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🪔 Prathama Shraddha

Day 1 of Pitru Paksha — Honoring the Threshold

Date: September 8, 2025
Theme: Wealth, Grounding, and the General Offering


🌑 The First Flame of Remembrance

After the powerful lunar eclipse and full moon of Purnima Shraddha (Day 0), the sacred 16-day portal of Pitru Paksha truly begins with Prathama Tithi — Day 1 of the waning moon cycle.

This day is known as Prathama Shraddha or Prathama Tarpana. It is the threshold offering, where we take the first step into the cycle of remembrance, healing, and karmic release.


🕊️ Who is Honored on This Day?

  • Infants or children who passed very young
  • Sannyasis or renunciates, who left the world without family rituals
  • Ancestors whose exact date of death is unknown
  • Or simply — all ancestors, as a general invocation and welcome

This day is especially powerful if:

  • You don’t know your exact tithi (death date) of a loved one
  • You are beginning Pitru Paksha with devotion but limited ritual knowledge
  • You want to open the field of remembrance to all beings connected to your lineage

📿 The Blessing of Prathama Shraddha: Wealth & Rootedness

In Vedic tradition, each day of Pitru Paksha offers a subtle energetic blessing when honored properly.

🌱 Prathama is associated with:

  • Financial stability
  • Root chakra grounding
  • Material abundance rooted in dharma

This is not about greed — it’s about anchoring wealth that is blessed, karmically clean, and aligned with ancestral support.

When we honor our foundation, Lakshmi flows.


🔱 Simple Rituals You Can Perform

You don’t need to know all the mantras or have a purohit. Here are simple, heartfelt steps you can take:

Morning:

  • Light a diya (lamp) facing south
  • Offer tarpana: pour water mixed with black sesame, kusa grass, and rice while saying:
    “To all my ancestors, known and unknown — I offer light, love, and remembrance.”

Midday:

  • Feed animals or birds (especially crows — symbolic messengers to the ancestors)
  • Donate food or rice to a child, monk, or elder

Evening:

  • Sit quietly. Reflect. Light incense.
  • Chant: “Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya” 108 times
  • Offer your prayers aloud or write a letter to your lineage

🪷 Yogic Insight: Activate the Muladhara (Root) Chakra

Since this day roots the entire journey, focus on grounding practices:

  • Walk barefoot on earth
  • Meditate with a red cloth or sit near a sacred tree
  • Chant: “LAM” (the seed sound for Muladhara)

Ask your ancestors:
“What karmic burdens am I still holding that are not mine?”
“What gifts have I forgotten to receive?”

Then listen… in stillness.


📜 A Sample Sankalpa (Intention) for Day 1

“On this first day of Pitru Paksha, I light the flame of remembrance.
I honor the ones who came before me — especially those who left too soon or without final rites.
May their souls find peace.
May my life be rooted in dharma, abundance, and ancestral support.”

And for those of you that have signed up for this course, see you in class today.

Om Shanti Shanti Shanti 🙏


✨ Final Thought

This journey is not just for them.
It’s for you — to remember where you came from, to heal what you’ve inherited, and to walk forward with their blessings.

Prathama Shraddha opens the door.
Step through it with love.


📿 Want daily guidance for each day of Pitru Paksha?
Follow the full series here 👉 www.prakashchegu.com
Instagram: @lightwithin22


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