How does the Shraddha ritual benefit descendants ?

Short summary : Did you know that apart from helping one’s departed ancestors in the afterlife, the person performing the Shraddha ritual also gains positive energy ?

How the Shraddha ritual conducted for departed ancestors during Pitupaksha benefits a person

1. Introduction to how Shraddha benefits the descendant performing the ritual

The period of Pitrupaksha, also known as the fortnight for departed ancestors can be a spiritually distressful time for descendants. The reason for this is that during this period, departed ancestors come close to the Earth plane of existence. These departed ancestors have a lot of worldly desires and less spiritual energy to move on in the afterlife. There is an expectation from the departed ancestors that their descendants should do something to help them gain momentum in the afterlife and reduce their suffering in the afterlife. Due to this, there can be an increase in the subtle pressure around the descendants and in the ancestral home. There are certain rites and rituals as per the Science of Spirituality that can be done to alleviate the distress of departed ancestors and provide them with the spiritual energy to gain momentum in the afterlife. One important ritual is known as Shraddha. Most people do not perform Shraddha mostly due to not knowing about it. Even if they do know about it they do not understand its importance.

The Maharshi Adhyatma Vishwavidyalay (also known as the Maharshi University of Spirituality) conducted an experiment to demonstrate how by performing Shraddha, the descendant gains spiritually positive energy. This experiment was conducted using aura and energy scanners and it clearly showed the spiritual benefit to the person performing Shraddha.

2. Experiment setup and methodology to study the effect of Shraddha

  • The experiment was conducted on 22nd September 2016 between 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. It was performed at the Spiritual Research Centre and Ashram in Goa, India. The Shraddha ritual was conducted during the period of Pitrupaksha which was from 17th September to 30th September in that year. The type of Shraddha being conducted was Mahalaya Shraddha which is generally conducted during the Pitrupaksha period.
  • The subject (descendant) who participated in the experiment was Mr Sean Clarke who as of 2016 had been doing spiritual practice over 17 years. This was the 3rd time that he was performing the Shraddha ritual for his departed ancestors. For the ritual, he wore traditional clothes which were as prescribed by the Scriptures (which consisted of a dhoti and a shawl).
  • For this experiment, a Universal Aura Scanner (UAS) was used. The Universal Aura Scanner (UAS) is an instrument developed by Dr Mannem Murthy (a former nuclear scientist) and is used to measure the subtle-energy (positive and negative) and the aura around any object (living or non-living). Using this instrument, the subject’s aura was measured before and after performing the Shraddha ritual to ascertain whether it had any effect on his aura. He was measured for three criteria, i.e. negative aura, positive aura and total combined aura. For more details on how the Universal Aura Scanner is used please refer to our article.

Aura of the subject being measured with a Universal Aura Scanner

  • Please note that the Shraddha ritual was conducted in the spiritually pure environment of the Spiritual Research Centre and Ashram by priests who were also seekers from the Priest Department of the Maharshi Adhyatma Vishwavidyalay. As these priest seekers do regular spiritual practice, they are sattvik or spiritually pure in nature. They observe the norms of the Scriptures meticulously, recite mantras with the correct diction and perform all rituals perfectly with spiritual emotion. Along with this, during the ritual, they explain the underlying spiritual principles and the benefit of the ritual to the performer. This helps to increase the participation and spiritual emotion of the descendant. All this makes the Shraddha ritual spiritually more effective both for the departed ancestors and the descendant performing the Shraddha.

3. Key observations and analysis from the Shraddha ritual experiment

The following are the readings taken from the UAS instrument. As you will notice, there are 2 sets of readings. The 2nd column displays readings of the subject from before performing the Shraddha ritual, while the 3rd column displays the readings of the subject immediately after performing the Shraddha ritual.
Comparison of aura readings of the subject (person) performing Shraddha using the Universal Aura Scanner (UAS)
  1. The subject did not have any negative aura in both the negative energy criterion that is in Infrared (IR) and Ultraviolet (UV). This was both before and after performing the Shraddha ritual.
  2. Prior to performing the Shraddha ritual, the subject showed some positive energy. This was indicated by the UAS arms opening out to an angle of 90°. However, there was no aura measured as the arms of the UAS need to open out to 180° in order to measure an aura. After performing the Shraddha ritual, the UAS picked up that a positive aura of 1.02 meters was gained by the subject (descendant – Mr Sean Clarke).
  3. The measured aura of the subject increased by 100% from 1.31 metres to 2.64 metres indicating a strong increase in positive spiritual energy.
The significant increase in the positivity of the subject (the descendant) was due to the following reasons :
  1. The subject was doing spiritual practice for many years. As a result, he was able to imbibe the positive energy more easily.
  2. During the ritual, his (the subject’s) spiritual emotion was awakened as he could actually perceive that his departed ancestors were gaining the benefit from the Shraddha ritual. Whenever there is spiritual emotion there is heightened spiritual positivity that is generated.
  3. The Shraddha ritual continues for a number of hours where the descendant is exposed to a variety of mantras in Sanskrit which contain a lot of positive spiritual energy.
  4. The environment of the Spiritual Research Centre and Ashram is highly positive and therefore spiritually conducive for performing rituals such as Shraddha. This makes it much easier for the ritual to have its desired effect in the subtle.
  5. The priests performing the Shraddha ritual were also seekers and they performed the ritual as their spiritual practice. They also experienced spiritual emotion during the ritual.
  6. The most important factor was that the Shraddha ritual performed at the Spiritual Research Centre and Ashram is done under the resolve and guidance of Paratpar Guru (Dr) Athavale (a Saint and Guru of the highest order who is above the spiritual level of 90%). The resolve of a higher-level Saint is an important factor in determining the success of a ritual such as Shraddha. Due to such a resolve, the departed ancestors of the person performing Shraddha are also benefited to the maximum extent.

4. Conclusion

What this experiment shows is that the subject (descendant) was positively impacted by performing the Shraddha ritual. The UAS was able to pick this up to a certain extent. However, the enormous positive effect that such a ritual has on the departed ancestors and their blessings on the descendant for performing Shraddha can only be truly assessed using advanced sixth sense. At the Maharshi Adhyatma Vishwavidyalay, we have seekers in the Spiritual Research Team who can actually perceive the subtle dimension with a high level of accuracy just as we do the physical dimension. They report that such rituals, especially when conducted with spiritual emotion, go a long way in helping the departed ancestors to move further in the afterlife. The spiritual research team at the Maharshi Adhyatma Vishwavidyalay urges everyone to perform Shraddha as per their capacity at least once a year during the period of Pitrupaksha. For us, it does not require that much effort, but for our departed ancestors, this one ritual provides them with spiritual energy for a year.