T HE G R E A T
L IF E
MY STE R Y
BE YO N D
A s d ic ta te d by
a
DE A TH
Spi r it
D IW A N BA HA DU R HIR ALA L L
I NQ IAN E DU CA TIO N A L
.
KA J
I
S E R V ICE , BO MBA Y
NEW BO O K CO MPANY
K ITA B MA HAL , HO R NBY R O A D
B O M BA
_
1 938
Y
.
Copyright
.
P u bl is h ed b y P Di msh a w f o r t h e N ew Boo k Co mpa n y . K i tab Ma b e l ,
H o m b y R oa d , F o rt B m b y a nd P r i nt ed a t Tu r f P r int in g W o r k s
3 l , T ri b h o v an R o ad , B mb a y 4
.
.
o a
o
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PR EFA CE
No pleasure could be greater than the o ne
I experience in presenting this volume to the
l
w
ub
l
ic
in
as
much
as
a
given
the
unique
s
,
p
riv
ege
o
f
expounding
the
G
reat
M
ystery
o
f
i
l
p
L i f e be yond D eath as unfolded by the spirit
of the famo u s spiritualist , the late S ir A rthur
Conan D oyle I wish to state with all the
c learn ess and sincerity at my command that
n o s ingle idea expressed in this boo k is mine
and that no single sentence as recorded is
mine either Beyond touching up some loo se
expressions he r e and there
the book
is presented as spelt out letter by letter on
the O uija Board by the late S ir Arthur
through my son Mr A shok H K aj i and my
n ephew Mr
S u bo d h B K ay 1 may as w ell
c on fess that l have not read hithe r to any boo k
on spiritualism nor have I read any religious
philosophic al or metaphysica l books o f the
Hindus or any other nation for the matter o f
that My son is a B S c o f the Bom bay
University and my nephew is an M Com o f
the same University and neither of them
has devoted any thought whatsoever to the
problems o f the spirit world and the li fe
be yond death fO r as they have repeat edl y
dec lared it is enough if they concentrated on
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T HE
GR E A T
MYS TERY
OF L I FE B EYO ND DEAT H
the problems o f the life be fore them in thi s
world of the living instead of dabbling in
those of the life i n the world of the dead which
might well have an interest for people in the
evening of life I want the public therefor e
to accept the fact that in this book there is
absolutely no cont r ibution of ideas consciou s
or sub conscious by mysel f or my son o r m y
and no cont r ibution to expression
nephew
excepting J
ust a little touchi ng up befor e
publication f o r l have retained even some
queer and loose exp r essions
The O uija Board is besides a f raud proo f
appar atus fo r spi r it communication Neithe r
the medium n o r the instruments go off int o
a t rance ; they ar e fully conscious and remain
j ust thei r ordinary selves
There is no
darkening of the room no switching off o f
lights The fact that the pointe r is touched
lightly by one finger of each of the two
instruments is a proof of its movement bein g
directed not by them but by the thought
imp r essions p r oduced on the minds of eac h
of them by some outside intelligence fr om
beyond
No two pe r sons can m ove the
pointer in harmony unless each is t rying to
obey the same impulse of spelling out the
same wo rds to exp r ess the same impr esse d
thoughts While ther efo r e the public might
r emain as s ceptical as they choo se of the fac t
o f spi r it c o m munication
they should , I beg
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Vl
PREFA CE
of them recognise the fact that there is n o
fr aud or t r ick conscious or unconsc ious in
the prepa ration of this little volume
W ho dictated or spel t out the letters o f the
words in the sentences in the book is a ques
t ion indeed We ar e told the spirit is that o f
the late S ir Arthur Conan D oyle I f the publi c
want any proof of this I am sorry I am n o t
in a position to give it though I feel convinced
'
that the dictator was S ir Arthur s spirit indeed
It is true that the val ue o f spirit c o m m u n ica
tion is ma r red sometimes by the impersonatio n
of the spirit invoked by some frivolousl y
minded or wicked spirit But as S ir Arthur
pointed out to us such a possibility canno t
be entertained for a moment in this particul ar
case si nce no spirit would care to impersonat e
another at more or less regular intervals
over a period extending to about one whol e
year and that too not for an amusing cha t
but for the serious purpose o f bo ok dictation
and since the impersonator would not be abl e
to take up the thread just where it was le f t
on the preceding sittin g and to make re f er
e n ce s to phenomena described or explained in
p r eceding chapters That the style in which
t h e th o ughts are expressed is not quite th e
'
one which is so ch aracteristically S ir Arthur s
and which is familiar enough to the vas t
number of the reader s of his bo oks on fiction
sp i r i tualism and other subjects is clear e nough
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T HE
GREA T
MYS TERY
OF L I FE B EYO ND DEAT H
B u t this , as S ir A rthur explains , is not in any
way strange He was not writing but o rally
d ictating without being able to loo k over the
s entences so dictated ; sometimes he did ask
m e to read out what 1 had written to enable
The dictation
h im to pick up the lost thread
was besides by the conveyance o f impr essions
o f thoughts in Words to the two young men
being thus restricted by the capacities o f S ir
A rthur to convey and o f A shok and S u bodh
to receive the correct impressions and spe ll
I n this process o f
them out on the Board
fi ltering through the minds o f the two in stru
m ents S ir A rthur holds and rightly too the
s tyle gets nat urally altered completely
The
logic
systematic presentation analytical
ability and experienced exposition how ever
clearly reveal a master-writer and trained
author for evidently the two young gentle
men could not pos sibly at their age and stage
o f education be regarded as capable o f
mysterious joint fashion
p roducing in this
a book like this on a subject , on which thei r
m inds were a per f ect blank
Besides thei r
obvious reluctance to carry on the work till
c ompletion clearly indicates that the thoughts
ideas and explanations emanated from an
o utside intelligence
we three having nothing
t o do with these
The story o f this little volume might
I
p erhaps be of some interest to the readers
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Vl l l
P REFA CE
h ave
always regarded mysel f as a rather
f
o
ro
aic
matter
fact
person
not
given
to
s
,
p
I was
i ndulging in any flights o f imagination
n o t c onscious o f t he possessio n of any spiritual
owers
latent
or
patent
I
had
heard
casually
p
o f the planchette and o f the e fi o rts at spirit
rapping on the three legged primus stove ,
furni shing a sabbath occupation t o desk tied
My curiosity how ever
a nd desk tired clerks
was aroused in 1 9 2 ] by my sister describing
t he experiences of a neighbour who placing
a n inverted tiny metallic bowl on a pane o f
lass
and
getting
each
one
o
f
a
mixed
party
g
o f five males and females to lightly touch it
with a fi ng er saw to his amazement the tiny
bowl moving though very slowly on the
la
ss
sur
f
ace
towards
one
corner
indicating
g
indicating
a n affirmative or the other corner
a negative answer to queries by members o f
the party W e tried the experiment ourselves
with some success ; but as we could not get
t he invoked spirits to spell out any words on
t he glass on which we pasted slips o f paper
to represent the letters of the alphabet we
l ost interest in about a fortnight and dismissed
t he matter from our minds
I t was in August 1 9 3 2 that one evening
w hen the family had gathered a fter dinner
I told my children of the episode of eleven
My o ffer to try the experiment
y ears back
w as welcomed
We began with the fingers
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1X
THE GREAT
MYS TERY
OF L I FE B EY O ND DEAT H
of five per sons touching the bowl ; but as we
we r e getting interested a bit one of the party
had to leave The remaining four h oweve r
continued and succeeded in impar ting the
necessary ener gy to the bowl to move Thi s
led us to exp er iment with th r ee and finally
with two Ashok and S u bo dh Our pr o gres s
was r apid and we established communicatio n
with our relations friends local celebritie s
and other s
We tried to lift the V eil o f the
futu r e too to some extent though without any
g r eat measu r e of success We t r ied to fatho m
the myste r ies of L ife beyond D eath
and gathe r ed some in formation Ashok a nd
S u bo d h t r ied and sometimes successfully to
know befo r ehand questions which were t o
be asked in thei r examinations though o n
being lectu r ed to on the basic immorality o f
the desi r e they have successfully cu rbed thi s
i nstinct so natural to students
A death in
the family however u pset u s and tu r ned o u r
thoughts away fr om such experiments com
ple tely and o u r spiritual progress wa s a rrested
In May 1 9 3 5 the insistence of the late S ir
L alu bha i S am ald as a fr iend who would n o t
be denied led us to resume our experiment s
on the O uij a Boar d when S ir Arthu r Cona n
D oyle became o u r spi r it guide and fr iend
A shok and S u bo dh r apidly advanced and we
had som e very rem arkable expe r iences S ir
C hu n ilal V Mehta
the ex F inanc e
Membe r of the G over nment of Bombay S ir
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,
PREFA CE
S am ald as ,
the well know n
and indus trialist S ir Prabha
c o operato r
shanker Pattani
the late septu a ge n a
r ian K athiawar statesman S ir K ikabha i P rem
c hand a leading financial magnate of Bombay
the Honourable S heth S han tid as A sku ran
Mr K L Panjabi of the Indian Civil S er vice
and many of o u r othe r fr iends wh o had sittings
on various occasions
enrolled themselves
as be lieve r s enthused us and extolled us and
infused us with a sense of the importance o f
the di ffusion of a knowledge of the G rea t
Mystery so as to help clear the confusion that
so profusely befogs the vision of people about
the li fe beyond death
O n e day I forget it was probably some
time in A pril 1 9 3 6 S ir Ar thur told us that he
would be glad to dictate a small book on the
L ife beyond D eath if we had the patience to
take it down We politely agreed but did
not tak e the proposal q uite seriously A f ew
weeks la ter in May while we were at Maha
baleshwar fo r the summer at an evenin g
seance S ir Arthur asked us : W hat about the
book ? I answer ed with a doubt as to its pr ac
t ica bil ity
He howeve r assu r ed us that the
book would be about 1 5 0 type written page s
and that he would dictate for two hours on
S aturdays a n d S undays so as not to inter fer e
with the studies of my boys O n my a greeing
to the idea he said that he was ready with the
o utli nes of the book I took paper and pen
Lalu bha i
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X1
THE
GREAT
MYSTERY
OF L I FE B EYO ND DEA TH
and j otted down the title page and the
synopsis almost exactly as n ow embodied in
the Contents
The actual dictation of the subject matter
was commenced on o u r return to Bombay
in July 1 9 3 6 S aturdays and S undays did not
prove suitable however because of social and
other engagements and two hours at a time
proved too much o f a strain to S ir Arthur and
to the boys We went on rather irregularly
sittings were o f about 5 0
a n d our average
m inutes duration S ir A rthur dictating about
pages in that time
A s the work
t wo
r
rogressed
the
st
ain
on
the
young
gentlemen
p
intensified ; but S ir A rthur s persistence and
m y insistence bore down their resistance and
our labou r s were at last completed at
Matheran in May 1 9 3 7
I am but a medium and do not therefore
d esi r e to expound comment analyse
or
dissect any views or statements in this book
I t is possible
several statements may be
o bscure ;
several points may have been
altogether ignored But I know S ir A rthur
wants this volume to be an introduction and
not an elaborate t reatise expounding the
philosophy of the G reat Mystery 1 therefore
v enture to publish the volume as it is
But
I do wish to assure all ge nuine serious seekers
o f t r uth that any queries f or a fulle r explana
tion o f some topic or for in fo rmation on a
point or points igno r ed in the book will be
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Xl I
PREFA CE
will ing ly rec eived and r eferr ed to S ir Arthur
who I have no doubt will gladly discuss the
issues raised The information thus obtained
will be passe d on to the inquirer concerned
I f this volume in any way gives to readers
a broader and clearer vision o f li fe and its
cont inuity robs the D ark Unknown of its
mystery and D eath of its te r rors c onsoles the
bereaved with the prospect o f a reunion after
death opens out vistas of interestin g
spec ulation about the genesis purpose o f
creation mission o f life and the peculiar end
the merger if this volume helps to preven t
the youth from d r ift in g pu rpo seless in life
to protect the adult from the pessimism o f
failur e or the optimism o f success and to
conj ure up be f ore the aged not only picture s
o f the past but also visions of the futu r e and
to a fford the scope not only f or a contented
review o f achievements but also f or an
ambi tious programme for further progress if
this volume helps u s to attain a clearer notio n
o f spiritualism and spirit communic ation by
purging the subj ect o f the morbidity that
envelopes it and by urging us on despite o u r
placidity or t imidi ty and helps to thaw the
f rigidity or neutralise the acidity o f our out
loo k on the G reat Problem our purpose will
have been well served and our labour amply
r eward ed
1 cannot conclude without expressing my
se n se o f deep gratitude to the spirit of the lat e
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TH E GRE AT
OF LI FE B EYOND DEAT H
MYS T ERY
S ir A rthur Conan D oyle for selecting me as
the medium fo r his mission of servi ce to
humanity and for the constant courtesy and
fer vent friendship which he has ever extended
to me His writing s attracted me as a young
man and I am very gratified at the refl ection
that our spi r its have much in common and
feel attracted to each other so much I take
this opportunity also to tender very humbly
and r eve r ently my respectful thanks to S h r ee
Y ama R aj fo r kindly pe r mitting this dictation
and publication
I must also acknowledge with thanks the
se rvices rende red by o u r late friend S ir L alu
bhai Sa m ald as without whose insistence our
spi r itual activities given up in July l 9 3 3
would not have been resumed fr om May | 9 3 5
and without whose active encou r agement we
could not have p r oceeded on with our wor k
wit h any confidence
I must also reco r d here my ve ry g r ea t
appr eciation of the faithful and filial service
rendered by my son and nephew wi thout
whose clos e and constant cc oper ation despite
t heir preoccupation with their university
studies the production of this volume would
have been impossible
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HI RAL AL L KAJ
I
.
