Death: Before, During & After... Death: Before, During & After.. | Page 29

Death
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refuse to do this for the sake of their deceased parents. However,
because of societal pressures they do all these rituals grudgingly.
Questioner: So what is the significance of reading the
Garuda Purana?
Dadashri: The reading sessions are to console people in
mourning and to make them feel at peace.
It Is All A Display Of Pride
Questioner: How significant are the rituals and dinners
held on the twelfth and thirteenth day after a person’s death? And
why are gifts of kitchen utensils distributed to everyone attending
the dinner?
Dadashri: It is not mandatory. They simply do it to be
ostentatious. For some, if they did not spend money in this way,
their tendency for greed would increase. The son would be
preoccupied with trying to accumulate his money, but when he is
made to spend the money on such rituals, at least his mind would
begin to purify and his greed would lessen. But all this is not
mandatory. One should only do so if he can afford to.
The True Understanding Of Shraddha
(Ceremonial Offerings Of Food To Ancestral Spirits)
Questioner: Is it true that the spirits of one’s ancestral
fathers (pitrus) are summoned in the ritual of Shraddha?
Dadashri: Who can be called an ancestral father? It is the
son, the father and the grandfather – they will become the ancestral
fathers eventually. The fact that a father dies is because his ties are
completely over with the son or anyone else in the family. The
current body is discarded when all accounts with current relatives
are settled. They never meet again. If, however, a new relationship