Dear Krithika
Thanks for your response. Glad to know that sudarshana homam was done at home and that your late sister-in-law was included in the mahaalaya paksham shraaddha-tharppanams. You also confirm that Naaraayana bali was not done. You ask for information about aathma shaanthi puja. Before I answer your query please let me elaborate on Naaraayana bali, which should first be done, and done now. The procedure compares with a laghu naanthi (the full naanthi is done before upanayanam, vivaaham, anthi-yeshti, etc).
For Naaraayana bali you might wish to invite a couple of gruhasthas for lunch at home on a convenient day. There should be no music, song, dance or loud noises or crying in the house. Before they enter the house let them sit on chairs or stools, and place a thaambaalam (plate with raised edges) or pohini (basin) under their feet. Have a kendi (goose-necked vessel) full of cold clean water ready, and pour slowly and silently over both their feet. Your husband should bend down before them and wash their feet gently but thoroughly from ankles to toes. After drying their feet with his anga-vashthram or a small clean dry cotton towel, your husband should smear a little chandanam and sprinkle akshadai and a few flowers or petals on their feet. He should then invite them to enter the house and offer them seats (preferably plank palakais), and fan them with a hand fan.
When they are rested and ready, food should be served them on fresh banana leaves (or silver or brass lunch plates), together with tumblers of clean cold water. If your husband knows Abhishravanam, he should recite at lease parts of it beginning with chathur-vedam and continuing with Purusha-sooktham and Rakshohano Valagahanah, and ending with Bhakshehi Maa-aavisha while the gruhasthas have their meal. If not, it does not matter.
After their meal offer them a kendi of cold clean water to wash their hands, face and feet. Offer them betel leaf and arecanut. When the banana leaves/lunch plates have been cleared away and the place sprinkled with purifying water and mopped, let them sit on the palakais and your husband and you should then present them the Naaraayana bali donation items. There should be four donations to each Braahmana.
Your husband should familiarise himself with, and chant, the appropriate daana-manthrams, as this is quite important:-
hiranya garbha garbhastham hemabeeejam vibhaavasoho
anantha punya-phaladam atha shshaanthim prayachcha me
……… (star) nakashathre …….(raashi) raashau jaathasya ……..(name) naamnyaaha yama-loka upari pithru-loka upari shiva-loka upari vaikunta cha paribhramana aathma paripoorna shaanthi siddhyarththam shree bhoomaa-devi shree mahaa-lakshmi sametha shree mahaa-vishnu shreeman naaraayana prasaada siddhyarthyam, thath prasaad sarva paapebhyo moksha siddyaartham, sarva klesha nivirthyarththam sarva upadrava parihaaraarthham sathya-vasu samjna-kaanaam vishveshaam devaanaam thrupthyarththam mahaa-vishnuscha thrupthyarththam idam hiranyam sa dakshinaakam sa thamboolam naandi-shobhana devathaa preeethyarththam kaamayamaanaha vedoktha naaraayana balim braahmanebhyaha sampradade | na mama | ohm thath sathu.
For aathma-shaanthi puja bring fruits, archana flowers (or petals), a small pushpa-maalai, chandanam, kumkumam, oothupaththi, camphor, two pieces of coloured cloth sufficient for blouse and paavaadai, a kudumi coconut, a small lidded container of neiveidhyam (e.g, paal-paayasam, chakkarapponggal, payaru, mothakam, vadai). Hand these over to the officiating Braahmana priest (not pandaaram) at the inner shrine of the deity. Tell him you wish to perform an aathma shaanthi puja to the deity so that the aathma of your deceased sister-in-law who died some years ago an unmarried virgin at the age of 18 shall attain calmness, solace, tranquility, rest and repose and cease her restlessness and wanderings or disturbing the living.
Tell the priest that you would like him to perform an abbreviated shodashopachaara puja, consisting of:-
- paadyam
- arghyam
- aachamaneeyam
- snaanam through prokshanam
- snaanaantharam aachamaneeyam
- vasthra-utthareeya-yagnopaveetha-aabharanam (by placing the cloths around the deity’s shoulders and sprinkling akshatha)
- chandanam (divya parimala gantham)
- haridra kumkumam (ganthashyo-pari)
- akshada
- pushpa-maalika (by placing the garland around the deity’s neck)
- pushpa archana (reciting the deity’s shodasha-naama)
- doopam
- deepam
- neiveidhyam (by offering the deity the items you have brought)
- thaamboolam
- aachamaneeyam nivedaantharam
- karpoora neeraanjanam (actual lighted camphor, not oil-lamp)
- raksha
- manthra pushppam
After receiving from the Braahhmana priest the post-puja items such as vibhuthi, chadanam, kumkumam, theertham, archana flowers, neiveidhyam back in the original thaambaalam or thattu, you and your husband might wish to circumambulate the shrine once or thrice, sit for a while, do namaskaaram, and then leave for home.
Aasheervaathams, and a blessings-filled new year 2019.
S Narayanaswamy Iyer