“Gaya Shraadham”
The sastra lays down that shraaddham, (Sanskrit srddha, often written sraddha), is a ceremony held in honour of the memory of a deceased ancestor.
All male Hindus are required to perform the ceremony, which is both a social and religious obligation (with the exception of some sannyasis, or ascetics). For the departed parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents, the rite is primarily done but it is a matter of firm belief in the Hindu religion that the purpose of “shraadham” is to nurture, protect, and sustain the dead’s spirits of all one’s ancestors on their onward journey from the lower to higher — or highest ever — realms of spiritual consciousness and liberation (moksha).
According to Hindu mythology, the soul must wander through numerous states of consciousness after mortal death. The male offspring of the soul, the son, owes a duty and debt of gratitude to the parent soul to help it along the way on its onward cosmic journey. The “shraadham” is thus a rite in which the son’s obligation to the departed ancestors are repaid. According to Hindu belief, the departed souls of one’s ancestors wander after death until pindadaanam, or religious service seeking salvation for the dead from the cycle of endless rebirth, is performed.
Pindadaanam is traditionally offered on the banks of the Phalguni River at Gaya. The rituals are performed at the Vishnupad Mandir. Priests, known as Gaywal-pandas, conduct the ritual. Thousands of Hindus visit Gaya to propitiate their ancestors’ spirits and help them to attain the highest heavens.
The significance of “Gaya Shraddham” is explained in great depth in Hindu Vedic scriptures such as the Agni Purana, Garuda Purana, and Vayu Purana. The “Gaya “Mahaatmyam” (the “sthala purana” or local purana) also sheds much light on the tradition and customs of shraadham ceremony at Gaya.
*************
At Gaya Lord Ram and Maathaa Sita conducted the the “shraadham” for King Dasaratha, on the banks of Phalguni River. Since then the place, that came to be later known as Gaya, became the holies of holy spots for all Hindus to perform at least once in their lifetime the rites of Shraadham, Homam, Pinda Pradaanam & Asthi Visarjanam.
The Valmiki Ramayana (Ayodhya Kaandam, Cantos- 102 onwards) does mention the fact that Sri Rama, Sita and Lakshmana, who were in exile wandering through the forests of Chitrakoot, upon hearing from Bharatha about the shocking news of his father, Dasaratha’s death back in Ayodhya, hastened to offer libations to the departed soul. But the River banks on which Rama performed the funerary rite is mentioned by Valmiki to be the River Mandakini not River Phalguni (which happens to be a sub-tributary of the other tributary of the River Ganga called River Punpun). It is not improbable nevertheless to conclude that while Rama performed the last rites for his father on the banks of the Mandakini immediately upon learning about the king’s death, he perhaps sometime a year later, and during his wanderings in the forests of Dandakaranya, came upon the River Phalguni, where together with his wife and brother, duly performed the full-fledged anniversary “shraadham” ceremony.
The purana tells us that Rama, along with his brothers and Sita, came to the banks of the Phalguni at Gaya to perform the sacred rites for his father, Dasaratha. When the brothers were bathing in the river, Sita was sitting on the banks, idly watching the serene surroundings as she was kneading the sand or river banks into small balls (pindam) . Suddenly, Dasaratha appeared out of the sand, and asked for the Pindam, saying he was hungry. Sita asked him to wait till his sons returned, so that she could give him the traditional Pindam of rice and til or sesame seeds. He refused to wait, asking her to give him pindams made of the sand she was rolling in her hands.
Having no other option, she gave him the Pindam he desired but did so by calling upon five witnesses present at the scene – the Akshaya Vatam (a vaulting banyan tree), the Phalguni River, a cow, a Tulsi plant (basil) and a Brahmin priest.
Soon, Rama returned and wanted to start the rituals. In those days it is believed, the spirits of the ancestors would arrive in disembodied form to collect their victual themselves, and when Dasaratha did not appear, they wondered why. Sita then told them what had happened, but Rama could not believe that his father would accept pindams made of sand. Sita turned to and asked her her 5 witnesses to testify, and asked them to tell Rama the truth.
Among the five, only the Akshaya Vatam took her side and spoke the truth, while the others remained mute, fearing Rama’s ire. Put in a bit of a spot by the 4 mute witnesses, Sita became angry and cursed all of them thus: the Phalguni river henceforth would run dry at Gaya; the Cow would no longer be worshipped from the front as all others are — but only from its posterior; there would be no more Tulsi plants growing at Gaya and the whole community of Gaya Brahmins would never be able to satiate their appetites i.e. they would always be hungry and crave more and more. She then however blessed the Akshaya Vatam saying that all who came to Gaya would, in honour of the banyan tree, perform the Pinda pradaanam beneath the branches of the Akshaya Vatam too.