CU MBA L LA H I L L .
B O MB AY ,
I N DIA
Bu d d h a
j ay anti ,
4th O ct ober
.
1 93 8
.
.
I
CA N ASS U RE TH E RE A DE R S
THAT THIS
IS TH E G EN U I NE W O RK
O F SI R A RTH U R
IT
A
NE A RL Y
A ND
CO RRECT
OF
TH E
MO ST
MYSTE
S ECRE TS
OF
HU MA N
L I FE
EX P OSITI O N
R IO U S
IS
C O N AN DOY L E
SH REE YA MA R A J
.
.
C O NTE N TS
EFA CE
PR
I
NTRO DU CTI O N
o f S pi its P ow
to
In sp i a t i on E i sten c e
c all D esi e to espond D iff e ent m etho ds
e sponse A utomati c W it ing C y stal
f
Ga in g M di u m s p a kin g O uij a B o d Its
w o k ing M ediu m s and Inst uments Mate iali
sa ti on N o telepathy S pi it an d S oul I d ol
wo ship
r
—
-
r
o
r
r
r
r
-
e
—
ar
r
r
—
.
C HA PTER
D
—
—
r
—
—
r
—
—
e
—
r
er
—
—
—
r
z
r
x
i
EA TH
P hy si cal en d The
ext a c tion o f t
Ten
ti i t y
P us h R e c o d
—
r
v
st y Th e
a
—
—
r
—
CHA P TER II
T HE
LEAP I N THE DARK
Ca iage The Un kno wn egi on F as t move
ment Bad t eatment S olita y state F ati
gue E nd o f the J
ou ney
rr
—
r
r
—
—
r
—
r
—
—
.
C HA PTE R [1 1
GREAT TR I AL
T h e P atala The Cou t Capti ves Ya na D e
l ys P ot a c ted t ial D etailed invest igation
and p o c e d u e at t h e Cou t A n al ysis o f
hu m an a c tion N o de f en c e The uli ng A s
ig m
t o f plane s
N e w b i t h o d e Inte val
b tw e n su cc essive b i th s Unison Q ualities
needed f
g es S pe c ial t eatment ;
p
m d'
u ns n d ins t m ents
x vii
‘
r
—
a
r
—
r
r
r
—
—
r
n
r
e
en
r
e
r
e
r
r
a
—
r
—
—
or
ro
ru
—
—
s—
s
x
—
r
s—
—
r
—
r
r—
—
r
THE GREAT
OF LI FE B EYON D DEATH
MYS TERY
C HAPTER IV
SEV EN STAGES OR P LANES
L o cation P esiding D e ities
F i st ~P l
The Patala Is it Hell ? The
Cou t E lementals A c tivity
of
S pi its Haunting
T h e Bh l k S pi its o f low
S e c ond P lane
o de N o a ct ivity F eedom f om
c ont ol
Th i d P lane T he T p l k S pi its o f middle
c lass Cont ol Attendan c e
at
t ials Colle c tive a c tions T c h
w it h the W o ld
F ou t h P lane The Ch d l k Contented
spi its F eedo m to move Tou ch
w it h h ig h e pow e s Yama s visits
F ifth P lane
T h e S y l k Ambitio s spi
ts A dminist ative w o k En
P esiding deity
gi
P lane
T h e S w g l k Happy
S i th
souls Cold spi its L oss o f tou ch
with the w o ld L oss o f memo y
T h e D evalo k a G od li k e
S event h
Pl
souls N o tou ch with medi
ums N o a c tivity Rest
CHA PT ER V
THEO RY O F R E B I RTH
Hindu b elie f Buddhist do c t ine o f K a ma R
b i ths an d expe ien c e Evolution R eap
ing the f uits o f p st li fe D i ff e ent
types o f bi t h s N umbe o f bi t h s usually
e q ui e d f M o k s h a éMi i
o f li f S h o t
lives and thei missions Con c ept o f spi i t
ident i ties Change o f sex
CHA PTER V I
A DAY I N THE L I FE O F SP I R I T
Envi onment N o suppo t ne c essa y N
pa ti c ula duty N o p hysi c al s enses N o need
h lt
A tt
d
f
f ood
at t ials As
ig m
t
o f spe c ial duties A tt endan c e on
gods P etty investigations Visit to the
wo ld P e p in t o the f utu e D aily outine
v iii
r
—
.
an e :
r
r
—
—
—
r
.
o
u
:
r
r
r
.
a o
a
r
—
r
r
—
:
a—
r
—
on
—
—
r
r
a—
r—
r
r
—
—
.
an
:
r
ra o
a—
-
r
—
'
r
u r
:
ri
r
—
.
a—
a o
u
r
—
s e r—
r
r
er
—
.
ar
x
r
—
r
a—
a o
—
r
—
an e :
.
-
—
—
—
—
.
-
r
—
r
e
—
r
r
a
r
r
or
r
r
r
—
r
—
r
ss o n s
—
r
r
e—
‘
—
r
—
.
r
r
r
or
s
s
e
en
e rm
an ce
en
—
—
r
—
—
-
r
r
—
or
n
r
—
—
e
r
x
—
r
.
o
I NTR O DUCTI O N
.
Inspi ation Exist n c e
of
S pi its
Pow e
to
call D esi e to espond Difi
met h ods o f
t
A utomati c W iting C ystal Ga ing Medium
p o se
S pea k ing
O ui j a Boa d Its W o k ing M ediums and
Inst uments Mate ialisation N o telepat h y épi it
and S oul Idol W o ship
r
u
e
—
r
—
'
r
r
r
—
r
z
r
—
—
—
—
r
—
r es
r
—
r
—
r
e r en
—
—
r
—
r
—
.
Many spi r its like m yself have
i n the past made attempts to unfold the
m yste r ies which exist after the physical end
o f li fe
but w ithout success as the mediums
through whom they sought to communicate
mysteries to the wo r ld o f the living
t hese
usually got ti r ed and gave up their work I
h ad the same experience myself some time
back but I hope this second attempt o f
In this case I feel
m ine becomes successful
I have found a suitable medium and it is this
c irc umstance that inspires and impels me to
t ake up this di fficult task
Ex isten ce of Spirits : O ne o f the most con
tr o v ers ial questions is the existence of life
b eyond death
A few decades back the
c ivilised world laugh ed at the idea of spirits
and communication with the dead was regar ded
a s only foolish
V ery recently however a
s
h
a
reat
change
is
in
evidence
S
piritualism
g
I n spiratio n :
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THE GREAT
MYS T ERY
OF LI FE B EYON D DEAT H
attracted many amateurs as mediums and these
have tried to give to the world some idea o f
spirits S ea nces have revealed such facts that
even the most sceptica l are forced to admi t
the existence of such beings and supernatural
po wers
Power to call : O n e is naturally inclined to
ask why if su ch beings can and do exist it
should not be feasible for all perso ns to talk
with them The reply to such a q uery is that
spirits are not human beings and some special
powers are therefore required in the person
who seeks to enter into communication with
them To define such powers is not f ree from
difficulties as three out o f every five medium s
known to p ractise fraud However it
a re
can safely be asser ted that such powers are
latent in most men and can best be develope d
by practice
D esire to R espond : In the world of the
living there is a strong belief that the dead
are not r eady and willing to mix with the
living ; but it may be pointed out that such a
notion is quite incorrect and that the holder s
o f such a view are grossly mistak en A s a
matter of fact spirits are rather anxious to
enter into communication with human beings
It is only when a considerable time has elapsed
after their passing away from this li fe that
their desire to meet and talk w ith the living
sons who
ets
weakened
F
urther
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2
I N TR O D U CT I ON
have had the chan ce of seein g or o f tal k ing
with spir its do n ot hold con versation with
them
proper ly Here it is the fault o f the
livin g ra ther than o f the dead
The u n satis
facto ry na tur e o f the conversa tion with the
spirits at the first sitt in g n ee d not discourag e
sittings
the medi um or his cli ent ; f or when
the res ults are much better
are numerous
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Writin g : Mediums have continu ally tri ed to
devise various methods to be in e fi ectiv e touch
wi th the spi r it wo rld : but none so far has
reached perfection To review a few o f thes e
meth o ds there is the m ethod known as Au to
The wo rds are self explana
m atic W ritin g
tory In this case the medium is supposed
to invoke the d e sired spir it th r ough his spirit
control S uch a spirit control is u sually h is
friend and assists him in establishing contac t
with the desi r ed spi r its
When the spi r it is
invoked the medium begins to receive impres
sions and the manifestation of these impr ess ed
thoughts takes the shape of letters o f the
But
alphabets f orming words and sentences
to the audience it appears as i f the medium is
writing down his own thoughts in the o rdinary
way in stead o f the thoughts impres sed upon
him by the spirit invoked It may be made
clear at this juncture that some m ediums o f
this cla ss are genuin e ; but there are some
who practice fraud so that it is difficult to
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3
TH E
OF
MYS TE RY
GR E A T
L IFE
BE YO ND
D E A TH
eparate the genuine from the fraudulent the
wh eat from the chaff
Crystal Gaz in g : A nother method usually
s poken of in connection with spi r it communi
cation is the one known as Crystal-Gaz ing
This method is o f Indian origi n In the time
o f the Moguls
it found favour with at least
the Muslim population The mechanism is
v ery simple
A glass ball say o f 6 inches
d iameter is needed The person who possesses
the powe r of gazing can see in the c rystal the
e vents
which are likely to occur within a
reasonable time
Crystal gazing is me r ely
this being
a n attempt to foretell the future
a ccomplished by the help of such spirits who
can guess the future With approximate
But the idea of holding conver
c o rr ectness
other nature w ith spirits is not
sa tio n s of
Whatever may be
d eveloped in this method
the state of development o f crystal gaz ing in
Mogul times it must be acknowledged that
it is at present in a deplorable state and should
b e abandoned for all p ractical pu rposes of
s pi r it communication
au to
atic
i
m
Med u S peaking : Moreove r
m
writing and crystal gazin g a r e in a way ve ry
communication between the
s low for rapid
To
s pi r it world and the world of the living
remedy this sho r tcoming the r efo r e mediums
afte r r eceiving the imp r essions fr om the spi r its
i nvoked often give the m publicit y through
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I N TROD UCTI ON
thei r own speech Thus so far as this meth od
of Mediu m -Speaking is concer ned ; there is
no tardiness o r dela y for the spirit invoked
is able to exp r ess his ideas easily and rapidly
th r ough the impressions he implants on th e
medium L ike the previous methods thi s
method al so is not above fraud The spe ed
with which the conversation takes place o fte n
makes it impossible for the spirit concer ned
to give out his imp r essions to the medium in
as much as spi r its r equire some time to moul d
their views in proper sentences A t any rate
remarkable spe ed is achieved and for all
practical purposes therefore this method o f
medium spea king must be regarded as a fairly
good method
Ou ij a Board l ts working : Coming now
to the most current system o f spir it communi
we have an arrangement called the
cati o n
O uija Boar d I n a c r ude state it consists of
a board with the letters o f the alphabe t
ar r anged on its bo r ders In the case of a well
prepared board we usually have a circu lar
bo a rd with a glass covering The letters look
very decent i f they are in black and white
To operate the Board we use a woo den piec e
of say one inch diameter
The medium
from the spiri t
the impressions
invoked and communicates these impression s
by moving the wooden piece to the various
lette rs o f the alphabet forming words and
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THE GREAT MYS TERY OF L I FE
BE Y O N D
DEATH
tences The glass co verin g redu ces fric
t ion to a min imum and en able s great speed
t o be achieved and makes rapid com m u nica
tion possible In most cases the medium is
a ble to operate the
Board h i msel f and the
speed w ith which the Board can function
l argely depends on the po w ers o f the m edium
to receive and transmit the messages r eceived
from the spirits Usually the O uija Board
m akes it possible to have a good talk with the
desi r ed spirit
S ometimes however the
