It’s payback time

Of all the festivals and rituals of the Hindus, ‘shradhs’ (beginning today) are oooa class apart and manifest a unique offering gesture to the ancestors.

Of all the festivals and rituals of the Hindus, ‘shradhs’ (beginning today) are oooa class apart and manifest a unique offering gesture to the ancestors.

HT Image

It is believed that one owes three main debts: ‘Deva rina’ (debt of forefathers), Rishi rina (debt of guru) and Pitra rina (debt of parents).

One must payoff these debts with utmost humility and respect.

Krishna says “Patram pushpam phalam yo mein bhaktaya pragachhati tadyan bhakatihuhrim charami prayatataman” (Just as I accept the offerings made to me, so do the ancestors accept them with the pleasure and bless the grateful descendants.)

While mostly people observe shradhs at their own places, the more devout of them perform the rites at designated holy places.

Gaya in Bihar is considered the holiest.

A ‘pinda daan’ (a part of the ceremony) is supposed to liberate all souls from the control of Yama and help them attain moksha (salvation).

Gaya derives its name from a demon called ‘Gayasura’. Legend has it that after a severe penance, the demon Gayasura pleased Vishnu and was granted a boon that whoever would touch him will be allowed a place in heaven.

One day when the demon sat for worship on the banks of river Phalgu after a bath, the gods not only put a big stone over his head to render him immobile, but even persuaded Lord Vishnu to put his feet on the stone.

Seeing Lord Vishnu on the side of the gods, Gayasura asked for another boon.

The demon stretched his body to four ‘yojans’ (approximately 32 miles) and requested that the place may be named after him and one finds the Vishnupada temple built over there with the footprints of Lord Vishnu.

Shradhs seem to be the outcome of the ‘karma’ theory to which all Hindus subscribe to rather fruitfully and maintain relationship till eternity.

Like King Mahabali, who visits Kerala during the Onam celebrations to perpetuate the ties for ever onwards, so the shradhs seem to build bridges between the ‘living and the dead’.