In the month of Bhadrapada, according to the Hindu calendar, immediately after the Anant Chaturdashi, begins the Mahalaya. It is known as the pitrupaksha, literally a fortnight dedicated to the annual shraddha ceremony. As per the tithi, the date according to the Hindu almanac on which the family elders passed away, the descendants are supposed to perform a puja in memoriam, offer a special naivaidya, and it is believed that the souls of the departed return to this world, and if they allow, the crow who can see them, would eat the food offered.
Even today, many, many families perform this ritual, following it in/to the minutest detail. Instead what we do, is go to the Mahamrityunjay temple, and pray with a heart full of total devotion and complete love for Papa and Aai, and offer dakshina to the guruji who chants the related mantras. I feel it is a remembrance and a tribute to both of them, and a small little help to the guruji's family. Somehow it has a religious, a devotional overtone, unlike the donations in their names.
What i feel is that this shraddha ceremony performed in memoriam is in a way a nmemonic, indeed necessary, in case in the hurryburry of daily lived life, the younger generations forget the sacrifices by the elders. Indeed is necessary such a time setting alarm in the 'my-space'-obsessed, self centred world today!
I look at it from yet another way. Very soon would begin the navratra which celebrates the new crop, though not this year due to the extended monsoon. May be, the shraddha dish, offered to the crow, and shared with them by other birds, squirrels, and ants, is a very inclusive, environment conscious tribute to the bounty of nature that would generally be getting ready to ripen in the field.
May be, it is a way of sharing with and caring for the other species and their survival in the post monsoon period wherein they would find food scarce. In a way, a very poetic way of implying, earth thou art, from the earth thou nourish, so to the earth thou returnest!
Pratima@ Humane gratitude is all/ in to the ways of nature, does it us call!
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