There is a Viṣṇu temple in Gayā. So people go to worship Lord Viṣṇu. Caitanya Mahāprabhu also, before taking sannyāsa, He went to Gayā to worship Lord Viṣṇu. Worship Lord Viṣṇu here in Gayā means to offer śraddhā, oblations to the forefathers. According to Vedic scripture, if some of my relatives or father and forefather did not get the body—are in the, what is called, ghost body . . . one has become a ghost. Ghost means one who does not get this gross body lives in subtle body.
There are two kinds of bodies: subtle body and gross body. Gross body is made of this earth, water, fire, air, sky; and subtle body is made of mind, intelligence and ego. So one who is too much attached to this material world or too much sinful, sometimes they are punished by not getting this gross body. They live in the subtle body, and that is called ghost. Ghost will be present before you, but you cannot see him. Generally these ghosts are mischievous, because they do not get gross body. They want to enjoy life, but without gross body they cannot enjoy. Therefore sometimes a ghost takes shelter of another gross body, and that person who is such ghostly haunted, becomes ghostly haunted and speak like the ghost.
So according to Vedic system, supposing that my father or grandfather or any relative had obtained this ghostly body, could not get this gross body, so in his name oblations are offered on the lotus feet of Lord Viṣṇu in Gayā, gayā piṇḍadāna. Then that person gets again gross body—means again he is allowed to enter into the womb of a material mother, and another gross body is formed by the materials supplied by the mother. The form is made according to the form of the mother, and the living entity comes out of the womb and begins his karma again.