Ancestral Spirit

(pitr) This term is a translation of the
word that literally means “fathers”;
these ancestral spirits are seen as a collective group to whom every man has
duties. One of these duties is to perform
certain memorial rites for them, such as
the rite of sapindikarana. Like most
funerary rites (antyeshthi samskara),
the major objective is to transform the
recently deceased and potentially
malevolent spirit into a benign and
helpful ancestor. Another duty is to procreate sons, so that the rites may be
performed without interruption. Both
of these are weighty responsibilities,
and Hindu mythology is replete with
tales of lifelong ascetics, such as
Jaratkaru, who are rebuked by their
ancestral spirits for shirking their duty
to procreate. By virtue of their stable
ancestral status, these spirits are also
well-defined and generally benevolent.