Note 21 — Chapter IV · WORSHIP OF ANCESTORS AND SAINTS.
Reading edition
Preta is the spirit of a person that dies a sudden or unnatural death with many of his desires unfulfilled. His soul attains emancipation by the performance of a saptāh, that is a recitation of the Bhāgvat on seven consecutive days. It is described in the Bhāgvat that Dhundhumari, the brother of Gokarn, who had become a preta, was released from his preta existence by the performance of a saptāh which his brother caused to be made. The Garudpurān mentions that King Babruvāhan emancipated a preta by the performance of a shrāddha. The mukti or salvation of a preta is in itself its death. This would prove pretas to be mortal.21