Background

Both my parent passed away few years back. So I decided to do Pinda Daan in Gaya.

In the Kurmpuran, 34/7-8, it is said:

“All forefathers appreciate a pilgrimage to Gaya by their successors. Once the pind daan is performed in Gaya, one achieves salvation. One becomes free of rebirth. If one visits Gaya even once and offers pind daan, the forefathers become free from hell and other dreadful destinations and achieve salvation.”

In the Kurmpuran it is also said that whoever goes to Gaya for pind daan is blessed and seven generations from the paternal and maternal side are benefited along with the personal self who achieves salvation.

Preparation

Though the Gaya is very holly place, but at present it is one of the dirtiest place in India with lots of filths and mosquitoes. Moreover the Gaya’s Panda’s are notorious for taking out money from your pocket. You will be going  for very noble reason but these Panda’s will exploit your state of mind and ask for money at every steps. So if you haven’t done the homework properly you may lose all your money without doing proper ceremony. So be very careful. Do not travel alone, take someone with you.

The moment I have decided to go to Gaya I started surfing the net. I found tons of information.

I booked the train ticket.

Journey

We got in the Doon Express train at 8:30 from Howrah. It was around 8.30 hrs journey.

We got down at Gaya station at 5:10am. It was quite dark but there were plenty of people in the station. I asked one person about Bharat Sevashram Sangha (BSS). But he couldn’t tell much. So we went out of the station and started looking for the BSS. Fortunately I saw their office within 100 meters outside the station. There was one Swamyji who was directing people to right Auto rickshaw. It took 10mins to reach BSS. Auto costs us Rs 8.00 per head.

Stay at Bharat Seva Sangha

When we reached BSS we found there were few people already before us. One Swamiji is taking details from each guest,

  1. Name
  2. No of guest
  3. Place we came from
  4. How long to stay
  5. Purpose of the visit ( it seems people come for sightseeing as well)

After we gave above detail one yellow card  was given to another Swamiji. The reception room was full of mosquito. It was quite painful to wait for next swamiji to call. Anyway after 15-20 minutes the swamiji called .He confirmed the above detail again and allotted a room. Then above yellow card  was handed over to us which had detail about room no , guest no etc.

 

After 2 mins of walk we reached our room.. Out of my surprise the room was real disgusting. There were two steel cots and two cotton mattress on top of that. These matteresses are disgustingly dirty. We are supposed stay in this room to relax. But we didn’t complain as we had return ticket for the same day itself.

We took bath in the so called shower room. Luckily you can get hot water. But that person will charge Rs 10 for each bucket.

Day activities

If you are doing pind dan then you are supposed give a yellow token in the counter no 2 from 6:30am onward once you have taken bath and dressed up for pinda daan. So we did the same by 6:40am. There were almost 40 people came for the same. After 7:30am one swamiji came and ask each [erson’s name one by one.Swamji asked following,

  1. Are you doing for both father & mother
  2. Was the death natural or accidental
  3. Have you done first yearly ritual
  4. How much you want to spend for Puja? ( didn’t understand the meaning of this question)

Once the answer was given by each person swamiji explained the meaning of question 4 and rest of the process to be followed.

The process is follows,

  1. Each person will be called again. BSS will assign one priest for a group of 1-2 people. Then all the people need to pay the amount declared in the question number 4 above.
  2. Then One Panda will ask your original “Adi Badi” or Native place (“forefather’s place”). You are supposed to answer the same as many times you will be asked by these pandas.
  3. Once panda is decided then priests will hand over the pre agreed money to panda
  4. Then priest will arrange for Auto which will to all the 3 places and come back. It will cost Rs 175 for 5 folks. If you have 6 people then add one person’s charge at pro rated
  5. Every one supposed to do the pinda daan in 3 different places.
    1. Near Falgu river
    2. Inside the VishnuPad temple
    3. In  AkshayVata
    4. In PretShila if it is accidental death ( This place is above 700 steps. But one can do it on any number of steps depending on their physical limitation.)

# Meaning of question 4: It seems that whatever Money you say  for Puja, 80% of the money goes to local panda and 20% remains with BSS. So the lower the amount (Rs 151 etc) it is better for your pocket as there are other expenses as well.

We paid the amount told as per question no 4. Then Panda asked about native place and we said. So they started looking in their big book where all the people came from same locality before are listed. Meanwhile we took the priest for tea and then hired a auto to go to Falgu river.

On the way priest stopped to buy” bhojjo” (vegetables etc for pinda). There will be some more panda who will ask again the same question about “Adi Bari” (Ancestor home). After that you will be taken to shaded area next to Falgu where you need to buy “Dhup” (Incense stick or Agarbati), Candle, match box, asana ( floor mat made with leaves )etc. Then you need to go down to the river to get water. Once you have done that then you are ready to start doing puja with the help of Priest for pinda Daan.

You are supposed bring the Name and Gotra for all people passed away earlier from your mother as well as father’s side. It will take 15-20 mins. Once pinda daan is over then you take those pinda and give to a cow to eat.

Then you move to Vishnupada temple which is very close to this place. Again you do the pinda daan to all your ancestors. Then you take these pinda and keep it over 14” long feet impression of Lord Vishnu with the help of a panda. The feet impression is on a stone which is surrounded by Silver structure. Once completed you need to pay some “Dakshina” to the Panda again.

After this you need to take blessing from main panda of your “Adi Badi” and pay some “Dakshina” to the panda.

Then you proceed to Akshayvata by the same auto. This place only has one Vata tree. So again you do the pinda daan and then put the pinda below the tree.

This completes your Pinda daan process. After that you will be taken back to BSS by same auto. Now you are free to do anything you want.

One more thing, on this day you are not supposed to eat any non-veg. Moreover getting hygienic and pure vegetarian food in Gaya would be difficult. So BSS arrange for vegetarian meal for all the guest from 12:30pm to 5:00pm. But remember you need to sit on the floor and then will serve on a stainless steel plate. If you prefer you can carry a spoon.

Trip to Bodhgaya

We hired a auto just for me and my brother to go to Bodhgaya. It took around 30mins to reach Mahabodhi temple. This is the place where Gautam Buddha got his bodhigyan. This is a wonderful place , very quiet and serene. This place is better for overnight stay compare to Gaya.

The temple was constructed 1600 years back , but got renovated several times. You will find that many followers of this religion comes from different parts of the world, like Japan, China, Thailand etc. It is a very nice place compare to Gaya. Everyone is chanting Buddha’s name or meditating.

We visited other Bodhi temple constructed by other countries like Japan, China, Thailand etc. There is a huge Buddha’s statue (40feet) by Japan.

It took around 2hrs and then we return to BSS.

Journey Back

Our train was at 8:30pm, but we wanted to get out early as there were too many mosquitoes in the room and the room is not that clean.

While checking out I came to know that there is no fixed charge for the room. So you donate whatever you want depending on your stay duration and meal and anything else. By the way you can get mosquito net and bed sheet if you like sleep over in that room.

Anyway we checked out and took an auto to Gaya station.

 

I got my inner peace. Hope you get the same after your pind daan.