There are numerous ways to serve humanity, honor the life force, and safeguard self and nature. Giving of ourselves through social service and financial resource to aid the living are ways in which we may help protect the earth’s family. However, in so doing we are asked to remember our indelible connection to the subtler fields and aspects of the universe that protect and safeguard life and with it the knowledge and practice of honoring the ancestors and souls in flight. Our lives are connected to the immutable life force that is physical and spiritual; tangible and invisible – an inner force of nature that stretches beyond the mortal coil of living into infinite celestial space. At this pivotal time in human life, the most important understanding we can offer to our humanity is neither physical/emotional, nor financial. It is the practice of seva – spiritual service that helps to restore ancestral memory so that we may heal the long ignored rift with the spirit world. Honoring ancestors not only brings an immediate sense of comfort to bereaved families but also helps to resolve the memory of shock and awe carried in the subtle body of those individuals who perished in the wake of violence. By honoring, loving, feeding, and nourishing the ancestors we may once again earn their palpable grace in both the physical and subtle fields of existence.

    As evidenced by the devastation caused by the recent Tsunami disaster in South East Asia that has taken more than 200,000 lives in Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and wreaked havoc in many more countries on the coast of the Indian Ocean – we are in desperate need of appeasing the ancestors. The indescribable collective agony felt during this time is highly palpable and serves to remind us of the unbroken thread of compassion that links each of us in spirit.

    The Vedic sages recognized that each of us exists as an inter-dependent being, and that we are all linked to the universe through our ancestry. They predicted that the collective grief of the modern world would be caused by the loss of our ancestral memory: that human memory impairment will be the most crucial cause for the breakdown of dharma –cosmic and social intelligence - that guides and safeguards our living values and purpose as they relate to self, family, community, and nature. They understood that honoring all the ancestors keeps us in living harmony with our forebears and the whole of humanity.

    According to the Hindu tradition, one of the highest universal laws is Pitri Rina, repaying our debt to the ancestors, who include parents, grandparents, and spiritual teachers. Our ancestral lineages are not limited to those with whom we share a genetic heritage. Vedic seers have bequeathed humanity with a vast wellspring of knowledge and ceremony which, when understood and practiced in rhythm with nature, serves to retain the memory of consciousness on earth. At early dawn in India, millions of Hindus may be seen offering oblations to their ancestors in the holy rivers. Priests prepare sacred water as an offering to the departed souls with the chanting of mantras. Customarily, the sacred water is poured from a spoon shaped vessel called kosha into the Ganges, the sacred conduit through which the offering reaches the souls of the deceased forefathers. This ritual of offering water to the souls of one’s predecessor is called tarpana. This cosmic obligation must be tended to so that the influence of the ancestral spirits will grace our lives and purpose.

    Offerings of grain, water, and milk are made to appease the ancestors. These sacred offerings are said to nourish and nurture the ancestors and give strength to the subtle body (sukshma sarira) of the departing soul thusly providing it with a transient body necessary to ensure its safe travel (and ours when the time comes) to the blissful abode among the Pitris, or divine fathers. According to the Vedas, at the eve of the body’s death the individual soul leaves the body while contracting its energies into the core of its subtle body. The Vedas prescribe cremation as a sacred way of dissolving the physical body thereby purifying it through fire so that the soul may be released with ease from the gross physical body. Following the body’s cremation, a linga-sarira – or transitory frame that bridges the physical body to the subtle body is required for the ascension of the soul, preta, to the celestial realm where the ancestors reside. Without the provision of a linga-sarira, the soul may be trapped in the lower ethers, and held there as an impure being unable to progress to its proper destination. According to the Sama Veda, it takes a full year for the departed soul to reach Pitri Loka - the abode of the Pitris where the ancestors reside.

    A profound ceremony known as Shraddha is performed by the Hindus for twelve days immediately following a person’s demise in order to ensure that the soul reaches its proper destination. This ceremony is best performed on sacred ground at the edge of a river. These rites are generally performed by the eldest son of the family. Guided by a priest, the son makes the ritual offerings to the departed, as well as for three generations of the fathers. Twelve days of rituals and food offerings are conducted for the departing soul so as to furbish it with the necessary transitory body.

