Significance of the Mahalaya Amavasya- Pithru Tharpanam Karya

What it the significance of the Mahalaya  Amavasya- Pithru Tharpanam Karya?

Pinda Daan:-

Have you ever felt that for no apparent reason, you are constantly suffering . You are a pious, God-fearing person, you do not indulge in back-biting or wrong doing consciously, yet you or or your family members are always undergoing one or the other type of problems. Astrology has a perfect explanation to this problem. It is due to the fact that the soul of our ancestors & departed forefathers does not get peace (Shanti). If knowingly or unknowingly our ancestors have done some mistakes, they are reflected in our Horoscope as Pitra Dosh or Pitra Rina and being their off springs we are destined to suffer from their bad effects. Because of the malefic effect of the inflicted planets, benefic planets also stop giving favorable results.

Purnima Shradh
1  Mahalya Pitru Paksha begins
2  Dwitiya Shradh
3  Tritiya Shradh
4  Chaturthi Shradh
5  Panchami Shradh
6  Shasti Shradh
7  Saptami Shradh
8  Ashtami Shradh
9  Navami Shradh
10  Dasami Shradh
11  Ekadashi Shradh
12  Dwadashi Shradh
13  Trayodashi Shradh
14   Chaturdashi Shradh
15   Mahalaya Amavasi – Most important day of Shradh

Pitru Dosha is due to any of the following main reason, and there may be others. 

•Bad deeds ( bad karma ) of our ancestors in earlier life, knowingly or unknowingly, are embarrassing their souls,
•Bad deeds ( bad karma ) of children, knowingly or unknowingly, are embarrassing the soul of ancestors,
•Lack of fulfillment of parental desires of our ancestors,
•A sudden and unnatural death of any relative ancestors in early age,
•If someone fails to remember and honor the ancestors properly,
•If certain wishes are remained attached with the soul of the ancestors, etc.
Pitru Dosha occurs if any ancestors up to the 7th generation on the fathers side and up to the 4th generation on the mothers side have expired at an early age or have had an unnatural death.

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. 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.

What is Pitru dosha and how to identify it in ones horoscope?
Rahu and Ketu – the two chayya grahas are responsible for certain bad yogas in the horoscope of individuals. The Saints and Rishis have woven many facts in the mythology to give a meaning of Solar ( Sun ) and Lunar ( Moon ) Eclipse. Another meaning is that Rahu gives the result at a cost of losing the body. And Ketu gives the result at a cost of losing the head. Means, the person under the effect of Rahu or Ketu has to loose one thing to get another. Additionally, whenever there is any kind of connection between Rahu & Ketu and Sun & Moon, it mostly gives inauspicious results.

Pitru Dosh is one type of Yoga, which is formed by various combinations and placements of planets and houses. As per Astrology system, Sun is the symbol of Father. Furthermore, the 10th house in the horoscope also indicates Father and related aspects. Hence, if any negative combination of Sun or the 10th house, indicates presence of some kind of Pitru Dosh.

At many places, Saturn is also hold equally responsible for different forms of Pitru Dosh. When Sun and Saturn are in the same house, or having Drishti ( affecting each other ), it is also considered as Pitru Dosh.

Saturn also represents our ancestors. If Saturn is afflicting Moon then predict that Pitru Dosh is from maternal side, while if Saturn is afflicting Sun, then predict that the Pitru Dosh is from paternal side. For this to happen, the 5th lord/house should also be afflicted.

Why to do Pitru Pooja- Who is a Pithru?

After death of a person, the body is destroyed. But the mind, the intellect and the Awareness that activated the body does not die, but exist as energy thought vibrations. This energy is called as "Praetha-Atma" and is energized by offering rice and sesame seeds on all new moon days of the month. The "Praetha-Atma" time scale of one day is equal to human 30 days. The Pretha-Atma will have emotional bonding for 365 days or their 12 days. Only if their emotional bonding is shredded they get into a energy level called "Pitru". This is why for one year "Thithi" ritual is done by the family of the diseased person. After 365 days, there is no more emotional connection. After one year of transforming to Pitru, they will accept offering from any human in the world. After attaining the Pitru state, the energy vibration becomes fit to be identified with a new human body.

To be qualified for a human body of choice, "Punya" or meritorious debit should be available. If not done any merits while living as a human, at Pitru level atleast they can achieve merits by doing a Selfless act. The only Selfless act is to bestow "Energy" to Human beings on earth, who are not related to them. This action bestows merit for Pitru to attain a human birth.

Those who have Energy debits for Materialistic and Spiritual progress are benefited by "Pitru's" blessing. Men, women, children can do this Pitru worship or tharpan. That is done only after their death. Doing this every month on New moon day removes many materialistic problems in life and help us to progress spiritually. This is of immense value.

Honoring every month Ancestors on new moon day is one of the 5 duties of every Human being. This is done in all ancient cultures. If due to physical ailment some one cannot do the 12 months, then they can do on the most important day called Maahalaya Ammavasi, The dark fortnight of Aswayuja (September-October) is known as the Mahalaya Paksha or the fortnight especially sacred for offering oblations to the departed ancestors. The last day of this period, the new moon day, is considered as the most important day in the year for performing obsequies and rites.