Shraddh & Pind Daan · श्राद्ध एवं पिंड दान

The 12 steps

1. 🙏 Pitru Smaran (पितृ स्मरण) — Before any offering comes remembrance. Take three quiet breaths and remember them.
2. 🤲 Sankalp (संकल्प) — Hold water in your hands and state why you perform this shraddh, and for whom.
3. 🪔 Deep Prajwalan (दीप प्रज्वलन) — Light a lamp and set it before their photograph, facing south.
4. 🕯️ Pitru Avahan (पितृ आवाहन) — Invite the ancestors — three generations — to receive what is offered.
5. 🌼 Pushpa Arpan (पुष्प अर्पण) — Offer flowers around their photograph.
6. 💧 Tarpan (तर्पण) — Add black sesame to the water, then offer it three times: for them, for those before them, and for all the pitrs.
7. 🍚 Pind Daan (पिंड दान) — Shape three pinds from rice, sesame and ghee, and lay them on the leaf.
8. 🍛 Bhojan Daan (भोजन दान · पंचबलि) — Share the meal in their name: a portion each for the cow, dog, crow, ants and a guest.
9. 🧣 Vastra Daan (वस्त्र दान) — Give clothes to an elder, in their name.
10. 🐄 Gau Seva (गौ सेवा) — Feed the cow in their memory — green fodder, the first roti, and jaggery.
11. 🙏 Kshama Prarthana (क्षमा प्रार्थना) — Ask forgiveness for anything done imperfectly, and pray for their peace.
12. 🪔 Deep Daan (दीप दान · विदाई) — Light one last lamp and set it on the river, to light their way.