Sunday, October 14, 2012

Story about Pitru Paksha

The story why the Pitru Paksha is marked by daan and charity has its deep ingrained meaning in a  story of the Mahabharata.

When Karna died in the epic Mahabharata war, his soul moved to heaven, where he was offered gold and jewels as food. Karna had done limitless charity of wealth, but had neglected to do Anna-Dana. Hence he found wealth and luxuries, but with no food to appease him. Lord Yama then told Karna that he had donated gold all his life, but had never donated food to his ancestors in Shraaddh.

 Lord Yama

Hence to make amends, Karna was permitted to return to earth for a fifteen day period, so that he could perform Shraaddh and donate food and water in their memory. This period is now known as Pitru Paksha.  It is believed that in these 15 days the souls of our ancestors are the closest to the earth, moving around us and as we fail to recognize them, they return to their ORB unsatisfied and unhappy that we do nothing for them.

The fifteen days of Mahalaya Paksha consists of 15 Tithi. They are Pratipat, Dvitiya, Tritiya, Chaturthi, Panchami, Shashti, Ashtami, Navami, Dasami, Ekadasi, Dvadasi, Trayodasi, Chaturdashi, New Moon day (Sarvapitru Amavasya). According to Hindu mythology, every individual’s who wants to perform this Pitru Tharpanam, they should do it on the same day of their ancestor died which will fall within any one of these fifteen days.



Pitru Moksha (Ancestor Salvation) Spots Worshipped by Lord Sri Rama – Ideal for Pitru Worship

There are Pitru Shakti spots imbued with the spiritual potency of exalted Pitru Deva Beings. And then there are Pitru Mukti spots – places so holy that they are able to grant mokshato even these exalted Pitru Devas!
Seshambadi near Kumbakonam and Poovalur near Trichy as some of the best Pitru Mukti (ancestor salvation) spots in the entire world.
Others are Rameswaram, Nedungudi, Thilatharpanapuri, Innambur, Theerthandapuram and Kekkarai. Considering the whole of the holy land of India, there are more than 1008 Pitru Mukti kshetras including the well known ones such as Varanasi, Prayag, Gaya, Kedarnath and Badrinath.
In all these Pitru Moksha spots, the exalted Pitru Devas themselves accept your tarpana, argya and sraddha offerings at all times, but particularly during the Mahalaya Paksha fortnight.
Thus these pitru mukti temples and sacred spaces are the best places in the world for conducting your pitru worship and pitru karmas.

 
http://www.astropeep.com/hindu-practices/pitrupaksha-amavasya-why-to-do-shraddh-karma-for-our-ancestors/

1 comment:

  1. Pitru Paksha is a period when Hindus offerprayers their ancestors, especially through food offerings called 'Shraadh'.

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