*****************
The Gaya Mahaathmaya purana has one other account of how and why Gaya came to be regarded as the most sacred of places where the “shraadham” ceremonies are to be performed by all Hindus. It is the story of the ancient Vishnu Paadam temple situated on a hillock on the banks of the Phalguni.
The Vishnupada temple is the center for Shraddha rites in Gaya.
Once a demon known as Gayasura, did a severe penance, and as reward he sought a boon from the gods that whoever as much as merely set eyes upon him should attain salvation (Moksham) instantly. Since salvation is achieved through being righteous in one’s lifetime, people started obtaining it easily instead by simply making a beeline to where Gayasura lived to have his darshan and obtain salvation. This became a great moral hazard. Hence, to prevent immoral people from attaining salvation, Lord Vishnu asked Gayasura to go beneath the earth — out of sight of all mortals — and did so by placing his right foot on asura’s head and submerged him underground.
Gayasura now pushed under the earth’s surface and out of sight, pleaded for food and sustenance. Lord Vishnu gave him a boon that every day, some devout people would always come to offer him victuals in the form of oblations to their own ancestors, and of which he too could partake. And whoever did so, Vishnu assured Gayasura, the souls of those ancestors would attain salvation in the highest heavens. The day Gayasura doesn’t get such food, the purana foretells, Gayasura would emerge again from out of the bowels of the earth.
It is thus that ever since then, every day, people from one or other different parts of India, all flock to Gaya and the Vishnu Paadam temple to pray for the welfare of departed souls as well as to ritually offer food to the good Asura named Gayasura.
After pushing Gayasura below the surface of earth, Lord Vishnu’s foot print remained on the surface that is seen today today inside the temple. The temple features a 40-cm footprint purported to be of Lord Vishnu that is etched into a block of basalt, known as Dharmasila. The sacreed footprint is called Vishnu Paadam. It consists of nine different symbols — including Shankam, Chakram and Gadham, the divine weapons of Vishnu. The present day structure of the temple was rebuilt by Devi Ahalya Bai Holkar, the ruler of Indore, in 1787 CE.
*******************
The Gaya Shraadham ritual conducted as per the Sastra comprises the following procedures over which the Gaya-brahmin priests officiate and help one to complete:
(1) Palghuni Theerthasnana (2) maha sankalpam Palghuni Theerthasnanam (3) Palghuni Hiranya srardham (4) Pinda dhanam, kshetra pinda dhanam, (5) thila tharpanam (6) Vishnu padha hiranya srardham pinda pradhanam kshetra pinda dhanam (7) vishnu padha dharisanam (8) Mathru shodachi (9) Akshya vata anna srardham (with homam) Pinda pradhanam kshethra pinda pradhanam (10) Mathru Shodachi Shaka, patra, pala dhanam Bodhi vruksha Dharshan (11) Braahmana bhojana, dakshina and vastra daanam.
The above rites can take anywhere between 4 to 5 hours to complete — all through the forenoon and early mid-afternoon.
******************
Before I continue my narration of my journey of pilgrimage to Gaya, I would like to pause here and pen a few of my personal thoughts on the rather disputatious subject of Rituals.
After reading the above accounts I have detailed about Gaya, it would not surprise me if some of you readers feel that the whole concept of “Gaya Shraadham” is nothing but ritualistic mumbo-jumbo. To the un-Vedic mind it might even seem like “Hindu superstition” so little to do with true spiritualism.
To so many of us who are recipients of modern education in the secular arts and sciences, Ritualism is rather abhorrent. Many of us find it difficult to believe that Ritual can have any meaning and great purpose in life. We derogatively often dismiss it as “empty, mechanical, unthinking motions of blind belief“. The discarding of ritual from our lives has become something of virtue-signalling amongst young, urbane or the highly educated in Hindu society.
The Gaya Shraadham, with its central, underlying theme of Death — of Spirits wandering about in the netherworld seeking redemption from mortal bondage and waiting for that ultimate salvation called “moksha” — might appear to many young, modern minds as being rather morbid and overly sacerdotal.
To those sceptical minds, and to such readers of mine with a scientific or rational bent of mind, this detailed account of how I went about assiduously performing all the Shraadham rituals at Gaya (and at Kashi and Prayag) in accordance with the letter and spirit of the sastra, might in all probability suggest excessive sentimentalism…. even ritualistic over self-indulgence or brahminical fussiness carried to extremes.
