Dear Mr. Surve,

    Nowadays, many people do not perform the spiritual rites (shraddha, paksha, etc.) required for the liberation of departed souls or souls of their ancestors. These spiritual rites help liberate unsatisfied ancestors’ subtle bodies, stuck in lower subtle planes. Hence, the subtle bodies of such ancestors trouble their living predecessors, to get the latter to help them out of their suffering. Thus, many people today are troubled by their unsatisfied ancestors’ subtle bodies.

    The trouble can be in the form of obstacles in one’s worldly life as well as spiritual practice. Inability to get married, marital disharmony, difficulty in conceiving children, inability to succeed in career or job acquisition despite putting in sincere and required efforts, death during childhood, etc., are some indications of suffering due to ancestors’ subtle bodies.

    Only Saints can tell with certainty if one is suffering or will suffer due to ancestors’ souls. Since a (spiritually) average person can not tell whether ancestors’ subtle bodies are causing his problems or if he may suffer from such problems in the future, one should daily chant 3 turns of a mala (or 3 times 108) of Lord Datta’s Name, that is, ‘Sri Gurudev Datta’. One should increase the chanting up to six to nine turns daily, if the problems are severe. Lord Datta is the divine Principle that helps to liberate the unsatisfied ancestors’ subtle bodies to the next plane of existence and protects one from any trouble caused by such subtle bodies.