m edium himsel f is not able to operate the
Board and requires the help o f one or more
persons as instrumen ts for the purpose The
possibility o f fraud is there fore present in this
system if the medium functions both as the
medium and as the instrument Bu t i f these
two are separate people the dangers of fraud
underhand means are largely
o r any such
o bviated
Mediu m and Instru ments : Many persons
who can invoke spirits think that they possess
m ediumistic powers : but all such persons are
S ome are born
n o t m ed iu m s in themselves
m ediums and some achieve mediumship
A person who is
t hrough laborious practice
-willed man
strong
and who can attract
a
medium There is som e
s pirits is a genuine
n atural force in them that makes the spirits
obey their call
In case of weak mediums
we find that all their sittings are not success ful
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6
THE GREAT MYS TERY OF LI FE B EYOND DE ATH
that spirits do materialise
Human being s
have a very hazy notion of Materialisation
S o far it was held that spirits have no shap e ;
and this holds good tod ay even But when
materialisation do es take place the vapou r
in the atmosphe re gets condensed and give s
rise to a f orm resembling a human being W e
must realise thus that materialisation is
possible only i f there are power ful spirits and
if a suitable atmosphere is in existence
S eances have revealed that most spirits ar e
not in a position to get the necessary vapou r
a r ound them To add to this it is r ecognised
that a special power is necessary fo r
materialisation and that that power is very
rare The e ff ects of mat erialisation are n o t
good in so fa r as it tends to d r aw away a spi r it
from his own sphere ; and further it is n o t
good fo r the m edium either because it r esults
in a con sumption o f his mental energies The
Indian idea that it is not desirable to wean
away spirits ba ck to the material world applie s
co r r ectly in this case and a time will com e
when that idea will gain acceptance even
amongst wester n mediums as they a re
g radually feeling that this mode of communi
cation does not find favour with spir its
No telepa thy : Even the most intelligen t
observe r has t r ied to correlate sp i ritualism
with some branch of psychology
In thi s
science which relates to the unconscious mind
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8
I N TROD UCTI ON
and its eff ects we find that la rge powers are
attributed to human minds O ne of the mos t
important of these powers is that of thought
'
r eading
and thou ght transfe r
W s kno w
however that th is power is not f ound in
normal cases and to say that sp i ri tualism is
but developed telepathy is far from tr uth
The simpler course is to believe in the
existence of spi r its and to regard the Board as
a receiving set and to consider the i n st r uments
as the transmitting apparatus the mediu m
be ing an exchange operator This in a n u t
shell explains this supernatural phenomenon
The O uija Board has no connec tion what
soeve r with telepathy but it is a pure an d
simple telephone service
S pirit an d So u l : Many would lik e to think
of spi r its as ghosts which are described in
fiction ; but I as a spirit can assure you that
a ghost is an elemental and there f ore not a
spi rit S pi r its have no body nor any shape ;
they are a me r e ene r gy as distinguished from
mere conception
It is ce r tainly not matte r
as none of the p r ope r ties o f matter are p r esen t
in spi rits The spirit however must not be
confound ed with the soul
A fine line o f
diff e r ence exists between spi r its and souls
Both are not human That which take s birth
is the soul ; but the par t which r emains in the
upper wo rld is the spi rit Thus soul and spi r i t
mea n one and the same thing in po pula r
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9
TH E GREA T MYS TERY OF
LIFE
B EYOND DEATH
l ce , but i f view ed from a sp i ri tual angle
o f visio n , the identity o f a soul in th e spirit
w orld is the spirit
Idol W orship : I n the Ea st especially we
m eet with idol worship The idea underlying
i s not ea sily grasped by w estern people Those
who are gi fted with the powers o f concentra
t io n need not have an idol be f ore them ; but
t hose who f orm the masses require something
be fore them to enable them to concentrate for
least on things other than
a short while at
Most Hindus believe that
t hose o f the world
ido l worship is the golden path f or attaining
salvation ; but the notion is hardly correc t I t
m ust be admitted however that it tends to
make a man spiritually minded and in my
that is the function o f idol worship
o pinion
in so far as it puts the worshipper in direct
t ouch with supe r ior beings and in so far as it
is a good method o f spirit communion i f not
o f spirit communicatio n
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CH APTE R I
DEA TH
d
P h ys ical
The Yama D u ta F o c e f ul e t a c
tion o f the soul Unnatu al deaths Ca p ti vi ty Ten
d y s a b no mal stay The P ush R e c o d o f deeds
en
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—
x
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—
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a
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Phys ical En d :
Eve ry man is called a mortal
because no pe r son is free f rom the monster
o f D eath The incident o f D eath is always
n ovel even though it oc curs in all the birth s
which the soul has to undergo No living being
can imagine the r eal significance of D eath It is
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really a singular event in o n e s li fe
Thi s
incident does not occur at any particular age ,
but its time varies widely W hat rules govern
this varia tion o f the age at D eath will be dealt
with subse q uently But this much ca n be said
that D eath overpowers a person in his w eak
state f or when the health is bad it is very easy
to bring about the physical end o f li fe O n e
might perhaps wond er why it is that men are
horrified at the idea o f D eath Probably it is
due to the realisation that D eath m ean s the
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end o f one s li fe and that what is to come is
unknown
Thus the closing period o f a
person 3 life is far from peace fu l for he is
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11
THE GREAT MYSTERY OF L I FE B EYOND DEATH
found perpetually worrying about the future
of his own self This however in no way
stops D eath from having its sway
The Yam a Du ta : When the time for lea v m g
the world comes the Y ama s Court orders a
certain spi rit to take charge of the soul con
cerned Those spirits who ar e bard hearted
and who have retained some powers r e sem b
ling physical fo r ce a re asked to take up this
sort of wo rk S o far as I know no spi r it likes
the j ob and the drafting of spirits to this
service becomes in consequence something in
the nature of conscription S uch conscripted
this unpleasant
S pirits have got to perfo r m
duty assigned to them by the Yama R aj , the
'
This messenger is popularly
G o d of D eath
“
known as the Yama D u ta
He actuall y
comes to the wo r ld while other spi r its do not
do so usually
Fo rcefu l E xtractio n o f the S ou l : It is inde ed
a very difficult task for the D uta to take away
the soul of a human being His power s are
also not s trong enough to combat with the
human force ; but at this time Yama R aj
himself im parts the necessary force and thi s
liberates the soul fr om the body This force
of the G od of D eath may well be termed the
D eath R ay S cientists have st r iven for year s
to find out the natu r e of this fo rce but so far
they have not got any clue It is a su per
natural force which shall remain beyond the
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DEA TH
c ope o f sc ience
The e ffect of this ray is
s eve re ind eed in so far as it tends to br eak up
the whole body into pieces Every limb feels
t he acute agony o f piercing pa i n
The body
h as to remain under its influence till it gives
way The struggle is ve ry hard and lasts f or
a pr e tty lo n g time but it invar iably leads to
t he success
o f D eath through the over
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d ominating influence of Y ama s powers
In
m ost cases , we find that the soul is very
r eluctant to leave the body and the soul has to
be extracted forcibly by the D eath Messenger
The soul is a sort o f energy and it is endowed
w ith a considerable amoun t of force
The
tussle is there fore protracted I f somehow or
other the D eath R ay is not liberated the D uta is
helpless but instances o f such mismanagement
The soul is very often
a r e f ew and far between
given a fair chance to close its bodily existence
peace fully ; but almost invariably the o p
is
not
availe
d
o
f
and
the
use
o
f
f
orce
n
i
r
o
t
t
u
y
p
is inevitable
It is commonly believed among the Hindus
t hat the dying person sees or feels the presence
o f the Y ama Du a and reveals his consciou s
t
n ess of the p r esence by agon i sed sh r ieks or
tortuous bewilderment
The dogs in the
v icinity se t up a series o f mourn ful howls due
it is held to their uncanny sixth sense which
mak es them con scious of the presence of the
Messenger o f D eath
It has been further
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13
TH E GREAT MYS TERY OF L I FE B EYOND DEATH
commonly held that in the case of a sa intly or
o
g od soul the D uta is u n abl e to s eiz e the s ou l
and Yama R aj himself has to come d o wn
to achieve the purpose
The legend o f
Satyavan and S avitri spea k s of the strong will
and soul force of the pure and devoted wi fe
which rendered the Duta helpless and
compelled the presence of Yama R aj h imsel f
Sa vitri is said to have followed Yama Raj who
was dragging away the soul o f her husband
Satyavan in a net for miles whether physically
or otherwise we are not told and won bac k
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her lord from Yama R aj s clutches by her so ft
pleadings and devoted remonstrance
A ll
this is however not correct Apparently there
is a glimmer o f truth when the force ful
extraction of the soul its captivity and the
last j ourney of the soul are alluded to But
it never is necessary for the G o d of D eath
himsel f to come down f or the extraction o f
the soul His D eath R ay is quite su fficient fo r
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Unnatu ral Deaths : It has been remarked
above that before D eath overtakes a person
it is essential that weak ness o f some sort or
the other must overpower him This wea k
ness may take various f orms It might be
physical weakness or it might be mental ; it
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a esult o f a dis c ussion with S i A thu I w ote out
l
this pa ag aph ea d it ove t o him an d with his pp
a dd d it he
As
r
r
r
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r e.