On the first day of the ceremony, balls made from rice flour and cow’s milk are made and placed on blades of kusha grass on the earth. Three rice balls are shared in the first offering – the first of which is offered to the sacred water – symbolizing Soma - the moon deity whose gratification protects the Pitris. To fulfill the Pitris’s desire for progeny on earth, the second share is imbibed by the spouse of the officiating man of the ceremony. The third rice ball is offered to Agni – deity of fire - whose protection is invoked for auspicious conduct of the ceremony. Having pleased the Pitris with the sacred food, they grant the fruition of all wishes to the one who makes the offering. Thereafter, a rice ball is offered with sacred water to the journeying soul, preta, on each of the twelve days. This nourishment is meant to endow the departing soul with the requisite transitory frame and limbs of the required “body” for its successful travel. On the twelfth day, the rice ball is offered for securing the head of the transitory body. Completing its fitting ensemble for the soul’s journey to the Pitris, the petra is then considered a deity, sacred being, equipped for its successful travel. A portion of the sacred food offering is also given to the cows and crows - animal friends of the ancestors whose stoic connection to them provide them with an impenetrable sense of nature’s mood. Each year, this ritual practice is observed by Hindus during Pitri Paksha - a fortnight that begins on the last autumnal full moon. This practice helps to revive our memory of the ancestors whose gratification is responsible for keeping the human spirit happy.

    Indeed, the past year has manifested manifold layers of disasters that reveal the unhappiness of our ancestors. As we can see, the season of the ancestor arrived with tremendous fierceness that witnessed the Tsunami disaster and thousands of unfortunate incidents worldwide. Among them the trail of thirteen hurricanes ravaging the South Eastern seaboard of USA, a typhoon followed by a lethal series of earthquakes in Japan, a deadly cyclone in India, catastrophic explosion in the coal mines of China, worsening of the wars in Iraq and the Middle East, and devastating genocide of native Africans in Sudan.

    Each year the time of the ancestor stretches farther into cosmic unrest. A disturbing trend is that the impact of natural and related disasters to the already vulnerable populations has increased steadily over a period of time. The number of people at risk has shown an increase of some 70 million a year during recent years. As you may recall September 11th, 2001, this terrible disaster also occurred during Pitri Paksha. We must make gentle and calm the recurring cycles churning nature within and without that have come to bode the ancestral season on earth. We can begin our personal practice of honoring and appeasing our ancestors by making small personal sacrifices on a daily basis with the ancestors in mind. Offer food to the poor and the hungry. Give your seat to an elderly or disadvantaged person on the bus or train. Devote an hour a week or month to community service. Say a prayer to alleviate suffering. Offer a pound of rice to a homeless shelter. Visit a nursing home. Fast one day a month for world peace. Make a conscious effort not to injure, pollute, or otherwise compromise the earth, her rivers, animals, plants, and environment. The highest personal sacrifice we can make is to embrace a spirit of reverence for nature and work toward healing the indescribable damage we humans bring to the planet.

   With a personal sacrifice, we give something of ourselves—food, attentiveness, time, and money, and most importantly, our commitment to reclaim ancestral memory. The Vedic seers inform, “Sacrifices are the actions through which we receive sustenance from the earth and by which we return equal nourishment to her.” They tell us that giving back to nature not only pleases our ancestors but helps us develop inner consciousness. When we awaken our ancestral memories, we will remember the meaning and purpose of our lives.

    Many religions and cultures have their own specific rituals in memory of loved ones and ancestors. You may want to learn more about the practices from your own cultural or religious background. You may also wish to honor your ancestors particularly during the time of Pitri Paksha when millions of people around the world are doing so, as they have for thousands of years. Uncovering and gathering information about our ancestral past is not always an easy task. Many of us have lost the connection with our ancestral lineage through adoption or migration, as my people did. You may choose to offer prayers and oblations to the ancestors at any time. Each opportunity provides an excellent chance to reconnect emotionally and spiritually to the memory and vibration of your forebears, even if you do not have specific historical details. You may begin to resonate with them through your dream state, feel their palpable grace protecting you in ways you are not always aware of, or feel drawn toward the life ways of a certain culture or tradition.

    At this time of great vulnerability, I invite you to connect to the powerful energy of ancestors. May these challenging events of the day serve as a metaphor not for the eruption of nature and erosion of dharma, but for retrieval of healing ways that may restore our human dignity. You may observe the following ritual and recite the mantra at the death anniversary of a loved one, on any day of the year; the period of Pitri Paksha is when the offering is required.
    On a moon calendar, find the date of the last new moon in September. (This moon generally occurs toward the end of September or beginning of October.)

Vedic Ancestral Ceremony - The Practice:

    Om Namah Sivaya

Honoring Ancestor Conference, 2006