Shraadh Karma- Why do it for your ancestors?

In hindu mythology, it is believed that the good deeds or bad deeds done by us in our past life is reflected in what we are in our present life. Therefore if we do good deeds or karma in this present life, then our next life will be better than the present one. There are five major elements of nature that exists in human bodies. They are fire, earth, water, air and sky. When a person dies, his soul becomes void of the present life and leaves the body and also the two of the five elements of nature – the earth and water elements. Thus, if at this time the body does any good deeds or karma, it won’t be taken into account as it would be considered as an incomplete body. So the any good karma done without any of these five elements will have no effect in the future life because the soul will not have all the elements required to complete the process of karma. In other terms, the soul gets Karmaheen, meaning without any karmas.

It is believed that after a person dies and his soul leaves the body, the soul has to pass through transit worlds till it is reborn again and this journey needs to be followed by everyone. So the process of being reborn again is tough and takes time. Now, let us take an example to understand this concept in a better way. A person has died and his soul has left the body and it has landed in one of the transit worlds. First the soul is taken to Yama lok where his good deeds or bad deeds are taken into account and then it is decided where the soul will go further. For instance, a soul has done very bad deeds or karma, then he will be punished with living in various types of naraks (hell) for the next twenty five earth years. Only after living for these many years, the soul can take rebirth. However, it is believed that the whole process takes forty five years to complete before a soul is given new life. After the completion of forty five years when the soul has settled the accounts with the people with whom he has karmic relation, its rebirth can take place.

It means that once the soul has completed the journey in Yama lok for twenty five years, he will still have twenty years left. During this time, the soul is sent

to Pitra lok (transitory worlds of the ancestors). The soul needs to spend twenty years in this lok and only then he will a chance to be reborn again in a new life. Pitra lok is a place where souls who have spent twenty five years, in different loks depending upon the good karma or bad karma done by them, and have still twenty more years to go. It is believed that every soul has to go through this process of first spending twenty five years in yam lok and the next twenty years in pitra lok. For instance, if a soul has performed good deeds or karma, then he will have to spend twenty five years in the numerous swarg loks (heaven) and then twenty years in pitra lok. After completing this journey of total forty five years, the soul will be permitted to start a new life as a human being.

In the above passage, we have seen the process which every soul has to pass by. Now let us focus on the need to perform shraad which is the basic topic for this article. We shall continue with the above example which says that people die and leave the body and then the soul has to spend the next forty five years in yama lok (twenty five years) and pitra lok (twenty years). If a soul has performed bad deeds, then it will go to hell to change itself and to suffer for its wrong doing. No soul wants to be a part of this narak lok. However, there is no way that the soul can escape from this punishment and has to go through all the sufferings that are given. After this, the soul is able to spend the next twenty years in pitra lok. Only then it will be allowed to take a new life or to

reborn.

There is only one way to come out of the hell but it has to be performed by a human body living on this earth. The human body has to do karma on behalf of the soul and those karmas can then be transferred to the soul by means of vedic rituals. By performing such a deed, the punishment given to the soul may be lessened as good karma has also been added to it which cover up for the bad deeds done by him.

Such a process of transferring the good karmas to the soul of the ancestors is termed as shraad. In other words, the souls of ancestors which do not have a physical body and are in need of good karmas to be added to them, can be performed by a human body. The human body will have to perform good deeds on behalf of the ancestors so that the punishment given to souls who are in hell will be shortened and the suffering and miseries will also be lessened. However, there are also souls which are sent to heaven due to their good deeds done in present life.

A human on earth cannot judge where the soul may be sent. If a soul has performed good karmas in its life, and if a human body also performs good karmas on its behalf, then the enjoyment in heaven increases to some extent and also their next future life will be more peaceful and better than previous ones. In short, whether the soul is in heaven (swarg) or hell (narak),it will benefit by action of good karmas.

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