14
r
r,
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a
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r o va
TH E GREA T MYS TERY OF L I FE B EYOND DEATH
ormal circumstances he should not during
this pe riod r espond to calls of mediums If
any such attempt is made however he will
not be allowed the liberty of moving about
a mong his family
This sort of captivity lasts
for ten days It is a period o f great hardship
a s the attitude of the Y am
a D uta is very stem
a n d every br eat h of rules is directly re orted
p
forthwith to the Cou r t authorit ies
Ten days abn orm al stay : The struggle of
Death is over and bodily existence is a thing
of the past
The soul is in an extremely
pertu rbed state The links with the world are
r
e
t
fresh
befo
e him and he is all the whil e
y
lamenting over his failure to resist D eath To
add poignancy to his g r ief he witnesses his
o wn
buri al or cremation ceremony and such
o ther allied functions
I f the soul concerned
has r elatives thei r lamentations and mou r n
i n g make him completely restless for he is at
o nce cut o ff f rom them and from the wo r ld
of the living The shock is so severe that it is
very painful for him to stay any longer But
h e is compelled to do so and that too for a
good cause D uring these days he has got
t o learn to overcome f eelings and sentiments
He is among the people he loved most and yet
He
h e is denied the power to talk with the m
is in a place where eatables are in plenty and
yet he has no access to them In this way he
h as to learn many things and to acquire varied
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DEA TH
perien c es It is the duty o f the Du ta to take
the soul to various places which w ould tempt
him and in this manner s tudy his character
A cid tests o f all typ es are applied during this
A t the end of this period , the duty o f
pe riod
the Duta is over an d the so ul is handed over
to another spirit who has to tak e him to the
spirit world
It is in teres ting to note tha t only
t en days are reserved f or a stay in this world
a ft er Dea th
The first three days are used U p
i n attending the funeral ceremonies ; the nex t
f o ur days are necessa ry f or testing the soul
by the Du ta in various ways wh ile the
r em aining three days are granted to the soul
t o see his relatives and to settle down
F urther
so me souls need to be instructed by th e D uta
be fore they leave for the next world They
ar e coached up about their j ourney to the next
world
Be f ore I touch upon the next point ,
it should be made clear that in the Hindu
r eligion w e find that there exists a belie f that
the soul is kept linge r ing on in the wo r ld but
the theory does not give the above stat ed
It is sad to note that other religions
r ea so ns
h ave no ideas about such ex istence after D eath
a nd much less about R e Birth
The Pu sh : The old Y ama Duta leaves the
s oul at this sta ge as his responsibility is over
He hands over the soul to another spirit who
is in charge o f the tran spor t department o f
Y am s R aj He is a spirit who has f orce enough
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I7
THE GREA T MYSTERY OF L I FE B EYOND DEAT H
lead the soul through the most complex
j ou rney which the soul has to undertak e He
has got abnormal speed
He is said to hav e
A ll the while
a speed o f 1 0 0 miles per hour
he drags the soul in an ex tremely ro u gh
manner He knows no respect no merit and
sho w s n o k indness
He is tak ing the soul as
i f he was ca rry ing bundles o f goods instead
o f one o f G od s c reation s
Now w e shall see
how he gives momentum to the fagged o u t
inert soul When he deems it ex pedient , he
summons the w inds to his aid
A very stron g
i
le
puts
the
soul
n
st
t
w
hi
c
h
i
e
sent
l
i
a
a
a
e
s
s
a
g
for speedy transport
Th is m oment is the
final one so far as the present birth is
co nc erned
R ecord of deed s : Be fore we conclude thi s
chapter I thin k a description o f the recordin g
o f the deeds o f the soul concerned should be
given No sooner does the soul come out
f rom the body than he is asked to give ou t
all he k now s about himsel f O f course , there
is no speech but the thoughts ex pressed are
received by the D uta It is then the duty of
the Messenger o f Yama to transmit the
relevant features o f the soul s doings to the
principal Court There the spirits in charge
rec ord the info rmation receiv ed on the layers
o f air These records are use ful at the Trial
In the nex t c hapter , w e shall speak o f the
u nique journey Whi ch lasts f or nearly ten d ay s
to
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18
C HAP TER II
TH E L EAP IN THE D A RK
Un kn ow n
e gi o n F a s t m V
S ol i ta y state F atigu E n d
B d t eat m ent
o u ne y
J
C ar r iage - The
m e nt
o f t he
—
a
r
r
r
r
—
o
—
e
—
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Carn age : The soul b eing blown up by a
gu st o f wind is in a pro per c o n dition to
commence his travel to the S atya D arbar or
The spirit in ch ar ge no w
the Final Tribun al
fu ll po s sessio n o f the sou l and
assu mes
toward s that purpose he proceeds to rob
him o f his val uable po w er o f visio n
The
r
o
s
o
a
o
l
is
it
w
ere
thus
blind
f
old
d
u
a
s
e
n
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th row n upo n the t en der merc ies o f the spiri t
from wh o m he is o bl iged to see k help The
deprivation o f the po wer o f sight by the sp irit
appears rather strange f or one does n ot
understand its proper significance S pirits in
general do not and this spirit o f the Tran spo r t
D epart ment in particular does not po ssess any
power to c ontrol a soul and it is probably thi s
t hat make s rec ourse to this indirec t method o f
obta i nin g fu ll c on trol over him n e cessary on
the part o f the spirit
W ith the sou l thu s
rend ered h elpless the spirit be gins to per form
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19
THE GREAT MYSTERY OF L I FE B EYOND DE ATH
h is most important d u ty and moves fu rth er
a n d f u rther from the w orld
His m ovem en t
i s o f two kind s
In the beginning , it is t ha t
o f climbing higher and higher and a fte rward s
i t usually tak es a w esterly direction
.
.
.
The Unknown R egion : W hile climbin g , w e
l eave the world behind and move in an u pw ard
d irection
The region which the soul has to
t raverse is our atmosphere : but it is the w orst
.
p ossible
region as we shall see subseq u ently
The first few miles are tolerable in so far as
t he stormy elements are o f a mild na ture
W hen this distance is covered a halt is ordered
'
b y the Yama s Court The spirit is allowed to
r estore the sight to the soul the idea underly
But as soon as the
i n g being to test the soul
is thus restored the soul mak es an
s ight
a ttempt to go bac k to his old w orld and it is
ho can curb such a very
r are to find a soul w
The consequences o f such
n atural desire
a ttempts are however very serious in v i ew o f
t he fact that the soul is at once ordered to tour
The spirit thereupon tak es
r ound the world
h im to the old world again and the tour com
The time allotted for the whole
m en ces
rate this
ourney
is
very
limited
and
to
in
c
orpo
j
tour o f about
miles in the
e x tra
t
o ubl e
rogramme
means
a
great
deal
o
f
extra
r
p
It is there fore , very advisable
a n d hardship
'
t o control one s o w n desir e to retur n bac k
t o the w orld and thereby avoid the ex tra
.
.
,
.
,
.
,
i
.
.
.
.
,
20
THE
LEAP I N THE DARK
and
u nt o ld
disc om fo rt
m iseries
and
troubles
attendant upon a whirl r ound
in a wo rld tour
The jo u rney is n o w
resu m ed and the regio n becom es positively
bad and terri fying
Darkn ess benu mbs the
soul bere f t as he 1 s o f his po w er o f sight ; the
atm osphere a f ter a certain height become s
very u ncO m fo rtable and despite wh at sc ienc e
might hold storms o f all types are perpetual ;
thu nder and lightning mak e bad matters
f urther worse f or the poor d ragged soul to
with stan d and the f ears o f the un k nown add
to the ho rrors o f the j ourney which no po w e r
o f the pen can eff ectively and vividly po rtray
Fast Mo vement :
The distance to be
acc o mplished is long very long and the tim e
allotted is usually ten days much too short
for the distanc e A high degree o f speed
there fore becomes absolutely essential and the
extra w orld tour imposes a greater obligation
to achieve still higher speeds
The spiri t
moves fast and yet faster and the poor soul is
towed is dragged along at the same speed
amid st the gloom and impenetrable dark n ess ,
which the absence o f V l S l o n entails and which
appea rs most bewild erm g terri fyin g and
fright ful There is no groping about in the
dark ; th ere is ra ther a wild and mighty an d
furiou s rush
To the so u l this is a very
w
severe trial indeed
W it h the forced sever
an ce fro m his earthly ten em ent fro m the
.
.
,
,
.
,
,
.
.
,
,
,
.
,
.
“
.
,
21
TH E GREAT MYSTERY OF L I FE B EYOND DEATH
l tive s, friend s and c ompanion s he was so
cl osely
a ssociated in li f e w ith , wi th the
'
captivi ty and the ten days abnormal stay a fter
Dea th , this ex c eedingly fast mov em ent is
intensely nerve racking
Bad Treatment : The spirit in charge is
e
i
er
tually
dissatis
f
ed w ith the soul as he is
p p
n ot able or rathe r does not attempt to follow
h im ; and this results in the mani festatio n o f
a very severe and ho stile attitude on the pa rt
o f the spir it
Every time the so u l grumbl es
the speed the spirit gets extremely
a bout
a ngry and instead o f s lac k ening the speed ever
He
is
not
am
ble
n
e
s o little , ac c ele ates it
a
r
argument but acts in a tru ly
t o rea son or
Many times during the
d e spotic fash ion
ourney
the
soul
requests
him
to
restore
h
i
s
j
p o wer o f sight ; but he does not even s oothe
t he poor soul wh o to add to his di fficulties
d oe s not k now when the journey w ould end or
t he moment when his sight w ould be re stored
S uspense in the mind o f the soul tend s to
his speed whi ch in its turn invites
r etard
and castigation f rom the spirit in
r ebu k es
Even towards the end o f the j ourney
c harge
the spirit does not bec ome in any way friendly
b u t continues to be as tacitu r n and harsh as
Sometimes when it becomes ab solu tely
e ver
essential to stop he does so very reluc tantly
o
i
s
s
o
h
hat
f
or
a
very
short
eri
T
rt
d
o
t
o
n
t
d
a
p
o f attitu d e appea rs to me to be very stran ge
re a
-
.
'
.
,
.
.
,
,
,
,
.
,
.
.
,
.
‘
.
