Pitri Paksh: Honouring the Ancestors

Pitri Paksh or Pitru Paksh, as some people call it, is the dark fortnight following the autumnal full moon during which prayers and food offerings are made to departed ancestors (pitri).

This year it occurs from September 17-30.

According to Hindu tradition, it is the most auspicious period for the veneration of those who have passed on. Yet, because of its association with death, it is considered an inauspicious time for beginning new projects.

Ancestral worship has long been a part of ancient cultures of the world, from the Egyptians to the Chinese. The idea of the ancestor orders and guides the lives of the living. Though the observances of Pitri Paksh are a part of religious belief, there is also a practical significance to them. It is a reminder of our own purpose here.

Traditions typically exist as a means of organizing our experience of the world. Traditions that arise from religion are similar to the personal traditions that some of us may have, for instance, the habit of having a cup of coffee before beginning work or waking up at 5 am to see the sunrise, are activities that bring our minds into a place of readiness for the tasks ahead. These traditions give shape to our lives and in the case of religious traditions, create the worldviews that we take around. Though some Hindus may exclude the ritualistic element of Pitri Paksh and simply desist from embarking on new ventures until the period is over, it is nevertheless a time of reflection for many.

Our life as we know it, rests on the actions of past generations. Our histories - personal to national - are a consequence of decisions made and not made, of conflicts and harmonies, of trial and error.

Our lives in a way, is like a film - a collection of scenes stitched together to form the narrative of each individual life. The popularity of ancestry.

com and ancestryDNA with their catchwords ‘Everyone has a story’, is powerful. The emotions that emerge when people find the origins of their ethnicity for instance - that in fact even though someone appears Caucasian, that she may in fact be 70 percent African - leads to changes in the way that she begins to see the world.

While it may seem trivial to some of us, discovering hidden stories about oneself can initiate a great paradigm shift, and has the ability to change the way that we begin to treat others or the approach to life that we may adopt.

Such personal stories offer deeper awareness of our selves - our predisposition to certain illnesses, or why we may be attracted to a particular culture than the one we were born into, or perhaps why we wish to travel for some unknown reason to another country that is off everyone else’s radar.

Many of us tend to ignore these feelings, but a period dedicated to the veneration of the ancestors brings us back to the awareness that life is far more expansive than the physical world. The spiritual is a part of our heritage. It is the combination of the spiritual and physical that feeds the imagination. And in Hinduism, mansik puja or the prayer done solely through the imagination, is considered one of the highest forms of worship.

Observations like Pitri Paksh also bring us in touch with our own mortality, even momentarily.

It is a reminder of the fleeting nature of life.

What we do now, matters more than an elusive future. It is the ‘power of Now’, to borrow Eckhart Tolle’s book title, that keeps us grounded in each moment - focused and aware. Paying our respects to ancestors allows us the time to reflect on the legacies that they have left for us - either to build on or break down. It is a period of sifting, a period when the imagination can look beyond inheritance.

The ancestral spirits are spirits of continuity and change for each generation is never quite like the other - a reflection of the nature of tradition - constantly in flux.

As the Hindu community pauses for the Pitri Paksh observances, it is a useful time for us all to reflect on our own actions and their impact on the little spaces that we occupy. It seems useful from time to time, in the spirit of re-creation, to stop, consider and ask the question: how do I contribute to a more progressive, happier world?