How Can We Help Our Departed Family Members in the Afterlife?

When family members die, depending on our culture and traditions, we pay tribute to their lives by

• offering flowers at their grave,
• by publishing kind words about them in their memory in the obituary section of a newspaper or
• hanging the photograph of the deceased in one’s house.

However, all these commonly practiced rituals have no significance in helping our family members in the afterlife and in fact may even be detrimental for them. In the table below we have provided the comparative importance of some of the common rituals and practices done by descendants for their departed ancestors. The figures provided in the table below are relevant for people below the spiritual level of 40%. As a person’s spiritual level begins to increase beyond 40% the comparative benefit of the below actions may vary.  The knowledge has been obtained through spiritual research.

Ritual	Comparative % benefit
Writing an obituary for the deceased	0%
Hiring professional mourners and wailers	Negative impact2
Eulogies at a funeral	0%
Keep and/or garlanding the deceased’s picture at home	Negative impact
Visiting the grave and putting flowers	Negative impact
Dressing in black for a period of time after the funeral	0%
Erecting memorials in the name of the deceased	Negative impact
Prayers for the deceased by their family and loved ones	10%
Shraddha Ritual	30%
Chanting ‘Shrī Gurudev Datta’ protection chant1	50%

Footnotes

1. The final benefit of chanting the Shri Gurudev Datta chant depends on various factors such as number of times the chant is said to counteract the severity of ancestral distress, regularity of chanting, concentration while chanting, the spiritual emotion and faith of the person chanting, etc.
2. ‘Negative impact’ means that such practices may make the subtle-body of a recently departed ancestor emotionally attached to their previous life on Earth. Negative energies use this attachment to control departed ancestors and prevent them from moving on in the afterlife. This is especially so for the departed ancestors at a lower spiritual level.

Spiritual research conducted indicates that after death, about 60% of ancestors are unable to acquire momentum and move beyond the Earth plane (Bhūlok) due to lack of spiritual level and excessive desires. As they are unable to move on, they reside mostly in their family homes.

There are many things we can do to help our departed family members as soon as they pass away and when they are in the afterlife. We will be covering the various things we can do in subsequent articles.

1. The spiritual protection chant of Shri Gurudev Datta helps our departed family members in the afterlife

To immediately begin to help your ancestors, we recommend chanting the spiritual protection chant of ‘Shrī Gurudev Datta’. Refer to the article on, ‘What does the spiritual protective chant of Shri Gurudev Datta represent?’.

2. Our deceased family members need help because their body and subtle-body are vulnerable at death

At the time of death, excretory gases are expelled from the dead body. These excretory gases are regular physical gases expelled by the body such as putrefying gases etc. Their frequencies and vibrations are negative in nature and as a result, the Tama component increases in the immediate environment. The ghosts (demons, devils, negative energies, etc.) get attracted to these distressing frequencies and enter the environment around the dead body.

They attack the dead body by gaining control over the five vital energies and sub-vital energies which are in the process of being released into the Universe at the time of death. They emit black energy in smoke form on to the dead body, engulfing it and creating a black covering on it. Due to the attacks by ghosts, there is a transmission of black frequencies in the dead body and the corpse gets charged with black frequencies.

When the ghost gains control on the five vital energies and sub-vital energies, it also transmits whorls of black energy to ensnare the subtle body. It thus pulls the subtle-body of the deceased ancestor in its field of attack. Then they trap the subtle-body into their web of black frequencies and can create obstacles in its onward journey in the after-life. After some time, many ghosts attack the subtle-body by creating a whorl of black frequencies and take it into their complete control. In this way, ghosts systematically gain control over the dead body and the subtle-body of the departed ancestor.

Spiritual science advocates some specific rites and rituals that need to be done at the time of death to protect the body and the subtle-body from being potentially attacked by ghosts. In many cases, people either do not know these rituals or do not know how to perform them correctly.

3. How the ‘Shri Gurudev Datta’ chant helps our departed family members

The following are some of the main benefits of repeating the spiritual protection chant of ‘Shri Gurudev Datta’.

• Reduces Raja-Tama: Deity Datta is an aspect of God that provides momentum to our ancestors. Effulgent striking frequencies are emitted through the chant of ‘Shri Gurudev Datta’. These frequencies reduce the severity of the frequencies of desire present around the subtle-body of the departed ancestor. This results in a decrease in the Raja-Tama in the subtle-body and thus reduces its heaviness. This enables the subtle-body to gain energy to move onwards in its journey.

• Protective sheath: A protective sheath is formed around the subtle-body and its actual physical body. This protects it from attacks by ghosts.

• Instigates momentum:  As the attachment in the form of desires is also reduced, the subtle-body is able to cross the Earth plane in a shorter time period.

• Spiritually purifies the environment: Due to the chanting, particles of Divine consciousness (Chaitanya) are generated in the atmosphere. The subtle-body of the recently departed family member receives help due to these particles. All the persons chanting are also protected from the distressing frequencies present in the atmosphere.

• Continued protection: By continuously repeating the chant of ‘Shri Gurudev Datta’ on a daily basis, we protect ourselves from distress caused due to ancestors. We also help our ancestors in the after-life by providing them with the necessary Sattva component to make their onward journey.

4. Which of our family members will be helped by the chant?

The ancestor who is troubling the most will derive maximum benefit and get first priority for the spiritual help generated by the protective chant of ‘Shri Gurudev Datta’.

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