Death Before During and After

Author(s): Dada Bhagwan
Publisher: Dada Bhagwan Foundation

Page 15

During, Before and After Death
During, Before and After Death
Questioner: So what is the significance of reading the Garuda Purana?
ritual. The Brahmin priest used to be worthy of receiving alms at one time, and the people of the household would bind merit karma in doing so. But now everything has become a farce. The Brahmin priest will have already made a deal with a shopkeeper who will buy the bed, the blankets and everything else from him! How do people think these things are going to reach the departed soul?
Questioner: Dada, nowadays people will tell the Brahmin to bring all these things to their homes and they will pay him a preagreed amount.
Dadashri: It is not just now days. They have been doing this for years. The priest will bring a bed given to him by someone else! Even then people believe in such rituals, and they continue to practice them. The Jains on the other hand do not practice such rituals, they are very shrewd. They do not believe in such things and in reality these rituals are bogus. As soon as the soul leaves the body it goes straight to its destination; it acquires its place of creation, the womb.
The Dead Are Not Affected With Rituals
Questioner: Should we sing devotional songs or say prayers for the dying? What good does it do?
Dadashri: The dying person has nothing to do with it.
Questioner: So are all the religious rituals carried out during the time of someone's death right or wrong?
Dadashri: Nothing about these rituals is right. Those who are gone are gone. People do these rituals without much thought. When asked to do something that is meaningful for their spiritual progress, they would complain about lack of time. They would refuse to do this for the sake of their deceased parents. However, because of societal pressures they do all these rituals grudgingly.
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 has been established in this life, they will take birth in situations where they may meet again.