PROPITIATING THE ANCESTORS: PITRI YAGYA

Pitri yagya is one of the panch-mahayagyas prescribed for a human being.

- ASHWINI GURUJI

The other four yagyas include -brahm yagya (study of scriptures), dev-yagya (making offerings to devas by medium of fire), manushya-yagya (feeding fellow human beings) and bhuta-yagya (feeding all living creatures).

In earlier times, people would propitiate their deceased fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers by performing acts of charity in their name and chanting specific mantras.

Our ancestors were well aware of the continuous nature of life and birth and what a soul goes through during the transition from one birth to the next. The Vedic Indians performed the rites of Shraadh, while the ancient Egyptians embalmed the bodies and stored food and supplies in the pyramids for their final journey. Ancient Greeks put coins under the tongue of the deceased and buried them from where they would be ferried to the underworld, the place where souls lived after death in their culture.