History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c73.6

v5.c73.6

A firm believer in the doctrine of *kar ma*, *punarjanma* (re-incarnation) and *karma-vipāka* (explained above) may find it difficult to reconcile that doctrine with the belief that by offering balls of rice to his three deceased paternal ancestors a man brings gratification to the souls of the latter. According to the doctrine of *punarjanma* (as very clearly and succinctly put in Bṛ. Up IV. 4.4 and Bhagavad-gītā 2 22)⁷⁵³ the spirit leaving one body enters into another and a new one. But the doctrine of offering balls of rice to three ancestors requires that the spirits of the three ancestors even after the lapse of 50 or 100 years are still capable of enjoying in an ethereal body the flavour or essence of the rice balls wafted by the wind. Further, Yāj. I. 269 (which is the same as Mārk. 29. 38, Matsya-purāṇa 19. 11-12, Agnipurāṇa 163. 41-42) provides that the grand-fathers (i. e. *pitṛs*) being themselves gratified (by the offerings of food in śrāddha) bestow on men (their descendants) long life, progeny, wealth, learning, heaven, *mokṣa* (final beatitude), all happiness and kingdom. In the Matsya-purāṇa (chap. 19, verse 2) a question is asked by the sages how food which a brāhmaṇa (invited at a śrāddha) eats or which is offered into fire is enjoyed by departed spirits that might have assumed (after death) good or evil forms of bodies. The answer given (verses 3-9) is that fathers, grand-fathers and great-grand-fathers are identified with Vasus, Rudras and Ādityas respectively according to Vedic passages, that the name and *gotra* (mentioned at the time of śrāddha), the *mantras* uttered and faith carry to the *pitṛs* the offerings made, that if one's father has become a god (by his good deeds) the food offered in śrāddha becomes nectar and follows him in his state of godhood, if he has become a *daitya* (an *asura*) then (the food) reaches him in the form of various enjoyments, if he has become a beast then it becomes grass for him and if he has become a snake the śrāddha food waits on him as wind (serpents are supposed to subsist on wind) and so on. Verses 5-9 of the Matsya, chap. 19 are quoted as from Mārkaṇḍeyapurāṇa by the Śrāddha-kalpalatā p. 5. Viśvarūpa ⁷⁵⁴ on Yāj. I. 265 (p. 171 of Tri. ed.) also raises the same objection and gives several replies. One is that this is a matter entirely based on *śāstra* and so when śāstra says that *pitṛs* are gratified and the performer gets desired objects no objection should be raised. Another reply is that the gods Vasus and others that have access everywhere have the power to gratify pitṛs wherever they may be situated. He does not call the questioners (*nāstika*) as some other and later writers do.