Why is Shrardham performed ?

[shivaom]

After death, we have rituals to send the soul on its path safely. After the soul has gone back to (god) the source, what is the need for performing regular shrardham?
All heaven and hell, is experienced when the person is in the body, that is how karma works. 
The soul has no need for food, water. Prayers connect, but what is the need of the rituals, what does it signify? I have a whole lot of questions, but if any learned spiritual person could offer an explanation, we could continue the discussion. 
I have been told that it should be done because our elders have been doing it, after many discussions with many learned persons. I would like to understand why?

[kgopalan90]

sir, Kindly read the books pithru pujanam written by nannilam Rajagopala Ganapadikal, which is available in giri trading agencyand bhavani book centre station road west mambalam.www.vaithiikasri.com the soul is getting another body in the 11 days karyam and it is going by walk for onr year to yama lokam.rebirth will occur .

[shivaom]

All the generic explanations do not express the depth of information I seek. While Iyers have texts pertaining to the soul rigours after death, the Iyengars follow a different norm, the christians follow a concept of heaven and hell and the muslims of rewards by the mohammad after death. Somehow, all these norms appear as Carrot - stick method of asking people to stick to dharma of what would happen after life.

I have gone through many books and spoken to many people - in the recent past, I had spoken to learned people who are neutral in approach. But somehow, the explanation fails to satisfy.

To portray, let me put sequential steps below:
1. Death
2. Soul leaves body
(i) Devatas take the soul on its journey
(ii) Our loved ones help the soul on the journey
(iii) the supreme lord whom we pray absorbs the soul

3. Soul is on a plane - where the experiences on that body are played out and totalled (not for iii above)
(i) What was the experience chosen to be lived
(ii) Was all experiences addressed in the right manner - what was learnt?
(iii) Is there any experiences which was not right, which could have been addressed better?

4. Judgement of the soul - (dont know who does it? - Maybe the supreme being, maybe a collection of masters)

5. Decision to be reborn - decided by that soul and the body of souls or the supreme being

6. Rebirth as designated in 5.

Timeline to rebirth could be instant, few days, to a few weeks or years.
Rebirth could be in earth as a person or in a different plane as a devata. It could also be an animal or a being of lesser intelligence.

Question is - Every soul goes through the cycle of birth-rebirth, except enlightened souls.

I seek knowledge on - What does shrardham do?

[chensri]

Please read admabodha

[chensri]

Please read athma bodha

[vishiyer]

Sir,

Profound questions. allow me to share what I have learnt and what I practice.

Before I say anything we have to understand the types of karma that the soul carries. The sum total of all karmas that the soul has acquired in all its births / deaths is Sanchita Karma and one portion / package that it has chosen to carry for this birth is Prarabda karma. Once the Prarabda karma is done, the soul departs. Also it has acquired more karma in this birth, and that is Akamya karma. Based on the sum total take away spent karma , add to that acquired karma - this new karmic total determines what happens to the soul.

Therefore the soul does not necessarily reach God / Supreme / Heaven / Moksham upon death. I'm not going to go into the differences here.

Rebirth as you have rightly mentioned maybe in any lower than the human or higher than the human form. And it can happen immediately or after a while.

For the soul's journey to the next level /s the offerings we make help facilitate the process. Krupananda Varier used to say the 'Theertham' we take in temples help us immensely in quenching the thirst during this process. Rice / Sesame and Water are the ingredients offered to the departed souls when the soul's path is towards a higher level. When we do this shrardam and then Tharpanam, this ritual helps the soul's journey. For the soul's path to a lower level, Mahaperiya has mentioned that our Achamanam and saying Amrithapithanamasi and pouring water between thumb and index finger is beneficial.

And even if the soul is born in another form, our offerings continue to help them according to Sri.Venkatarama Siddhar.

Therefore, even though I'm the last child of my parents, I perform Tharpanam (sadly not on all 96 Shannavadi tharpanam days) but on as many days as possible, in addition to Shrardam.

Individual differences in practices e.g. Saivite or Vaishnavite is a little bit tricky to explain without getting into controversial statements. Suffice it to say, Yat Bhavam Tat Bhavati

Hope this helps. My sincere hope we all continue to practice the highly evolved practices our ancestors have taught us.

Mahaperiyava Thiruvadigal Saranam

Dr.(Capt) V.Venkatesh MS, FRCS