22
MYS TERY
d REA T
THE
OF
L I FE BEYOND DEATH
uch acts , bu t when they bec ome to o freq u ent
he tak es notice o f them and warns the sou l
In some ca ses this has no e ff ec t and the spirit
ultimately gets tired and sick o f such a sou l
bu t being a f raid o f reporting such matters too
o ften to the Court , he employs another device
and that is o f disappearing fro m the ken o f
the soul and thereby leaving him to look a fte r
himsel f in the impenetrable dark nes s
The
soul who is bere ft of sight and who for the
time being is thus le ft in very complex and
di fficult circumst ances real ises now his own
faults ; but this repen tence on his part doe s
not evoke any sympathy f rom the spirit in
charge who continues to leave him in solitude
The soul has to brood over his mistak es , fo r
even three days in some cases after which the
spiri t returns re freshed to resume the j ourney
This solitary state is perhaps the most difficul t
time for the soul as he is le f t bewildered in
most dangerous s urroundings
It must be
made clear that those souls wh o behave
well and are obedient are of cou r se not
le ft in the lurch by the spirit It is there fore
very advisable for the soul not to flout the
authority of or cause annoyance to the spirit
for otherwise apar t from the absence of an y
ood
will
on
the
part
o
f
the
s
irit
he
will
p
g
encounter positive harshness and will have to
u nde rgo the utterly demoralising experience o f
t he solitary st ate
s
,
.
,
‘
.
,
.
,
.
,
.
.
,
,
,
,
.
24
THE LEAP IN THE DARK
Fatigu e : A fter the so litary so ul gets his
i
u
d
e
again , he begins to proc eed f urthe r o n
g
his weary way
A t first , the soul is al so
re fresh ed as he had a compulsory stoppage fo r
two or three days
His guide is ho w ever much
mo re re freshed as he had a nice rest when the
.
.
so ul was le f t alone The excessive fati gu e
w hic h ha s been accumulating during the
j ourn ey ma kes it nearly impossible for the sou l
to follow the spirit who 1 8 now actually runnin g
faster to make up f or the three days which
were wasted 1 n bringing the soul to his senses
The soul who is not in a position to even drag
along cannot possibly keep pace with the
spirit But anyhow the soul has to f ollo w
the spirit because i f he does not do so he
wo uld not be able to reach in time He has
got to be present in the Court be fore the
period of ten days is over The f atigue is so
r
i
t
ess
n
a
the
soul
is
o
f
ten
f
or
c
e
d
to
re
q
ues
t
t
h
g
p
the sp irit in charge to stop for a while but the
req uest in most cases receives scant attentio n
an d passes off unheeded by the spirit
The deprivation o f the power o f sight the
long d r awn journey the terrors o f an u nk nown
region fast locomotion unsympathetic and
harsh t r eatment from his guide the so litary
state which more o ften than not the soul has
to face and the unimaginable fatigue and
exhaustion are features o f this L ea p into and
R u sh through the D ark which make the final
.
.
,
'
,
.
,
.
.
.
,
-
,
,
,
,
25
THE GREAT MYS TERY OF
L l FE
B EYOND DE A TH
j ourney o f the soul the mo st u m qu e and
inconceivable even under the incubus o f a
f rightf ul nightmare
All souls have to traverse the sam e regio n
a nd f ollo w the same identi cal track w ith so
m any perso ns dying at about the same time ;
s o many souls are travelling to wards the sam e
d estinat ion accompanied by their respec tive
u
ides
and
the
tra
f
fic
al
o
n
the
route
is
he
vy
a
,
g
g
indeed
But the souls being w ithout the
p o w er o f sight do not see any other soul s or
t heir guides overtak ing them or being o ver
t ak en by them n or are they c on sc ious abo ut
th em
E ach soul is absorbed in and is consci
o u s only o f his own problem and his own se l f
h eedless o f what might be happening to others
s imilarly situated
End of the J
ou rn ey :
About nine days
are used up in reaching the Y ama s Court But
the spirit in-charge does not go to the Court
w ith the soul When it is about five miles or
s o , he leaves him alone and hurries up to the
C ou r t and in f orms the spirits who happen to
b e there that a particular soul has come near
I f the soul was a person who had
t hem
a ch ieved fame , many spirits go to receive him
I f he was not a k nown man , hardly a f ew
w ould care to receive him , except his n ear
S o far , the soul was not in a p osition
r elative s
t o meet any one ; but now as he is relieved o f
t he control o f the spirit , he is able to m ix with
.
.
.
.
’
.
-
.
.
.
.
'
26
THE LEA P IN THE DARK
His eyesight is
as it were restored , because he is able to see
n ot
phy si cally but as spirits do The so u l
becomes buoyant and gay , as he happens in
m ost cases to be among his relatives and
f riends
No w at last the fast movement is at an end
a nd the le ssening o f fatigue is a grea t relie f
t o the dragged soul
His f riends tak e him
v ery quietly and
slo wly to the Court But
the soul begins to get uneasy about his
The soul is not yet entitled
i mpending trial
'
to enter the Y ama s Court He has to procure
divine tribun al where
a pe rmit to enter this
his case is to be decided The spi r it in charge
r ocures the perm it
u su ally during this period p
a nd tak es the soul in the Court where he is to
Control over the soul is now
a wait his trial
v ery nominal and he is at liberty to act a cc o rd
i n g to his sw eet w ill , the o nly reservation being
that he has to attend the Court during
hours
wh o c ome n ear him
t h ose
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
-
.
.
.
—
C HAP TER III
TH E G REAT TR I AL
The P ata la The C o u t Ca p tives Yama
De
lays P o t a c te d t i al D etaile d i nvesti gation d
p o c e d u e at the Cou t A na lysis o f hu man
a c tions N o de f en c e The
uling Assignment of
planes N e w b i th o d e Inte val b e tw een su c c s
sive bi th Unison Qualities neede d f
p
g ess S pe c ial t eatment ; mediums and inst uments
r
—
r
—
r
r
—
an
—
r
r
—
r
—
r
—
—
r
r
—
r—
—
r
e
'
r
r
s—
or
—
r
—
r
ro
.
The Patala : The place
where Ya m s hold s
his Court is know n in Hindu mytholo gy as
Th e word ordinarily signifies the
Patala
underworld or even the antipodes The idea
o f an underworld is common among the
Christians too and the underworld o f S ata n
compares to some extent with the popular
idea of Y ama s region But as a matter o f fact
the conceptions of Yama and S atan are
radically different
This important region is situated abo u t a
few hundred miles fr om the world of human
beings and is certainly composed o f the atmos
but
the
density
o
f
the
air
pervading
r
h
e
e
;
p
there as compared with the air in other part s
o f the spirit w orld reminds one o f the air
cond itions in mines The air is very h eavy
.
'
,
.
’
,
.
.
.
28
THE GREAT TR I AL
and
ma kes it rather un c om f ortable
for the
sp irits an d so u ls , though they do not
i nhale
The ar ea o f th is first
a ny air whats oever
plane is very large , nearly hal f o f our world
E ven though such a large space is reserved f or
n ew spl rits as w ell as f or old ones , it is always
heavily crowded with all sorts o f spirits and
so u ls The Patala is roughly divided into two
parts one for Court purposes and the other
f or spirits who are classed as elementals and
th ere is a gr ea t insurmountable ba rrier between
these tw o pa rts o f the region
The soul who was about five miles away is
gradually brought into this region and is
adm itt ed to the Court sec tion of this plac e
He is fairly com f ortable in the new world as
h e is among such souls and spirits as were
fam ilia r to him prior to his departure from his
The tri al does not begin at once
o ld w orld
and th is is a reli e f to him in so far as he is not
prepar ed to face it a ft er such a lengthy and
ti ring j ourney G radually he fits into the new
and pec uliar order o f things at the Court I t
is assum ed here the word Co urt includes the
area adj oining the Court proper which is
u tilised for acco m oda tin g souls awaitin g trial s
an d also those w ho f eel l ik e witn essing the
d aily proc ee dings
The Cou rt : S o far w e have spo k en o f the
r e gio n as such
W e shall no w however spea k
A s we
o f the Co urt with Y am a at its hea d
.
.
.
.
.
,
,
,
.
,
.
.
.
.
.
29
THE GREAT MYS TERY OF L I FE B EYOND
have see n be f ore , the
DEAT H
Court is in the p lane
.
called the Patala and extends to about hal f o f
the total area o f the plane
S ix ty per cent o f
thi s area ho w ever is reserved fo r sou l s await
m g th eir o w n trial ; while the o ther f orty per
cen t is the par t set apart for the ac tu al Co u rt
The daily pro c eedings are conduct ed h ere and
the Chie f Justice , or to ex press it in the terms
current here the Y ama R aj is at the head In
the c entre the Yams tak es his seat I t w oul d
appear to some that there would be som e con
c rete sitting acco mo datio n but su ch an illusio n
should not be maintained , as there are no such
fac ilities nor are they nec es sary in V iew o f the
fac t that there is no longer any physical
ex isten c e there
Just near the God o f Justice , are found
spirits who are in charge o f the records o f all
The record keepers are classified int o
souls
two major groups one doing the actual work
o f record ing a fter rec eiving the req uisit e
in f ormation f rom the sp1 r1 ts in charge who
on such in f ormation shortly a fter a
send
person dies The other section o f the record
keepers does the work o f transcribing the
from them
r ecords when evidence is sought
by the prosecutor at the time o f the trial
Just behind these rec ord k eepers there are
~
e
abo ut a hundr d spirits who specialise in pro
c uring any further in formation in case the
record proves inadeq uate These spirits are
,
'
.
.
,
,
,
.
.
,
.
.
,
,
,
.
.
,
.
30
TH E GREA T MYS TERY OF L I FE B EYOND DEATH
S o far we have dealt w ith some o f the m o st
important offic ials who are usually f ound in the
Court It will have bee n seen that the Court
o f the spirits resembles in many respec t s the
courts in the human wo r ld O f course , there
are some points o f di ff eren c e which ho wever
w ill be dealt with subseq uently
Over and
.
.
.
bove the space for these o fficials there i s an
area reserved for other spirits who desire to
see the proceedings o f the Court The u sual
a ttendance is very large as most spirits u til ise
their leisure time in the Court th ough there
are some spirits who never lik e to attend the
Court with the result that they have a very
e
f
ective
k
no
w
ledge
o
f
the
spirit
d
fw orl d
Captives : S o far we have only look ed at
the o fficials of the Court ; but the r e ar e the
souls who have come from the w orld very
recently These are strictly under the super
vision o f spirits in charge o f these captives
They are awaiting their trial and are very
anxious to have the trial commence at on c e
All the while they are in a very perturbed
state o f mind for they feel just lik e perso ns
in a law cou r t in the presence of the Chief
Justice S uch a state o f mind is the na tural
re
utc
me
o
f
the
circumstances
which
p
vail
o
o
a
,
.
,
.
.
-
-
.
.
,
,
.
another
Th i s helps to reduce
the agony and discom fort which a so ul
o ne
.
32
THE
GREA T TR I AL
li kely to experi enc e
Yama however
d oes not desire the new comers to be in a
n
l
i
l
t
on
to
k
ow
the
laws
w
hich
i
a
o
s
a re
p
applied in givin g the final decision and does
n o t there f ore allow these souls to mix
with
pirits
a
f
ter
the
first
twenty
four
hours
are
s
A shre soul can get almost com
c o mple te
in
f
ormation
about
the
rules
in
f
orce
there
l
e
t
e
p
d uring this period ; but most souls while away
their time in talk ing on o ther subj ects little
knowing that a fter a day they will not be
In this case
a llowed to talk with the spirits
they are captives as this restriction is mean t
In
t o exclude them from the spirit world
however they are completely
o t h er respects
free as they are even allowed to talk through
t heir mediums i f they have any
The number o f such sou ls is very large as
a ll the souls who ar r ive there on a particular
day are not dealt with on the same day The
a rrears gr adually accumulate and this mak es
it necessary for the Court to work overtime
Yam a : The whole Cou r t cent r es ar ound the
p ivot called the G od o f D eath or Dharma R aj
In the popula r mind he is the terr i fying Yam s
H e is said to have h eld this post o f extreme
r espo nsibility from the very be ginning or the
evolution of mankind
He is an Ete r nal
B eing free from the coveted Mo ksha or
Me rger He ranks equ ally with the con cep
the Creator
Some times he
t ion of G od
is
.
