Saturday, March 1, 2008

The rationale behind oblations done to the departed ancestors.

We are continuously taking or borrowing some benefits from

Nature, namely

from the earth, air, water, fire and ether.

We have borrowed from our ancestors too

from 3 - (from parents, grand parents and great grand parents)

to 14 generations that had gone past.

And we are going to give or lend to the coming generations too.

Genetic science confirms that we are carriers of inherited materials

and givers of the same as well.

But it does not tell about what is inherited

from which level of ancestors

and what is going to be passed on to the coming generations.

Perhaps no mortal can ever find out exactly the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of this.

But Sanatana Dharma tells what we have received from

what level of our ancestors,

say, from parents, grand parents and great grand parents.

It also tells about how to pay back

for we have received.

From birth to death,

we borrow something from others

and give something to others.

Every interaction with others involves some kind of

Give and Take.

Give and take ensures equilibrium.

If we are indebted to some one on some account -

monetarily or otherwise, it will be paid back by us,

out of our own volition and awareness.

When such a pay-back does not happen in a birth,

that will be done in a future birth.

Sometimes people have to part with something to someone who may not deserve it.

That is because of the something unpaid in the past.

Likewise, some one losing something is also a kind of payback for something.

In the case of parents, similar give and take exists.

Some times whatever is received from parents from birth,

is paid back either to parents themselves in the same birth

or to the parents in a future birth.

Some times it may happen

that what one does to parents may be a pay back

that one failed to make in a past birth.

It even happens that parents do to their children

but do not get back any from them.

Here, there may be either a pay-back by parents to children,

because they failed to give to their children in a previous birth.

And the children will clear their debts to some parents in future births.

It goes on like this.

But all these situations are about what one receives or gives

from the moment of birth to the moment of death.

But there is something which we don’t

and we can’t pay back to parents!

That is what we received from them while we were in the WOMB!

From the moment of conception,

till the baby is born into the world,

what happens is also a continuous borrowing from Nature

through the parents.

The parents are taking or drawing from the Nature

and giving to the foetus!

Here I say parents,

because though it may seem that it is mother who is drawing from Nature,

in reality, only the genes or some such factors inherited from the parents

which are now part of the baby,

are responsible for how much to draw and what to draw from the elements of Nature.

It is THROUGH parents, the man in foetal form borrows from Nature!

While living, one is able to pay back for whatever one has received from Nature.

(essence of yajna explained in the previous post)

But what one has received while inside the womb is something

which is not directly received from Nature.

Parents become the conduit then.

What is derived or borrowed before one is born,

is paid back through the same medium (parents)

to the same subtler elements of Nature


variously done as tarpaN, sharddha and a daily ritual of pithru yajna!

The parents acted as medium for the borrowings. .

So they become the medium for the payment too.

In other words, we pay back through them.

The borrowing was made when the person was not yet born,

i.e., when the person was still in the subtle state of existence.

So the payment is made to Nature in such subtle form

through the same medium who facilitated the drawl from Nature.

I base this logic on two Pramanas from the store-house of Vedhanga and Vedantha.

First one is about the interpretation of ‘pindam’ that is offered as food to pithrus.

Though this is explained and translated as rice-ball,

there also exists a finer meaning for pinda in Vedanga Jyothisha.

Of the 8 ways to determine a person’s longevity,

one is about ‘Gruha dattha Pindaayur yOga’,

which means ‘the longevity given by the planets to the pinda’

and is calculated based on the planetary position at the time of conception.

The word ‘pinda’ in Sanskrit means the ‘dense mass’

And the pinda in the pindayurdaya yOga refers to the dense mass in the womb!

This is nothing but the ‘foetus’.

The second pramana is derived from an interpretation of the practices

based on Vedic texts.

The Hindu succession or hereditary laws of today are based on such practices only.

The interpretation for who is eligible to inherit the property of a deceased person is

taken from the meaning of ‘sapindi’.

The meaning of this term and other connected issues in our Law system

have been taken from

‘Mitakshara’ written by Vijnaneshwara.

According to Vijnaneshwara.

‘sapinda’ refers to the constituent particles of the deceased person.

That is, sa-pinda are those who have the same body particles of the deceased person.

They are not about anyone’s body particles.

Even siblings share the same body particles.

But they are not ‘sa-pinda’, according to the civil law of India.

But it is not so as per Vedic practices.

In the event of a person dying without any offspring,

the person's brother is entitled to do funeral rites and oblations.

It is because, the brother too possesses the constituent particles,

though in different combination,

from the same set of parents.

Whatever he offers by way of oblations to his deceased brother,

will go to the same parents from whom he has sprung.

But one's own children draw their constituents completely from the parents.

So they are designated as sapinda.

This shows that pinda refers to the same particles as is found in the parent.

For details on sapinda and its interpretation and application in Hindu laws,

browse the following link containing an interesting article

by Justice MaarkandEya Katju of the Supreme Court of India.

What is drawn from Nature for the sake of the ‘pinda’ in the womb

is paid back by the man who had grown from this ‘pinda’,

to those particles he has inherited through his parents,

by means of ‘pinda’- the rice balls in pithru kaaryam.

This seems to be the rationale of

why oblations are done to the departed ancestors

Based on this interpretation only (of Pinda and sapinda),

our Law gives primacy to the biological heir

over others in claiming hereditary rights.

As per this, even if the biological father has married someone else,

and even if the biological father has refused to bequeath his wealth to the biological son,

the biological son can rightfully claim the wealth.

Similarly, even if the biological mother is unchaste to her husband,

and even if she is not living with her husband and married some other person,

she is entitled to receive the properties of her son born to the former husband.

(Law makers of today claim that they are liberal for having enacted this into law

But the credit goes to Vedic wisdom, to Sanatana dharma

which sees every issue in perspective

and assigns merit or demerit to it on the basis of rationalism, harmony and Peace.)

Even if an unrelated person does the funeral rites,

he can not claim the property rights of the deceased person.

Only the biological children have precedence.

That is why it is said that even if a person is not in good terms with his parents

and had not even bothered to take care of them,

had not even seen them for years

and had been estranged with them,

he must not give-up pithru yajna.

Right at the moment of death of father or mother,

time starts ticking for him to pay back to Nature.

Even if he has not attended the funeral,

he must start doing the pithru kaaryam,

at the earliest and start doing it as long as he lives,

for, the 9- month long borrowing happening at womb

is about the elements of Nature at 3 levels of faculties

which must be compensated for.

These 3 levels are the physical, the vital and mental faculties,

inherited from parents, grand parents and great grand parents.

The three level- repayment is received by

the three levels of ‘forms’ of three generation ancestors.

This will be analyzed in the next post.

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