To those readers, I have only this to say by way of explanation. And it is not to be ever misconstrued as any sort of defence or any kind of apologia on my part for the abiding faith I place in ancient Hindu rituals such as the Gaya Shraadham.
**************
It is my faith in the Srimadh Valmiki Ramayana to be a book of enduring Spiritual Truths that makes me believe firmly the Gaya Shraadham is indeed purposeful. In the example of Sri Rama himself, and through a careful reading of his deeds as recounted by Rishi Valmiki, I find that I am able to appreciate the moral necessity as well as the spiritual validity of the Shraadham rite.
Let me try and amplify what I mean to convey.
— Death is as fundamentally related to Life as night is to day.
— Death is an experience we can know nothing about ourselves through the dint of our own effort or inquiry, whether scientific or otherwise, and no matter how rigorous or relentless.
— We tend to look upon Death as the end of Life and which is the prime cause of the fear of death, or of the perennial anxiety over it which is universal human affliction. Those fears and anxieties lie deep below our conscious or even subconscious minds.
— While we are alive, we experience only the second-hand version of Death. We see many around us pass away — either suddenly in some tragic accident, or from some deadly disease or in some natural calamity that strikes … or, as mostly is the case, out of causes of natural ageing. We watch people around us die and vanish forever. But we cannot ever fathom — nor do we ever want to dwell upon the subject — where the dead could have gone away, or how they went away or whatever might have happened to them…. There is no way for us to know and understand Death through first-hand experience and that is exactly what the poet Omar Khayyam in his Rubbaiyat described as the Door of Darkness:
Strange, is it not? that of the myriads who
Before us pass’d the door of Darkness through,
Not one returns to tell us of the Road,
Which to discover we must travel too.
— When the death of a near and loved one happens — say, one’s child, spouse or mother or father — Death all of a sudden does not seem all that very second-hand or safely distanced…. I remember 20-odd years ago when my mother passed away very suddenly, her death left me devastated. Death then was no longer second-hand… It felt like it was nearly first-hand experience. All of a sudden, the “Door of Darkness” seemed to open up for me, dragging me into an abyss of grief.
******************
It is precisely the “nearly first-hand experience of what Death really is” that Rishi Valmiki describes in the Ramayana when Rama was told about the death of his father, Dasaratha. It is a scene worth reproducing here below in the original to underscore the point I wish to make, generally, about all Rituals:
तां श्रुत्वा करुणां वाचं पितुर्मरणसंहिताम्। राघवो भरते नोक्तां बभूव गतचेतनः।।2.1 02.1।।
Having heard the words of Bharata regarding the death of his father, Rama fell down unconscious.
तं तु वज्रमिवोत्सृष्टमाहवे दानवारिणा वाग्वज्रंभरते नोक्त ममनोज्ञं परन्तपः।।2.102.2।।
प्रगृह्य रामो बाहू वैपुष्पिताग्रो यथा द्रुमः। वने परशुना कृत्तस्तथा भुवि पपात ह।।2.102.3।।
On hearing the words spoken by Bharata that struck him like terrible thunder, Rama’s mind went numb; afflicted, as if hit by a thunderbolt hurled by Indra in battle! Rama, the valiant scorcher of enemies, lay limp on the ground, stretched lifeless, with both his arms dangling like the branches of a forest tree severed by the blow of a vicious axe!
तथा हि पतितं रामं जगत्यां जगतीपतिम्। कूलघातपरिश्रान्तं प्रसुप्तमिव कुञ्जरम्।।2.102. 4।।
भ्रातरस्ते महेष्वासं सर्वतश्शोककर्शितम्। रुदन्तस्सह वैदेह्या सिषिचुस्सलिलेन वै।।2.102.5।।
The anxious brothers (Bharatha and Lakshmana) beside him, with wife Sita lamenting, they sprinkled water on Rama’s face. He who was a mighty warrior now lay on the ground, paralyzed with grief — like a mighty he-elephant exhausted from repeatedly climbing without any success a steep river bank.
स तु संज्ञां पुनर्लब्ध्वा नेत्राभ्यामस्रमुत्सृजन्। उपाक्रामत काकुत्स्थ कृपणं बहु भाषितुम्।।2.102.6।।
On slowly recovering and reviving, Rama regained consciousness; he began shedding tears profusely, and started wailing in piteous tones.
