PURPORT
PURPORT
The word ayana means "path" or "going." The six months when the sun moves toward the north are called uttarayana, or the northern path, and the six months when it moves south are called daksinayana, or the southern path. These are mentioned in Bhagavad-gita (8.24-25). The first day when the sun begins to move north and enter the zodiacal sign of Capricorn is called Makara-saṅkranti, and the first day when the sun begins to move south and enter the sign of Cancer is called Karkata-saṅkranti. On these two days of the year, one should perform the sraddha ceremony.
Visuva, or Visuva-saṅkranti, means Mesa-saṅkranti, or the day on which the sun enters the sign Aries. Tula-saṅkranti is the day on which the sun enters the sign Libra. Both of these days occur only once within a year. The word yoga refers to a certain relationship between the sun and moon as they move in the sky. There are twenty-seven different degrees of yoga, of which the seventeenth is called Vyatipata. On the day when this occurs, one should perform the sraddha ceremony. A tithi, or lunar day, consists of the distance between the longitude of the sun and that of the moon. Sometimes a tithi is less than twenty-four hours. When it starts after sunrise on a certain day and ends before the sunrise of the following day, the previous tithi and the following tithi both "touch" the twenty-four-hour day between the sunrises. This is called tryaha-sparsa, or a day touched by some portion of three tithis.
Srila Jiva Gosvami has given quotations from many sastras stating that the sraddha ceremony of oblations to the forefathers should not be performed on Ekadasi tithi. When the tithi of the death anniversary falls on the Ekadasi day, the sraddha ceremony should be held not on Ekadasi but on the next day, or dvadasi. In the Brahma-vaivarta Purana it is said:
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