When you are not able to do Sradha due to no priest being available or due to becoming handicapped due to old age, What you can do?
Compiled by
P.R.Ramachander
Sradha is annual death ceremony conducted by Brahmins in honour of their dead ancestors. There are several vedic rules and regulations for conducting it. Normally it involves doing Homa sitting on the floor, washing the feet of Brahmins by sitting on the floor, offering they them traditional food by our own household members etc. According to rules it should be performed in Kuthabha Kala (after 12 noon),Since almost all Brahmins were poor and started going to offices and also because Vadhyars themselves are busy , our own knowledgeable priests shifted it to any time we like, preferably before 8 Am . Since the cooking food for feeding Brahmins is an experts job, and since most house wives were not knowing how to do it , Majority of Brahmins started preferring to do Hiranya Sradha , ,which is a very simple affair, as there was no homa, no Pinda dhana and no feeding of Brahmins .Though initially priests were satisfied with less Dakshina for HIranya Sradham , nowadays they are charging same DAkshina for elaborate Sradha as well as HIranya Sradha, Since income level of Brahmins had gone up , very few people bothered about it.
When people started h going abroad for their living, priests also started travelling abroad and Hiranya Sradha could be got done in most of the foreign cities with Hindu temples.Of Course knowledgeable experts in Acharas told them that SRadha performed abroad is meaningless and worthless.But this system did continue every where abroad because it gave people the satisfaction of having performed Sradha.But there was huge population of youngsters abroad who are not able to do Sradha because there were no temples or priests near to the place where they work.
Due to young people going abroad most of Brahmin houses in Indian homes started to be filled with their parents. They managed to Sradha in the normal way when till they were both physically active.But since life span of Indiand have increased a lot, a time has come when the very old people are unable to do even HIranya Sradha.Due to their faith and belief they suffer a lot when they are unable to do Sradha.
What should these two groups of people do? The answer to this is given in book called “SAmkshepa Dharma Sastra(page no.348) “. Great scholars had prepared this book under the express direction of Maha Periyva . I have translated it in to english. It says:-
“Veda says that Pithrus are Vasus, Pithamaha (grand father) are rudras and prapithamaha ( great grand father) are Adhithyas. Except the Mruthaha Sradha others can be performed as Ama Roopa or Hiranya Roopa.
When you cannot afford to do Sradha, feed sufficient grass to cows. They can be fed with rice balls (pindas) . We can do Thila Tharpana addressing the Pithrus. When you do Tharpana , you should take bath and wear dried cloths.
He who is not able to do Sradha , if he performs the representative of the rituals with devotion, he gets the same effect as having performed Sradha.”