किं नु तस्य मया कार्यं दुर्जातेन महात्मनः। यो मृतो मम शोकेन मया चापि न संस्कृतः।।2.102.9।।
I could not even perform the last rites of that magnanimous one who died of grief on account of me. What use is my life with an unlucky birth?
अहो भरत सिद्धार्थो येन राजा त्वयाऽनघ। शत्रुघ्नेन च सर्वेषु प्रेतकृत्येषु सत्कृतः।।2.102.10।।
O irreproachable Bharata, it is so gratifying that you and Satrughna are indeed fortunate to have fulfilled your cherished desire since the king was well honoured by you with all the obsequial last-rites that you performed… that I could not!
एवमुक्त्वा स भरतं भार्यामभ्येत्य राघवः। उवाच शोकसन्तप्तः पूर्णचन्द्रनिभाननाम्।।2.102.14।।
Having thus spoken to Bharata, Rama, overcome with grief, approached his wife Sita whose face looked like the full Moon, and said to her piteously.
सीते मृतस्ते श्वशुरः पित्रा हीनोऽसि लक्ष्मण। भरतो दुःखमाचष्टे स्वर्गतं पृथिवीपतिम्।।2.102.15।।
O Sita, your father-in-law is dead! O Lakshmana, you are orhpaned! Bharata brings news of our father, king Dasaratha attaining his heavenly abode!
ततो बहुगुणं तेषां बाष्पं नेत्रेष्वजायत। तथा ब्रुवति काकुत्स्थे कुमाराणां यशस्विनाम्।।2.102.16।।
While the mighty scion of the Kakutsthas went on wailing thus, copious tears welled up in the eyes of the other distraught sons of Dasaratha.
ततस्ते भ्रातर स्रव्रॆ भृशमाश्वास्य दु:खितम्। अब्रुवन् जगतीभर्तुः क्रियतामुदकं पितुः।।2.102.17।।
The brothers, after gently consoling Rama as best they could, then whispered to him “Let the libations be offered to our father, the protector of the world”.
सा सीता स्वर्गतं श्रुत्वा श्वशुरं तं महानृपम्। नेत्राभ्यामश्रुपूर्णाभ्या शशाकेक्षितुं प्रियम्।।2.102.18।।
Sita’s eyes filled with tears as she could not bear to look at her husband in the face that was sunk in such deep despair.
सान्त्वयित्वा तु तां रामो रुदन्तीं जनकात्मजाम्। उवाच लक्ष्मणं तत्र दुःखितो दुःखितं वचः।।2.102.19।।
Rama consoled Sita, and so did he offer solace to Lakshmana who too was slumped in sheer grief.
आनयेङ्गुदिपिण्याकं चीरमाहर चोत्तरम्। जलक्रियार्थं तातस्य गमिष्यामि महात्मनः।।2.102.20।।
I shall go and offer ritual libations to my father’s soul. Go and fetch me the dried pulp of “ingudi” fruit and an upper garment for me made of bark. ( I shall begin the ritual)
******************
After reading the above passages from the Valmiki Ramayana, we must pause to ask ourselves what may be gleaned from it? What lessons to learn from it especially in the context of Hindu funerary ritualism or “shraadham“?
To a son, the death of a mother or father is the nearest possible to himself experiencing, first-hand, Death itself.
Death brings in its wake an overwhelming tsunami of Grief and Despair — “shoka” and “dukha“.
Grief lingers in the heart, in fact, long after the event of death has passed into the mists of a barely remembered past. But we do not recognize Grief as it continues to reside within us. That is because over time it mutates into other forms: It begins to manifest itself as what we all know is referred to in modern psychology as fear of death, fear of the unknown, fear of the “Door of Darkness”, anxiety over one’s own mortality, and the unspoken dread of dying.… These fears and dreads are rooted in the unconscious depths of the human mind.
Grief or “shoka“, in Vedantic thought, is a symptom of “Tamas” — the last of the 3 basic “guna-s” viz. Sattva, Rajas and Tamas all of which are qualities that in varying shades and degrees, determine all impulses and motives in human behaviour.
Sattva-guna engenders Virtue, Serenity, Truthfulness and Happiness. Rajoguna engenders Activism, Ambition, Endeavour, Enterprise, Virility and Power. Tamas engenders Inertia, Delusion, Perversion, Unregenerate-ness and Despair.
