Pitṛyāna
Pitṛyāna · pitṛ-yāna, “the path of the pitṛs”
Grammar: neuter noun; a compound of pitṛ (the ancestors, the pitṛs) and yāna (path, going): “the path of the pitṛs”.
Meaning: the path of return, by which those who have gone to svarga through yajña, tapas and dāna reach the Candraloka and then come back to be born on earth. Its pair is the devayāna, the path of no return.
In the scriptures: Agnideva teaches the two paths of the jīvātmā in the chapter on samādhi.
Agnihotrīs who desire offspring reach svarga by the path in the pitṛyāna that runs from the Upavīthi to the middle of the Agastya nakshatra. Those devoted to dāna and endowed with the eight guṇas also travel by this path. Eighty-eight thousand gṛhastha munis, the propagators of dharma, are the cause of return; they went to the devaloka by the path between the Saptarshis and the Nāga-vīthi.
Those who reach svarga through yajña, tapas and dāna go in order to the lokas of the presiding devatās of smoke (dhūma), night (rātri), the kṛshṇa paksha (the dark fortnight), the dakshiṇāyana (the southern course of the sun), the Pitṛloka and the Candraloka. Then they return to Bhūloka by the path of ākāśa, vāyu and water. Born in this world, after death they travel again by that same path.
The vānaprasthas full of śraddhā, who know the ātmā and practise the upāsana of satya, go instead by the devayāna: to the lokas of fire, the day, the śukla paksha, the uttarāyaṇa, the devaloka, the Sūrya-maṇḍala and the devatās of lightning, and from there the mānasa purusha leads them to Brahmaloka, from which there is no return. One who does not know these two paths of the jīvātmā is born as a serpent, a winged insect, an insect or a worm (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 376).
Related terms: Devayāna · Pitṛ · Pitṛloka · Candraloka · Dakshiṇāyana · Uttarāyaṇa · Svarga
Sources
- Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 376