Why Blessings of Forefathers Are Important in Begetting Progeny

Why do we always associate begetting a child with blessings of forefathers?

Mostly, if you see those who have difficulty in begetting a child, their astrologer will tell them that they have pitrupapa. They will ask them to go to Gaya or Kashi to propitiate their forefathers.

Will tell you some very basic and interesting facts about this connection.

Who are forefathers? Not just your own father, grandfather, great-grandfather.
There are progenitors for everything and everyone.
Even devas, rishis — they all have their own forefathers.

We generally consider up to three generations, but it doesn’t end there.
You can go on tracing back to any level. When you go on going back, soon individuals end — it will start with elements or tatwas. That is when going back.

Let’s look at the present.

The present world we are living in today — this world which is the created world — is perpetually running on three factors.

For anything to exist, it has to perpetually consume something else or be consumed by something.
Take any system — market, for example. Without the consumer and the consumed, will a market exist?
On a day when consumer and consumed are not there, we say the market is closed. It doesn’t function.
Both are required. In a supermarket there is stock but consumers are not coming in — it doesn’t function.
Consumers are coming in, there is no stock — it doesn’t function.
For anything to function, anything to exist, this consumption has to keep on happening.

If you have to exist as a human being, then you have to keep on consuming air, without break — and food at intervals.
You know what happens if you stop consuming air — or consuming food for a few days.

You may think that objects like stone don’t consume anything.
Ask a physicist what happens at a subatomic level — there is constant movement, interaction of energy, exchange of energy.

So, if the world has to exist — the universe has to exist, come into existence — then these three factors have to come into existence: the consumer, the consumed, and also something that neither consumes nor gets consumed.
For example, you are taking food — you are the consumer, the food is what is consumed.
The vessels, the spoon, your hand which puts the food into your mouth is the third factor.
That is the facilitator.

This triad is behind the existence of the world.
Like the srishti, sthiti, samhara triad — this triad also.

So the forefathers have these three characteristics. That is why they are able to bring into existence what is non-existent.

These three aspects of the forefathers have three names: Agni, Soma, and Yama.
Agni is the consumer.
Soma is the consumed — the food.
And Yama is the facilitator.

If you are familiar with the pitru tarpana in brahma yajna, you would know — Soma pitruman.
These three names are there.

In a shraddha, these three tatwas only come as Vasu, Rudra, and Aditya.
Vasu is Agni.
Rudra is Yama.
And Aditya is Soma.

If you look at fertilization of an egg — ovum —
The ovum is Agni.
The sperm is Soma.
The colour also you see — ovum is red, sperm is white.

Then whatever that carries the sperm from the body of the male to the body of the female — the energy that pushes — this is a prana called apana, which is present in the body of the male.
This is the carrier that mobilizes the sperm — that is the Yama aspect.

All these three are required to cause fertilization of the egg and its development into a progeny.
Even its development — there is constant consumption, development, growth.

So, these tatwas — the consumer, the consumed, and the facilitator — they are the forefathers.

For ease of understanding, we say so many things — father, grandfather — they are in pitruloka, they come, they bless you.
But in fact, when you are doing a pitru karya such as shraddha, it is these three tatwas you are connecting with — you are activating.

If one of them is missing, deficient, weak, then it is compensated.
You are paying attention to these three factors and setting them right.

This is the connection between forefathers and begetting a progeny.
When you say your forefathers are happy with you, that means all these three are working in harmony and synchrony.
When do they become happy with you? When you do your duties towards them correctly.

You pay tax — with that money, government pays the policemen who protect.
If you don’t pay tax, how will the government pay the policemen?
After some time, they will all quit — and there will be no one to protect you from thieves and criminals.

This is what happens when you don’t do your duty towards your forefathers also.
The whole system collapses.
It may not show its effect in a day or two — but it will definitely have to show its effect after some time.

Ramaswamy Sastry and Vighnesh Ghanapaathi