'Sraaddham' is required to be done by one who believes in sraaddham which is enjoined by the scriptures. The scriptures roundly and clearly prohibit the performance of sraaddham in the house of even the daughter of the dead person, let alone matams or public places. The scriptures say, that such sraaddham will go to satisfy the many evil forces lurking (in the universe) and will leave one's pitrus starved and will thus cause pitru saapam. The only place - other than one's own place of living, in which scriptures permit sraaddham to be performed properly, is the house of a sapinda of the deceased/performer.
Now, people who claim to be very orthodox twist the rules of the scriptures, do whatever they feel is correct and then go on bad-mouthing others, in and out of context. Either they are rank hypocrites who do not at all believe in the scriptures but are cleverly tricking the world, or else, they are systemmatically inviting pitru saapam for their future generations. Rameshwaram and thila homam should save, even in that case!
Dear Sangomji,
Your post is raising a scary scenario. Performance of a sradhdham is either a nithya, naimiththika or kAmya karma depending on which sraadhdham it is. The rules relating to the performance are given in Dharmashastras in the sradhdha khaandam. I dont find there what you have said. What is said about the ச்ராத்த தேசங்கள் there is this:
1.புண்யதீர்த்தங்கள்,ஆஸ்ரமங்கள், நதிதீரங்கள், மலைப்ரதேசங்கள் இவைகளில் தென் பாகம் தாழ்ந்தும், கோமயத்தால் மெழுகப்பட்டும்,அசுத்தவஸ்த்துக்கள் இல்லாததுமான ஸ்தலத்திலும், தனது க்ருஹத்திலும் ஸ்ராத்தம் செய்யலாம்.
2.பிறரின் ஸ்தலத்தில்/க்ருஹத்தில் செய்யக்கூடாது.
3.சேறு, ஜந்துக்கள், புழுக்கள், துர்க்கந்தம் இவை உள்ள இடத்தில் கூடாது.
4.கங்கை, கோதாவரி, நர்மதை, சரயூ, காவேரி,சரஸ்வதி இவைகளின் தீரம், கயை ப்ரயாகை, ஸ்ரீசைலம், கோகர்ணம், புஷ்கரம், குருக்ஷேத்ரம்,கேதாரம்,சேது, துவாரகை, பதரீ, வாரனாசி முதலிய க்ஷேத்ரங்களும் ஸ்ராத்த தேசங்களாம்.
5. கயையில் அக்ஷய்யவடத்தில் ஸ்ராத்தம் செய்வது மிகச்சிறந்ததாம்.
I have given here the tamil translation of the sanskrit original.
As you can see these days people go a matom, which is again a temple/asramam, to do the sraadhdham and they are not committing any mistake in that. No pitru sApam will accrue to them. Nor will the srAdhdham satisfy the evil forces lurking anywhere.
I am also told that the kartha doing the srAdhdham has to take care that the food prepared, the pindam etc are not prepared in a common kitchen from where other srAdhdham performers also draw them for their pitrus.
As your post might have caused some anxiety to some of our members who perform srAdhdham in an asram or matom I am writing this.
.
