The best process for the śrāddha ceremony is to distribute bhāgavata-prasāda (remnants of food that has first been offered to Kṛṣṇa) to all of one’s forefathers and relatives. This makes a first-class śrāddha ceremony. (SB 7.15 summary)
There are three kinds of ceremonies — specifically, ceremonies to please the Supreme Personality of Godhead or the demigods, those performed for social celebrations like marriages and birthdays, and those meant to please the forefathers, like the śrāddha ceremony. In all these ceremonies, large amounts of money are spent for various activities, but here it is suggested that if along with this there is recitation of the wonderful activities of Vāmanadeva, certainly the ceremony will be carried out successfully and will be free of all discrepancies. (SB 8.23.31 purport)
The effects of the śrāddha ritual
There is a hell which is called pun. So from that hellish condition, one who delivers, trāyate iti tra, therefore he is called putra. This is… Every Sanskrit word has got meaning, root meaning. Putra. Putra-piṇḍa-prayojanam. Putra is required. Why? After death, if by chance the father does not get ordinary life or goes to the hellish condition of life, the son will deliver. Therefore śrāddha ceremony. There is śrāddha… What is that śrāddha ceremony? Śrāddha ceremony means to offer foodstuff to Viṣṇu, and with the prasādam, to the forefathers or father it is offered, so that by eating prasādam, if he is in ghost life or in hellish life, he’ll be delivered. This is called śrāddha. (Srila Prabhupada lecture Vrindavan, SB 1.5.24, August 5, 1974,)
Who can perform śrāddha
Sanatan Dharma that does not give any cause for excuse for not performing śrāddha due to
the absence of a particular person. Son, daughter, grandson, great grandson, wife,
daughter’s son, brother, nephew, cousin’s son, father, mother, daughter-in-law, son of
elderly and younger sisters, maternal uncle, anyone in the seven generations and from the
same lineage (sapiṇḍa), anyone after the seven generations and belonging to the same
family domain (samanodak), disciple, priests (upadhyay), friend, son-in-law of the deceased
can perform Śrāddha in that order. In case of a joint family, the eldest and earning male should perform Śrāddha. In the case of the unit family, everyone should perform śrāddha independently.
Sanatan Dharma has made arrangements so that for each and every dead person
śrāddha can be performed so as to give momentum to that person to progress to a higher
sub-plane. Dharma Sindhu mentions that: ‘If a particular dead person does not have any
relative or a close person, then it is the duty of the king to perform Śrāddha for that person.
Normally every year Śrāddha should be performed on the date of death of the person (the
Vaishnava calendar and not as per the Western calendar).
Considering the complexity in pronouncing certain Sanskrit words and limitation to
understand the rites mentioned in the science, it may not be possible for everyone to
perform the ritual as prescribed, by themselves. In such cases one can get the ritual
performed through priests and if they are not available, then the ritual can be performed with the help of knowledgeable people.
If the date is not known and only the month is known, then in that case śrāddha can be
performed on the last day of Śrāddha period.