.
,
,
.
.
,
,
,
.
.
.
“
.
,
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,
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,
.
33
TH E GREAT MYSTERY OF L I FE B EYOND DEATH
nter feres in the work o f crea tion too , whi ch
is the so le province of G o d
S imilarly
C od
i f he thinks it expedien t
a lso
interferes in the decisions given by Yama
However it must be stated that both
o f them are free to hold their own if it become s
But naturally they
a matter o f principle
adopt the principle o f give and take
Yama
has three rays : the one which we have already
described is the Death-R ay a most importan t
weapon in his hands The other ray is the
S peed R ay which has the power or strength
o f attracting and dragging any object to him
The third and the final ray is the Life R ay,
which is used when the soul has to tak e birth
In these th r ee rays one can see the extent and
importance o f the powers vested in Yama
The L i fe R ay has the power to give life to a
dead person But Y ama is very reluctant to use
his thi r d ray and this often brings him in con
fli et with the Creator who needs that ray fo r
his work of creation
In Indian mythology Yama is depicted as
the Go d without a heart
His sternnes s
however is not real but is the quality attributed
to him by the imagination o f men
He is
really a kind hea rted god with a k een sense
of justice which would not be tempered by
any other consideration except the merits o f
the case It is this ideal sense o f impa r tiality
o n the part o f Y ama which tends to give arr
i
.
.
,
.
.
.
.
.
.
,
“
.
.
,
.
,
.
.
.
34
impressio n
o f st ern ness in him It is how
ever tru e th a t he n ever grants li f e to a sou l
who is to l eave the world at a certain date
Only in case when jus tice demands a revisi o n
o f the t e r m o f year s gran t ed he w ould c h an ge
his decision on tha t ma tter
Yama is the
most highly honoured god in this spirit world
Y et it is rather strange that in the land of idol
w orsh ippers Yama has no place He is also
the most hard wor king an d ac tive god an d I
think he really ought to be worshipped by all
who beli eve in idols
His circle o f influence is very grea t in the
Patala but this region should n ot be con
f ounded with Hell
The region over w hich
the Y ama rules is the Co urt in a wider sense
With the so called Hell he has nothing to do
Yam s is the symbol o f Energy and Power as
he never seems to get tired ; but he is all th e
whil e quite fresh His hours o f work in the
Court are f rom morning eigh t to evenin g
»
nin e wi th a few hours o f rest during the day
time
Even a fter that he is expected to
discuss certain points with his chosen f ew
The work is completed in an hour or so In
the matter of ju d gment he does not believe
in the English theory of expediting the
investigation o f cases ; but he thinks twic e
be fore he gives out his mind and instruct s his
spirit s to follow his advice F rom all point s
of view he is regarded as the m o st sui tabl e
;
.
.
-
.
,
.
.
,
.
.
-
,
.
,
.
,
,
.
.
.
,
,
.
,
35
T HE
GR EAT MYS TERY OF L I FE B EYOND DEATH
d ivin ity to handle th is part o f the administra
t ion in the spirit w orld To so me minds it m a
y
n o t ap pear tha t Yama is imp art ial ; bu t s o far
a s I am able to j udge , he trie s t
be
imp
r
tial
a
p
though he may besto w some favour in c ases
where there is su fficient j ustification for being
s o kind
S uch action s a re very o ften mis
c onstrued and give rise to the O pi m o n th at
.
.
.
,
in some cases proper justice is not
a dministered
Delays : In the morning the Court opens
t hat is it begins to f unction ;
there are o f
c ourse
no doors to be thrown open There
a re some spirits
who se duty it is to allot
n umbers to the new comers
The ba sis o n
which these numbers are a ssigned is quite
l ogical The numbe r of the plane in which th e
spir its of the souls reside is found out and out
o f souls of the same
plan e the principle o f
Thus the
first come first se rved , is adopted
s pi r its of higher planes are taken up firs t f or
It may be indicated here that the
t heir trial
n umber o f new comers exceed s the numb er
o f cases disposed of during a particular day
T his is one of the most impo r tant cause s of
delay which is proverbially long I had a talk
with Y ama himsel f and I suggested that there
should be more judges li k e Yama himsel f ; but
he p r omptly said that equality of justice was to
b e maintained at an y cost I added that a little
c ould be permitted for the sak e o f
s acrifice
.
,
,
,
,
.
,
.
.
,
,
.
.
.
.
.
36
the c o nven ien ce o f man y sou ls who w ere dail
their trial
eagerly awaitin g
an d
y
Yama re fu sed
.
I had to kee p q uiet It appears that the
s
i
o
n
ue
t
which con fronts him is n ot one o f
q
the balanc e o f justic e but o f the balan ce o f
po wer betw een such Yam as, though there may
be al so the difficulty o f j u stice bein g system atic
and u n i form
To get a clear idea o f the
whole procedure we might tak e a con c rete
.
.
,
case
In the case o f a soul who com es to the
spirit world the spir it who allots number s
finds out the plane in which his spirit rests
S uppo sing he is in the fourth plan e his
as spirits o f higher plan es
rank will be low
will get precedence
F urthermore amon g
the spirits o f the same plan e all rush up to
the spirit who allots numbers and quiet so u l s
who cannot get a number which is so necessary
to expedi te the trial have to wait fairly long
I n thi s particular case the poor so u l had to
wait for nine long days to get his number
Even a fter this he f ound it very difficult to
'
get a footing so t o say in the Court s trial
place for eight days
The cases o f so u ls o f
higher plan es were conducted and a fter that the
cases o f so u ls o f the fourth plane were tak en
up Even th en his rank was somewhere near
In a day about 20 norm al
hun dr ed
two
ca ses are d ispo sed of and at this rate it t ook
.
,
,
,
,
.
,
,
,
;
,
.
.
.
,
,
,
.
.
.
37
GREA T MYST ERY OF L I FE B EYOND DEATH
T HE
me I O days more
A f ter thi s
d elay o f abo ut o ne mo n th his trial began
Pgo
tracted Trial : A fter all these prelimina
r res
dhe name of the so u l is called out and
h e is br ought forw ard by the spirit-in-charge
to we may say the cage I f the soul con
c erned has some relations or friends who can
f urther his case they are asked to go to the
~
witness box
If the soul was a known man
the group of ph ilanthropist pleaders thin k
o ver the so u l s case and i f they thin k it meces
s ary to plead
they req u est Yama to grant
ermission
to
them
f
or
the
purpose
and
Y
ama
;
p
a t once decides one way or the other whether
to grant the request or not In this particular
the soul had many friends and was
c ase
there fore asked to select ten spirits to represent
h im at the trial
F urther details of the trial will be tak en up
I t is desirable here to
s ubse quently
how the trial is protracted and
u nderstan d
Even a fter the above men tioned
l engthened
i
a
l
reliminaries
are
gone
through
the
tr
does
p
not commence at once since the Yama order s
spirits who are in the Investigation D epartmen t
o f the Court to collect all relevant facts about
the so ul who is undergoi n g trial
This
i nvestigation tak e some time ; in some cases
A fte r that the
i t req u ires a c ouple o f days
Many other
r e ading o f the reco rds is order ed
i tem s are nex t taken in h and and Yama the n
t here f ore
so
.
.
,
,
,
.
,
,
.
’
,
.
,
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,
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,
,
,
.
,
,
.
.
38
THE GREAT MYSTERY OF L I FE B EYOND DE ATH
el ementals help in this m atter was a point
u ndisclosed to me for a long t ime Recen tly
however I had to mix with such an elemen tal
and he explained to me that he got abso lute
freedom in return f or service thus render ed to
the Court These two spirits there fore go to
the place where the so u l concerned used
to live The elemental would enter into a
'
living person s body and make him talk with
persons who knew many things about that
so u l
In most cases it is not so easy to enter
into so m eone s body ; and it takes a long time
be fore this can be accomplished
The
elemental gives all the in formation he has
gathered to the other spirit and th ey discuss
V ery often they
the points involved therein
do not agree and the diff erences between them
are responsible for some further unnecessary
delay l n the commencement and conduct o f
the trial In this manner at any r ate the
spirit who has gone to the world is able to
s ecure al l necessary i n formation about the
soul
At this stage it is necessary to give som e
idea of the topics which are included in the
investigation Yama re q uires in formation o n
the following points
In the first instance it is necessary to k now
whether the p erson had a normal end o r
whether the end was due to some abnormal
a
aus
Here
it
shou
d
be
made
clear
that
l
e
c
.
.
.
l
.
.
,
.
’
.
“
.
,
.
.
,
.
.
‘
,
‘
.
40
THE GREA T TR IAL
'
la th cau sed by bo dily ailment or di sease
constitutes a no rma l d eath ; bu t i f there was
n o s u ch
disease an d i f the death was ca u sed
by, sa y , m en tal weakness taking the fo rm o f
an accident it constitute s an abnormal end
Dea ths due to suicide and murders s tand in
a cla ss by themselves In case o f a normal
death there is a very little to in vestigate ; but
suicides and mu rder s means a lot of trouble
to the investigators The murderer has to be
found out and his name has to be recorded
Analysis o f Hu man Action s : Besides this
there is another point that needs analysis and
investigation The spi r its have to make a classi
fied list o f the actions of the soul under tri al
which were good and those which were evil
There is a furthe r classification o f deeds into
those which were done to benefit his o wn sel f
and those that w ere meant to benefit othe rs
Men during their li fetime per form so many
actions that a classification is not an easy task
But to make an attempt is the only thin g
possible Good d eeds are composed in the
first place of honest beliefs and honest actions
In some cases it is difficu l t to define honesty
and class an action as honest ; henc e the use
o f the word beliefs
There are very few
persons who can be strictly considered honest
an d
the investigating spirit is t here fore
instructed to be lenient in h is investigation o f
c ert ai n actions
An other im p orta nt good
,
.
.
.
.
,
.
-
.
.
.
.
.
“
,
.
4k
THE GREA T MYSTERY OF L I F E B EYOND DEATH
ctio n is the per fo rmance of du ty I t can be
sa fely asse rted th at duty is o n e o f the m o st
i mporta nt factors in Yama s code o f good
a ctions
Those perso n s who are able to do
their duty towards themselves and their
f am ilies are said to have used their tenure o f
l i f e in a most suitable manner
S ome people
o
a stage further in their pursuit of the
g
r eligion o f duty , and I am sure they merit the
f avour of Yama
Go od condu ct o f course
adds to one s spiritual and material advance
m ent , though strangely enough it is given a
lesser weight than the per formance o f duty
S ometimes a man whose conduct is n o t as
good as it ought to be gets on success fully , i f
It is known all over the
h e has done his duty
W orld that if you help othe r s G o d helps you
a nd some help rendered to others will always
s tand in good stead to the person who had the
This in general should
f oresight to do so
in my v rew be the classification to be adopted
while reviewing good deeds by the spirits who
i nvestigate
Coming to bad actions or the dark er side
a wilfu l wrong done to
o f humanity as s u ch
othe r s forms one of the most wicked actions
w hich mak e the souls who per form such deed s
Next in magn i
l iable to severe punishment
tude c ome the deeds which are certainly had
b u t are not the resul t o f any predetermined
u npremeditated
t ho ught an d th ere f ore su ch
a
.
