RE: Q and A withSwamiji-Family ties

[Guest guest]

>>"Dear Nityashakti ~ thank you so much for sharing your very personal

experience of your own transformation with your mother and father, and

being able to see them as simply human, as we all are, warts and all.

I have just received the Cosmic Puja book several days ago, so I am

very inerested about the pujas you mention above. Is the Pitru Paksha

and the short puja from the Cosmic Puja the same puja? If not can you,

or someone else tell me about the Pitru Paksha and what part of the

Cosmic Puja constitutes the short puja. I would also like to know how

these one (or two) pujas relate to the "family ties" issue that

Sadhumaa brought up.

 

Many thanks to anyone who can help me out with this. Jai Maa , Jai

Swamiji ~ Linda"<<

 

Dear Linda,

The short puja was the tarpana from Cosmic Puja. At this point, I

think it would be most helpful for you to ask Swamiji directly. As I

mentioned in an earlier post, the Pitru Paksha (2 weeks at the end of

Sept) is set aside for puja to the ancestors. I think that the pujas

vary from place to place in India...some of them can be very

elaborate....and involve various kinds of "vrats" and hair cutting,

not eating certain things,making specific offerings, etc. But what I

did was the short tarpana every day, knowing I would be immersing my

parents' ashes at the end of the period of Pitru Paksha (it

just "happened" that this was when I had rented a cabin near the water

on Cape Cod). So I think we are talking about two different things

(probably because I, myself was not clear when I brought the subject

up). When Swamiji suggested that I used the tarpana in the Cosmic Puja

book...after a week, it just seemed "natural" to begin this practice

of "3 problematic memories" followed by "3 wonderful

memories"...that "practice" just arose naturally as I began to think

about my parents...towards the end, it was very difficult to think of

the "3 problematic things"....but very easy to remember the "3

wonderful things"...it really led me into that understanding of my

parents as real human beings who had been children, teenagers, adults

and, also, parents.

I think I may have created some confusion here regarding Pitru

Paksha and, if so, I apologize. Check out the tarpana at the end

of "Cosmic Puja" and you will see where all of this started for me.

 

best to you,

sadhvi/nityashakti