Pitru Paksha 2024: In Sanatan Dharma, Pitru Paksha is considered to be very important. In Pitru Paksha, people worship to get rid of Pitru Dosh and also adopt various remedies. They also perform rituals like Shradh and Tarpan for their ancestors. It is a religious belief that during Pitru Paksha, our ancestors come to Earth from Pitru Lok.
Often this question arises in people's mind that how does the soul get liberated after death? Many things have been said about this in ancient scriptures. Garuda Purana, Vishnu Purana and other religious scriptures have a detailed description of the movement and liberation of the soul, which is determined on the basis of the deeds of the person.
There is mention of the movement and liberation of the soul in scriptures like Garuda Purana, Skanda Purana, Vishnu Purana and Padma Purana. It is said that if a normal person dies, his soul stays at that place for 12 days. His journey to Yamaloka begins from the 13th day. This journey is decided on the basis of the deeds of the soul.
The soul of a pious person is freed from all his deeds and sins after death and does not have to face the messengers of death. For yogis, the process is different; they go directly to the higher realms. But, those who are bound by ordinary deeds have to travel to Yamaloka.
In the Pretakalp of Garuda Purana, it is told that it takes 348 days for the soul to reach Yamalok. There is a distance of 86,000 yojans between Yamalok and Mrityulok (earth). The soul of a person travels 247 yojans every day. During this time, the soul experiences happiness or sorrow based on its deeds.
There is mention of two types of salvation in the scriptures, general salvation and sadya mukti. Those who are yogis or religious people get sadya mukti. After leaving their body, they go directly to the higher worlds and do not have to face the messengers of death. On the other hand, people bound by ordinary deeds have to travel to Yamaloka even after being freed from their deeds.