’
.
.
,
.
’
.
.
,
,
,
.
.
,
.
42
THE GRE A T
TR IAL
bad deeds to so m e ex t en t ar e pard o nable o r
liable to lighter punishmen t only Then we
co me t o dishonesty which is a mo st comm on
.
ce amo ng peo ple who are less fortu nately
e
d
n
l
a
c
bei
g on the lower rungs o f the finan
,
p
In cases o f han d to mouth
ladder
cial
existenc e such di shonesty is to a large extent
ermissible
though
it
is
never
en
c
ur
ged
o
a
p
Bad conduct is severely dealt with i f such mis
d eeds are not counterbala nced by some
good actions
I n this manner the investigators accumulate
a ll necessary inform ation and re turn to the
s piri t world
The elemental o f course goe s to his own
r
lane
while
the
spi
it
goes
to
the
Investiga
p
t ion D epartment and reports a ll the facts to
the Head o f the D epartment
By this time the spir it who had gone to
the record keeper has also retu rned and mak es
a statement to that effect
A third spirit is now asked to go through
a ll tho se repo rts and then to consult the soul
a bo ut it
He should incorporate only those
i tems which receive the consent of the soul
concern ed In his recor ded report he should
m ak e so me remarks about the po ints on which
there is a divergence of opinion between the
l
i
r
i
n
c
ip
invest
gator
the
s
o
ul
F
rom
a
a
n
d
p
t hi s it sh ou ld be pretty clea r that all this tak es
vi
-
.
,
.
.
.
,
,
.
.
.
.
.
43
THE GREAT MYS TERY OF L I FE B EYOND DEATH
a l
ong t me to be r eady fo r prese ntatio n be fore
the Court
Now I come to the actual procedure at
the Court
The sou l is jus t be fore Yama and the tr al
begins when the Court is informed that the
investigation is at an end A call is made
and th er e co mes the prosecutor t o open the
case This spirit is not supposed to go t hrou gh
the information received but he is only asked
to state the facts revealed by the record Which
was m ad e when the soul had parted from his
body His r emarks are rathe r gen eral and
vague This statement only serv es the pu r
pose of putting Yama into touch with the
soul concerned A fter this is ove r the spirit
from the Investigation D epartment come s
fo rward with the i n fo rmation collected He
in the fi r st instance gives details about death
and discusses how far such an end wa s no rmal
A fter devoting a long time to this topic he
begins to scan the list of good deeds Act s
which we r e done fo r his own good ar e tak en
up fi r st A note is made o f such good acts by
a spirit whose duty it is to record the proceed
ings o f all cases The spirit of the Investigatio n
D epartment always gives explanations and
reasons for considering some acts as good or
normal as the case may be V ery often it so
happens that an act consid ered good by the
spirit may be classed as normal by Yama It
i
.
.
i
.
.
‘
.
.
,
.
.
.
,
.
'
.
.
.
.
44
h ar dly nee ds telling you that Yama s view is
’
final and binding The spirit next comes to
d e ed s which are goo d bu t which are done for
other s
Controversy o ften arises on the
point where a particular act may be sai d to
be performed fo r others In case of people who
believe in the joint family system the co n ce o
l
f
o
the f amily being broader than the norma
i dea of a family most acts a r e not included
in the group we a r e discussing The underlying
i dea is that those acts only which were done
f or persons beyond the family circle should
come under this class
I n this respect the
Hindus are at a conside rable disadvantage as
from very old times their idea of a family is
quite di fferent fr om the ideas of other nations
A fte r the good side in the list has been
resented
find
that
Y
ama
a nalysed and
w
e
p
o rders the
spi r it to stop and asks the soul
concer ned to give his view in a sentence He
has to agr ee or disagree only and not to argue
I n most cases the position is m ade so clear
that the soul has no other option but to ag ree
entirely A fter this is done , the spir it again
resumes his discussion dealing with the darke r
side of the particular soul Wil ful acts are
discussed fi r st and in respect o f every such wil
ful bad deed Yama makes the soul ag r ee with
him O f course every detail is all the wh ile
r ecord ed by the spi r it in cha r ge
A fter the
there comes the class
scrutiny of wil f u l acts
.
.
,
,
.
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,
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,
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,
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,
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,
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,
45
THE
GR EAT
MYS TERY OF L I FE B EYOND DEATH
o f acts which are bad but more or le ss
accid en ta l in nature
Acts not backed by a
motive are to some extent pardonable and
hence put in a di ff erent class by Yama In
such deeds the consent of the soul is n o t
sought for t hese deeds are not to b e given
p r ime importance The investigating spi r it
'
having now finished his survey of the soul s
'
actions takes Y ama s leave which is granted
in n o rm al circumstances Yama now req uests
the honora ry pleader s to speak on behalf o f
the soul This is not always allowed as we
have s een before It is only in case where
the soul has achieved a certain status that
this privilege is gr anted A ssuming that it is
g r anted it depends on the will of the pleader s
to plead o r not They are requested not to
S peak on all the deeds but only on such topic s
as have not received fu ll attention or which
have be en totally ignored F urthe rmo r e they
can speak on the classification an d often
about deeds which are on the border line
They can throw doubts on the charges levell ed
against the soul and in a general way give an
idea of the soul s char acter and achievements
I n conclusion they can even plead for mercy
to Y ama This in a way completes the majo r
'
pa r t of the proceedings bar ring Yama s deci
sion in consultation with his Councillors
No D ef en ce : It must have appeared to my
have been speak ing o f
r eaders that so far I
,
.
,
.
,
,
.
,
.
.
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,
.
,
.
.
,
.
’
.
.
,
.
46
T HE
GREA T MYS TERY OF L I FE B EYOND DEATH
b egins his speech or sermon whichev er you
c hoose to call it
In the fi rst instance , he
e xpresses his regret fo r
causing delay and
.
the resultant ha rdship He then congratulates
the soul for his good deeds and de votes some
time over good deeds done for others This
art
of
his
speech
makes
the
soul
feel
that
p
Yama R aj has a soft corner for him little
k nowing that the remaining part is a caustic
s ermon Then Y ama comes to the darke r side
o f his life Fo r accidental bad deeds he me r ely
warns the soul the warning bein g couched
in mo r e o r less in mild terms Bad acts which
w e r e d one wilfully a re examined by him in
full details and he makes su r e that the soul
realises the eno r mity of his misdeeds
In
case the soul does not r ealise it Yama a sks
t he soul to justify his contention with proper
p r oofs In such ra r e cases only does Yama
h imself cross examine the obstinate so ul
So
fa r he has only examined the facts of the case
B u t now he comes to the critical pa r t of his
d ecision
In the beginning he ex plains the
doct r ine of good acts counter balancing bad
d eeds and then tells him that in his case there
i s eithe r an excess of good deeds over bad
If the good deeds out
o nes or the cont rary
assumes that the soul is
n umber the bad he
r
r
r
u
r
ope
ly
t
ained
and
the
efo
e
he
need
not
r
p
p
b e detained any longer ; but if the excess is
t he other way b e gets wild with rage and he
.
.
,
»
.
.
,
.
.
,
.
-
,
.
.
,
.
—
.
,
,
‘
48
THE GREA T TR I A L
begin s to advise , s cold , repro a c h or deno u nce
The so ul who
the so u l as strongly as possible
is h earin g Yama gets frightened and i n variably
.
requ ests Y ama to pardon his shortcomin gs
and misdeeds But the god having assum ed
a wild form re fuses to hear anything and
pro ceeds to give his final judgment Honorary
pleaders can help the soul as they have the
power to ask Yama to give his dec ision the
next da y A ss uming that the soul concerned
had an excess o f good deeds Y ama states :
'
Mr X has lived his tenure of li f e success fully
and ha s not p r oved a burden to man kind bu t
has in a small measure helped others over and
above sec uring a fund of happiness for hi msel f
and his family He should be lifted fr om his
present plane and be posted in a higher plan e
as a r eward f or his fruitful existence
His
unison should take place on the 2 ] st day from
to day ; he should come to the Court next week
'
for gettin g a permit for a new birth
In the
other case in which the bad deeds predominat e
over goo d ones the following would be the
“
contents o f the d e cisio n z
Mr X has wasted
a ll the time allotted to him to show his worth
and in a gener al way has proved a burden to
his r elations an d friends nay to the wh ol e
society His conduct has proved to be far
from satisfactory ; he has allowed good
oppo rtu n ities to slip away and therefore he
should su ffer for his actions The Court do es
.
.
‘
.
,
.
,
.
.
.
,
,
—
.
,
.
.
49
,
T HE
GREAT MYS TERY OF LI FE B EYOND DE ATH
d esire to penali se him , but it o nly orders
h im to remain in the old plane and
n ot
is necessary that a better u se of
t he new birth should be made
The sou l
s hould present himself after 4 ] days for a new
'
b irth permit
Assignment of planes : The Court is said
t o have f ulfilled its f unct ion when the d ec ision
i s g iven by the Y ama in council
A fter that
t he assignment o f planes is made by the
A ssignment D epartment which is con trolled
by Yama
The so u l should as soo n as
ossible
go
there
and
in
f
orm
them
cle
r
ly
o
f
a
p
The spirit in charge refers
t he decision given
t o the records of decisions and then gives the
n ame and number of t he plane assigned to
the sou l He also sends a spirit to sh o w the
t
l
i
lane
to
the
so
that
he
may
find
easy
s
o
u
p
He is then asked to return in
t o reach there
a rea sonably short time as he is not supposed
to stay there be fore unison and the new birth
e
ermit
is
required
as
a
sort
o
f
an
entranc
pass
p
New Birth Ord er : A fter the lap se o f the
n ecessary period
the soul presents him self
A s usual ,
t o the Court for a new birth order
i t tak es some time before Y ama can give
F urthe rmore even
a ttention to the tried soul
w hen Yama attends to him he has to in f orm
t he Creator abo ut it as it 1 8 He who ha s t o
n
rovide
f
or
him
A
f
ter
the
ecessa ry
p
i n formati on is obtained , and a fte r it is
it
.
.
,
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,
.
,
.
.
.
.
,
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.
.
50
,
THE GREA T T R I AL
rt ain ed that p ro v isio n can be made Yama
a sks the soul to choose from certain specified
types o f births
He however gives no
ntee
o
f
giving
the
birth
selected
by
him
u
a
a
r
g
V ery o ften , the o ption give n is such that it
'
Th e
t ends to become a Hobso ns choice
often is incapable o f solution and
r iddle
t herefore Y ama gives plenty o f time to the
s oul to decide ; even consulting people of the
The
w o r ld through mediums is allowed
i dea is that Y ama does not want to bear the
S omehow
o dium of hav ing given a ba d birth
the selection 1 8 made and it is now
o r oth er
f o r Yama to app r ove of it or force on him
O pinion is appropriate
a birth which in his
I n very many cases Y ama agrees but there
ba sis on which he
s eems to be no definite
In my talk with him
d ecides this problem
h e revealed that approval of a soul s choice is
a rewar d for his good conduct at the Court
Interval between Su c cessive Births : It may
b e observed that rebi r th does not necessarily
t ak e pla ce at onc e
In normal cases a year
e lapses between death and the new birth
It
m ust be made clear however that there are
i nstances in which so u ls h av e not be en given
a new birth for
years together
The rules
wh ich govern the determination of this
i nterval are quite unknown ; but it appears
that in case a suitable birth is not f ound the
m atter may be le ft over and arrears are i n
a sce
,
.
