Milk and water abhishek of Shivling

I have always followed my heart in doing spiritual practices. As I progress in my path, I keep getting different instructions to follow. At one point in time I was instructed to do milk and water abhishek for Shivling on Mondays. So on Monday mornings, after bath, before my routine puja rituals, I do this. I was having a small silver pot to take water for the purpose. For taking milk, I bought another silver pot.

Abhishek is a means of praying to the God, of connecting and communicating with the almighty. Milk is a sign of purity. Every drop of milk poured on the Shiva Lingam cleanses us and relieves us from difficulties and sorrows. So the practice is not to clean the Ling but the person itself. It washes all the sins from oneself and purify one's life.

Once my husband talked about this practice of mine to a relative who is well versed with shastras and puranas. He told that it is a serious practice and it is important that whatever quantity of milk is used, one has to pour 21/2 times water over the Shivling. On hearing this, I checked my silver pots. 

To my astonishment and joy, I saw that the larger pot that I was using for water carried two and a half times the quantity of the smaller pot, used to take milk. Whenever I buy things, I go by my feel, and I got the guidance to buy the exact sized pot for the milk!!

Message from the crow

I have been doing the pitrupaksha rituals for a couple of years now. It is a 16–lunar day period when Hindus pay homage to their ancestors (Pitrs), especially through food offerings.

This year (2014) we were traveling from 8^th to 18^th of September. There was a lot of work on coming back and I was too busy doing all that. On 23^rd morning, when I did my routine crystal gazing, I saw Raven, which happens to be my power animal. Later while we were getting out of the house to go to our clinic, I was a crow sitting on the branch of a tree in front of the house and it was tilting its head and looking at me. When I moved, it turned its neck to look at me. I tried moving in different directions, and it continued to turn to look at me.

I was sure that it wanted to convey some message. I was trying to decipher what it might be. Suddenly it struck me, the pitrupaksha dates are in September. I told the crow ‘Is it regarding the pitrupaksha? I will check the date today and will perform the ritual if the dates are not yet over. Ok?’ And then, the crow flew off.

I checked the internet and found that it was the last day to perform the ritual. After coming back from the clinic I did what was needed and mentally thanked the crow for reminding me.

According to Hinduism, the souls of three preceding generations of one's ancestor reside in Pitru–loka, a realm between heaven and earth. This realm is governed by Yama, the God of death, who takes the soul of a dying man from earth to Pitru–loka. When a person of the next generation dies, the first generation shifts to heaven and unites with God, so Shraddha offerings are not given. Thus, only the three generations in Pitru–loka are given Shraddha rites, in which Yama plays a significant role.

As per the sacred Hindu epics, at the beginning of Pitru Paksha, the sun enters the zodiac sign of Libra. Coinciding with this moment, it is believed that the spirits leave Pitru–loka and reside in their descendants' homes for a month until the sun enters the next zodiac—Scorpio, and there is a full moon. Hindus are expected to propitiate the ancestors in the first half, during the dark fortnight.

When Karna, the brave warrior whose acts of giving are legendary even today, died in the epic Mahabharata war, his soul transcended to heaven, where he was offered gold and jewels as food. However, Karna needed real food to eat and asked Indra, the lord of heaven, the reason for serving gold as food. Indra told Karna that he had donated gold all his life, but had never donated food to his ancestors in Shraddha. Karna said that since he was unaware of his ancestors, he never donated anything in their memory. To make amends, Karna was permitted to return to earth for a 15–day period, so that he could perform Shraddha and donate food and water in their memory. This period is now known as Pitru Paksha.

Later when I met my daughter she told that on Septembe 23^rd when she was having lunch, a crow came and sat in the balcony and started cawing continuously, which was not a usual thing there.. She didn’t have any extra food at that time, so just broke off a piece of chapatti and offered to the crow. And the crow stopped cawing!


October 2015

We were travelling in the last half of September and the first week of October. I felt that during the pitrupaksha dates we won't be home and was not feeling so good about it. We reached back home on 8th and started our routine from October 9th. On that day when I wascollecting flowers for puja in the morning, twice two different butterflies circled me. At lunchtime while coming out of my  clinic I put my hand bag over the shoulder and from the corner of my eye I saw something moving on the bag. I felt it was a lizard and took the bag off the shoulder immediately, to see that a butterfly was sitting on it.

Suddenly it struck me that the butterflies were trying to convey some message. May be about pitrupaksha? I checked the dates and saw that October 12th was the last day of Shradh dates for 2015. I did my rituals on that day, thanking the Universe for guiding me. The Universe never lets us down. It always gives us signs, we have to be just open to pick them up!