Grief or “shoka” is a human affliction that belongs in the category of “Tamas“. It is a very corrosive element lying latent within the human psyche which, if not checked, can gradually destroy the soul. The Vedic mind understands very well how deleterious “shoka“, can be — if left to fester away underground in the human heart — to spiritual well-being. It is the precisely for that reason, in fact, why a true Hindu in his daily prayers to the Almighty, asks to be kept away from Grief at all times…. It is significant to note here that one of the sacred “naama” of Vishnu in the “Sri Vishnu Sahasranamam” (The Thousand Names of Vishnu) is “shoka-naashanah:” (#632) (He who destroys Grief) because Vishnu himself is “vishokah:” (#631) (He who is Sorrowless).
The problem with Grief that Death brings in its wake is that cannot be wished away so easily. It lingers, it mutates, it corrodes, it enfeebles and like all other emotive drives of “tamas“, it slowly but surely destroys the soul from its hiding place in the underground of our unconscious — clouding our minds with the spectre of fear, angst and ignorance (avidya).
Grief is a silent psychological killer and it will keep stalking the human mind until a way is found to overcome it.
**************
There is only way to overcome “shoka” and, in the parlance of modern psychology, it is called Sublimation. The Ritual called “shraadham” is, in fact, a means of Sublimation of grief, of that tamasic quality, “shoka” that continues to linger, mutate, corrode and destroy the human soul from the underground of consciousness.
In clinical psychology, sublimation is defined as a “mature type of defense mechanism”, in which socially unacceptable impulses or idealizations (in other words, “tamasic guna-s”) are transformed into socially acceptable actions or behavior, possibly resulting in a long-term conversion of the initial impulse. Sigmund Freud, the father of modern psychology, held that Sublimation was a sign of “maturity and civilization (in a person), allowing (the person) to function normally in culturally acceptable ways”. He defined sublimation as the process of transmuting baser — or dark, “tamasic” — instincts into acts of higher social valuation, being “an especially conspicuous feature of cultural development; it is what makes it possible for higher psychical activities, scientific, artistic or ideological, to play such an ‘important’ part in civilized (or the “saatvic“) life.” Many other acclaimed psychologists too present a similar view, stating that sublimation “serves a higher cultural or socially useful purpose, as in the creation of art or inventions.”
The ritual of Gaya Shraadham is the ancient and wise way the Hindu Sastras have shown how to sublimate Grief and its many dark mutants viz. fear of death, anxiety over mortality, fear of the unknown et al— i.e. all the deepest, darkest and most “tamasic” of human thoughts a human mind can be easily afflicted by. The “shraadham” ceremony is thus a highly sophisticated medium or ritual mechanism through which such negative, “tamasic” energies of the mind — lurking in the underground — can be channelled into something productive, something more “saatvic” or spiritually elevated.
It is no mere coincidence — not for me at least — that elements of the Sublimation concept and related theories in modern Freudian psychology are quite easily discernible in the ritual symbolisms of the “shraadham” at Gaya. There is the symbolism associated with Gayasura going “underground” —- it represents the unconscious mind in which lurk fears and anxieties about Death. And there is also the symbolism of “daanam” or charity — that is part of the ritual — which represents the “higher psychical, civilised” behaviour (or “saatvika”) “cultural activities” that Freud theorises about.
**************
In the passages from the Valmiki Ramayana I reproduced above, if you carefully read between the lines spoken by Sri Rama, you can easily understand that it is indeed the ritual process of sublimation to which he is says he is, readily and willingly, going to submit himself at once right after he recovers from the shock of hearing news of his father’s death,. It is his immediate and very first behavoural response. It is verily the “defence mechanism” he employs against what he knows is the dark, enervating, enveloping pall of “shoka” and “dukha” which otherwise would be descending upon him:
जलक्रियार्थं तातस्य गमिष्यामि महात्मनः।।
I shall go and offer ritual libations to my father’s soul.
I will conclude thus my reflections on the subject of Hindu Ritualism and the “Gaya Shraadham“, with this one last submission:
Rituals do have purpose in life. They have very deep significance — both psychological and social — as a means of Sublimating our darkest fears and frightening bewilderments in life. The significance of Vedic Rituals such as the Gaya Shraadham may not be fully fathomed by us. But lack of understanding cannot and does not warrant our denying them altogether.
My faith in the “Gaya Shraadham” ritual, I am able to say it with a great deal of self-assurance, is founded on the personal example of none other than Sri Rama himself as described in the Valmiki Ramayana I have alluded above.
In the next instalment of this series of blogposts, will be narrated the Gaya Shraadham ritual and the manner in which I together with my wife and family went ahead and duly performed it.
Sudarshan Madabushi