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What happens to any person after death is the primordial question which must have been gripping the minds of "Human Being" since his (which includes her also) creation. All religions have had some thing or other to say about it. From the one extreme of believing that there is NOTHING after death, i.e., when a person dies, that is the END and he just simply ceases to exist to the other extreme where even after death the person will have a life after death, the spectrum (not 2G or 3G but multi-G http://www.tamilbrahmins.com/images/icons/icon12.png) is very wide and has several notches for several variations of the prevailing beliefs.
in this general background, if we take Hindus specifically, Paapam, Punyam, rebirth, Kaarmic Cycle, narakam, moksham, saayujyam, Kaivalyam etc. have great significance. In all varnas, and particularly, among brahmins, it is strongly believed that when a person dies, his son(s) or some one else, when sons are not available or non-existent, should perform pithrukarmas properly so that the jeevaatma, which has just discarded the sthoolaroopam and is in pretharoopam for a certain number of days gets elevated into pithruroopam, is finally handed over to the congregation of older pithrus to go further on, probably to different lokas, like narakalokam, swargalokam, indralokam, brahmalokam, sivalokam, vishnulokam and any other lokam I am not able to recall to mind immediately.
I have three doubts here and I humbly beseach learned members to clarify, without laughing at me for my ignorance, or, arraigning me for my 'cheek' in posing such questions.
1. Are we not led to believe that one's karmas actually decide what happens to him after death? If that is the case, in what way can performing / not performing the pithrukarmas immediately after the person's death and later, annually in the form of shraddhas, modify his 'fate'? To put in another way, will the paapams of a 'mahapaapi' in life, just because his devoted son performs pithrukarmas for his father with great devotion and sincerity , be wiped off and therefore sent to 'good' lokas, but not to narakaloka to receive fitting punishment for his sins? Will he not be born as a lowly janthu (a worm for example) at all because of his sins? On the other extreme, will a very upright, honest Punyathma in mortal life be cursed to rot in hell because his mahapaapi son does not perform the last rites or subsequent shraddhas for his father? Will all the 'punyams' accumulated by the good man in his life be written off and lost on account of his son's fault?
2. If all the antimasamskaras associated with the demise of a person are performed properly culminating in 'Grekyam' or 'Griha Shanthi', with a Vidwan even discoursing on the good deeds of the departed soul and declaring that he must certainly be attaining one of the coveted good lokas, of what purpose are annual ceremonies for him? Will he be thrown off from the good loka because his son decides enough is enough and does not carry on with annual ceremonies?
3. When a person, particularly in old age, dies and within a year or so a baby with the same gender as the person departed, is born in the family it is declared and is sincerely believed, with great glee, that so and so is reborn in the family. What happens then to the unspent period of punyam / paapam of that person? Will it be 'carried over' from the old account and 'brought forward' into the new one?
Once again, I appeal to learned members not to get irritated with me for asking such naive doubts but enlighten me properly.
in this general background, if we take Hindus specifically, Paapam, Punyam, rebirth, Kaarmic Cycle, narakam, moksham, saayujyam, Kaivalyam etc. have great significance. In all varnas, and particularly, among brahmins, it is strongly believed that when a person dies, his son(s) or some one else, when sons are not available or non-existent, should perform pithrukarmas properly so that the jeevaatma, which has just discarded the sthoolaroopam and is in pretharoopam for a certain number of days gets elevated into pithruroopam, is finally handed over to the congregation of older pithrus to go further on, probably to different lokas, like narakalokam, swargalokam, indralokam, brahmalokam, sivalokam, vishnulokam and any other lokam I am not able to recall to mind immediately.
I have three doubts here and I humbly beseach learned members to clarify, without laughing at me for my ignorance, or, arraigning me for my 'cheek' in posing such questions.
1. Are we not led to believe that one's karmas actually decide what happens to him after death? If that is the case, in what way can performing / not performing the pithrukarmas immediately after the person's death and later, annually in the form of shraddhas, modify his 'fate'? To put in another way, will the paapams of a 'mahapaapi' in life, just because his devoted son performs pithrukarmas for his father with great devotion and sincerity , be wiped off and therefore sent to 'good' lokas, but not to narakaloka to receive fitting punishment for his sins? Will he not be born as a lowly janthu (a worm for example) at all because of his sins? On the other extreme, will a very upright, honest Punyathma in mortal life be cursed to rot in hell because his mahapaapi son does not perform the last rites or subsequent shraddhas for his father? Will all the 'punyams' accumulated by the good man in his life be written off and lost on account of his son's fault?
2. If all the antimasamskaras associated with the demise of a person are performed properly culminating in 'Grekyam' or 'Griha Shanthi', with a Vidwan even discoursing on the good deeds of the departed soul and declaring that he must certainly be attaining one of the coveted good lokas, of what purpose are annual ceremonies for him? Will he be thrown off from the good loka because his son decides enough is enough and does not carry on with annual ceremonies?
3. When a person, particularly in old age, dies and within a year or so a baby with the same gender as the person departed, is born in the family it is declared and is sincerely believed, with great glee, that so and so is reborn in the family. What happens then to the unspent period of punyam / paapam of that person? Will it be 'carried over' from the old account and 'brought forward' into the new one?
Once again, I appeal to learned members not to get irritated with me for asking such naive doubts but enlighten me properly.