, dynamic, and complex. Yet, the prevailing standard Hindu comprehension of death comes from the Preta-Kalpa of the Garud Purana, which was formed a long time back, and is as yet perused during memorial service functions. The custom of shradh that includes offering pinda to progenitors can be followed in Grihya-sutra writing, which is north of 2,500 years of age, showing a wonderful congruity of custom. The word 'pitr' utilized for predecessors can be followed even in the Rig Veda, Hinduism's most seasoned sacred writing.

While the act of giving food and gifts to the dead is found in many societies, Hindu traditions are one of a kind as they depend on the mysticism of resurrection, not an everlasting life following death. Hindus accept nothing is long-lasting, not even demise. The dead in the end return to life in living color to reimburse neglected obligations. Life is expected to liberate oneself from the weight of obligations. Taking care of the dead is itself a commitment, a reimbursement of obligation. Those alive owe their life and honor to the dead. The dead rely upon the living to work with their re-visitation of life in living color and keep the circle of life turning.

This thought of timeless return is implanted in the Hindu psyche through custom and story. In Vedic times, the custom field was set burning after a yajna - which is generally expected on account of a memorial service and the raised area was then reconstituted with new blocks. Today, celebrations of Ganesh and Durga are commended for more than ten days and nine evenings to help us to remember ten lunar months and nine sunlight based a long time of pregnancy. After the celebration, mud models of divinity are projected into water bodies, similar to the cinders of the dead. Subsequently, even the divine beings are temporary. They disappear this year however will return one year from now, mirroring the truth of punar mrityu, re-demise, and punar janma, resurrection, referenced in the Upanishads.

In the sanctuary of Jagannath Puri, in Odisha, the god is encapsulated in a splendidly painted picture of wood, fabric, and tar. Each dozen or so years, the god becomes old and requirements to shed his old body. In a mysterious custom, the 'soul' of the divinity is taken out by a blindfolded minister from a mystery office of the old body and set in a mystery office of the new body. The old body is then covered, and the new body is introduced in the sanctuary in excellent service, prepared to encounter the everyday, month-to-month, and yearly ceremonial cycles and by.

One more one-of-a-kind element of death in the Hindu perspective is its relationship with contamination. Assuming the clockwise direction is finished for the divine beings, the counterclockwise direction is saved for progenitors. The people who visit the crematorium are not permitted to go into the house without washing. Those whose innate occupation was to tend burial service fires were considered 'unapproachable', a thought that molded Hinduism's presently unlawful position progressive system.

Hindus share their thoughts of resurrection with different religions of Indian beginning, like Buddhism and Jainism. Fantasies in most different regions of the planet are worked around a solitary life followed by an everlasting existence in the wake of death. Indeed, even in India, there are networks, for example, the Lingayats and the neo-Buddhists who don't put stock in the resurrection. At the point when you accept you live just a single time, this life and this body become unique. Both are recognized with burial chambers and headstones, a training evaded by universal Hindus who believe that the dead should continue on, not stay back.

There is a lot to find out about Hindu culture by moving toward it through its demise customs. (Shortened from Garuda Purana And Other Hindu Thoughts On Death, Resurrection, And Eternality)

D.G.Shastri

Courtesy:  Devdutt Pattanaik