.
.
.
.
,
.
.
,
,
.
’
.
,
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.
.
,
,
51
T HE GREAT MYS TERY O F L I FE B EYO ND DEAT H
th at case disposed o f after some years
F urther , it may happen that the sou l may be
progressing very slowly and even though it is
not fit enough for salvation it requires some
long rest and rebirth may be c onsequentl y
delayed
Unison : O rdering of a new birth marks the
completion of the pro c eedings at the Cou r t
and it is thought fit by Yama at this juncture to
allow the so u l to be united with his spirit
identity for the period during which the sou l
has to wait as rebirth does not take place at
once The S pirit of the soul is asked to com e
down to Yama s region and as it is the will
of Yama , the soul and the spirit get united
into a greater so u l He feels much happier
than be fore by being in touch with his
counte rpar t after a lapse of say fifty or sixty
years Unison is in a way a n o rm al in cident ;
but rare as such incidents are they tend t o
be abnormal A fter this happens the spiri t
is made to forget his past life so that he m ay
take more interest in the soul s latest life It
may be obser ved that a spi r it can at the mos t
be expected to rem em ber only a few incident s
of his past life and that too for one bi r th A fte r
this unison the greater soul is entitled to c a
This concludes
c u py his pla n e f or a sho r t time
our su rvey of the progress of the so u l through
Y ama s Court In the next chapter we shall
s ee him in his plane f orming an in tegral par t
.
,
.
.
,
,
.
’
.
.
,
,
.
’
.
'
,
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,
.
’
.
52
.
‘
THE GREAT TR IAL
of
the
same
Qu alities needed for progress : I f the reader
h as ca re fully followed the preceding pag es
h e m u st have gathered that the qualities which
h elp us in the w orld o f the living also help us
to weather the storms of the trial more easily
Divine concepts of good qualities are in a
g eneral sense the same as the human co n cep
t ion o f such virtues
In India it is believed
t hat idol worship helps one s so u l to achieve
p rogress ; but it may be stated here that such
w orship bears no fruits except that it may
prove a sort o f a check on certain ba ser desires
h aving sway over the reason o f such persons
The chie f f acto r which leads to spiritual and
m aterial advancement o f so u ls is the standard
of duty which has developed in a particular
The higher the standard o f duty main
sou l
t a in ed the larger is the reward reserved f or
The concept o f du ty is not only
t hat soul
a n impo r tant factor but broadly speaking it is
the only factor which helps one in his spiritual
It is said that in
m arch towards salvation
v ery old times many advanced souls used to
l eave worldly
connections and
confine
for their
t hemselves in som e lonely pla ce
advancement ; but i f I may be
s piritual
permitted to express my opinion I must state
t hat those souls have not made use of thei r
having gone out o f thei r
s urroundings ; but
world th ey only made their li fe o f suc h a
,
.
.
’
‘
.
.
,
.
,
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,
,
,
53
TH E GREAT MYS TERY OF LI FE BEYOND
DEATH
nature that
important
problems which
face others do not harass them They have
thus shirk ed the burden of duty and the reward
is reduced to that extent It should not be
misunderstood that other good actions have
no effect as all things great and small have a
r
d
u
l
and
cumulative
e
f
f
ect
in
deciding
a
a
th e
g
'
usefulness or otherwise of a being s existenc e
.
.
,
,
.
ments : S o far we have spoken of
n o rm al
cases I must acknowledge that there ar e
'
no prejudices or pred elictio n s in Yama s
Court ; but in some cases certain privil eges
are granted to so u ls awaiting their trial if they
have r ender ed some useful service
Thi s
mode of tem perm g j ustice with mercy is in no
way a r eflection on Y ama s impar tiality The
spe cial treatment is a well ea r ned reward a fte r
many years of wo rk in the field of spiritualism
Med iums who are not frauds are treated w ith
mercy but no special help is given as regard s
their spiritual advancement
But mediums
who ar e not only genuine but also have n o t
turn ed their abilities into pro fessional channels
are held in esteem by the Cou r t and in givin g
the decision some help is given either in the
shape of reduction o f punishment or in giving
a better plane with a suitable birth which
would give them further opportunities t o
reveal more about the unk nown or mis
world o f spirits
Instrume nts
u nderstood
.
,
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’
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,
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,
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,
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,
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54
CH A PTER I V
THE SEVE N S TAG ES O R PLANES
o c at ion P esi d in g D eities
F i st Pl
The P atal Is it H II ? The
C o u t E lementals A c t i v i ty of s p i i t Haunt ing
S e c on d P lane The Bh l k S pi i ts o f lo w
o d e N o a c tiv i ty F ee d o m f o m co nt ol
T hi d
The T p l k S pi its o f m i ddle
Pl
c las s C t L A tten d an c e
at t i als C llec tive
a c ti o ns Tou c h wi th the W o ld
F ou th
Pl
The
Ch
Con t ented
d l k
spi its F eedo m to mo v e T o u c h with highe
Ya m a s vis i ts
p owe s
F if th Pl n
The S y l k A mbi t i ous sp i i t A d
mi n i st a tive wo k E ne g i se P esi di ng d e i ty
S i t h p lane The S w g l k Ha p p y s ul s C o l d
s pi i ts L oss o f t o u c h wi th the w o l d Lo s o f
me mo y
S eventh Pl n The D va k G od l i k e so ul s N o
tou c h wi th m ed iums N o a c t i vi t y R e s t
L
—
r
ane :
r
r
a—
—
—
r
r
—
on
—
ro
a
a o
r
a—
an e
o
—
.
an
r
—
.
r
r
r
r
r
—
—
.
r
r
an e :
r
a—
o
u
r—
s—
r
:
-
e
ra o
a—
—
r
'
r
—
.
a
u r
e :
r
r
x
a—
r
—
ar
:
r
a o
r
r—
a o
r
.
a—
o
r
—
r
s—
—
s
—
.
a
e:
e
—
-—
-
a—
v
—
.
L ocation :
S o far w e have spoken o f the
s pirits and their li f e at the
Court
In this
chapter other phases o f the li f e of spirits ill
It is at least well known in India
b e taken up
that the w orld o f spirits is divided into seven
and
in
the
western
w
orld
too
the
idea
l
n
a
es
p
o f s u ch planes or stages is becomin g current
The man in the world o f the living d oes n o t
k n ow for c ertain the number o f pla nes in the
specu lation is
s p irit w orld ;
and very o ften
w
.
.
,
.
-
56
i fe o n that matter S o far as I know how ever
there are only seven stages crea ted for spirits
Even accept ing this f act there
o f all types
is further much di fficulty abo ut naming these
plan es or stages In view o f the fact that no
o ffi cial names exist the best w ay is to allo c ate
Bu t I have come
n umbers to these stages
across Indian names for thes e stages and for
t he purpose o f this boo k I have selected seven
n ames which incidentally indicate the nature
o f each plane
Each o f these planes is just an ex panse o f
s pa ce like Yama s Court
The di ff erent s tages
h ave an a r ea according to their needs
In
d istributing space the higher pl ane is given a
s maller area than the lower
plane because
there are always fewer S pirits in such s tages
It is just lik e having more third class carriages
a n d f ew upper class ones in a railway
train
These areas are just a f ew hundred miles
from the living world on the outer border
of
the atmosphere
It hardly needs any
r eiteration that spirits do not require any thing
l ike the earth to support them in space
They
l ive in space and can move on any part o f
the world But they cannot move over any
h igher plane than the one allotted to them in
t he spirit world
Presiding Deities : It is a very natu ral
q uestion to ask about the arrangement f or
c ontrolling spiri ts who res ide in t hese planes
r
.
,
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,
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,
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57
TH E GREAT M YSTERY OF LI FE BEYOND DEATH
A very elaborate system f or control is devised
to meet this primary n eed Every plane o r
.
o ka
i
t
1
has
its
own
who
d
e
3 entrusted with
I
y,
the work of controlling S pirits in general a n d
making it pr acticable for spirits in administra
tive departments to control them I f ther e is
any mismanagement , the deity in charge wil l
be held responsible The rules o f control are
not the same in all Iokas ; they vary to a larg e
extent
In some stages
the control is
nominal ; in others it is pronou n ced and in
others still co m plete The principles which
decide the ex tent o f the control will be dealt
with when we come to a detailed analysis o f
those stages There is some conflict of opinion
amongst u s about the term D eity and I in
my memorandum submitted to Yama R aj
suggested the word spiri t -control A s usual
however he was not prepared to accept the
suggestion ; but only very recently he uses
the word while using the E nglish language
It may be pointed out here that the language
spoken depends upon the language o f the
spirit concerned and higher spirits are
expe cted to master all important languages
We shall now commence a detailed analysi s
of these di ff erent plan es
.
.
,
.
,
,
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.
‘
’
,
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,
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,
‘
,
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,
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FI R ST P LA N E
THE P ATALA
.
The Petals : The first loka i s known as t he
The w ord signifies the lower region s
P atala
.
58
THE SEVEN S TAGES OR P LANES
and it is in fact a regio n f or spirit s
of in ferio r calibre
S ome may imagine
it to be a physically lower plane ; but that idea
is wrong altogether as all plan es are more o r
less only a few hundred mil es away from the
ea rth It should be noted tha t the Patala is
not the world of S atan but an integral par t
o f the whole spirit world In this r egion t here
are two broad divisions one forming th e
'
Yama s Court and the other the real Patala
It is this part which is meant for spirits o f a
low order In the other part all so uls have
to go for their trial and to that extent it is
not a r eal visit to Patala o r to the first plane
To my mind the Court is absolutely a diffe r en t
stage but it is accidentally merged into the
Patala Lo ka
It may ap pear strange to some persons tha t
Y ama should create such a hybrid plan e and
a f ew yea rs back I also shared that view Bu t
n o w as I have come in touch with the interna l
'
o r ganisation o f Yama s C ourt I can sa fely
ass ert that it is so mixed up in order to get
the ad vanta ge of the lower spirits in the work
o f investigation while conducting case s in the
Co urt The mixing up though accidental is
thus to a c er tain extent desirable and thes e
two absolutely diff erent types o f planes form
one o f the most important regions in the spirit
w orld
Is it Hell : P at al a L oka to an Indian mind
~
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,
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,
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,
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59
T HE
GR
EAT MYS TERY
OF
LI FE B EYOND
i s a plan e associated w ith
DEATH
omething u npala
table in its atmosphere
Even amon g the
E n glish people they regard such a region as
b elongi ng to S atan
There is a belie f that it
is the region reserved for the worst type of
It is rather strange to find such a
souls
b elie f current among Indians in particular
I f an Indian or better still a Hindu comes t o
k now that his relative is in Patala he f eels
'
a s i f that person s so u l is transferred to Hel l
3
region o f trouble and oppression Bu t t o
remove the misconception I would like t o
s tate that no Hell whatsoever exists in the
s pir it world
But a fter all Hell is a relative
ter m and though w e may term the first plan e
a s Patala to distinguish it from Hell the fi r st
plane is the worst stage to which a so u l can
be sent an d to that extent it may ve ry broadly
be regarded as a kind o f Hell
The Cou rt : We have in the preceding
Court as far as the
c hapter spoken of the
subject o f t r ial was concerned It is n o w
d esirable to give an idea o f the Court not as
Tribunal but as a Plane in the
t he D ivine
spirit world It has about the same area as
the other planes ; but the peculiarity of this
region lies in the fact that there are no
ermanent
residents
and
all
those
who
come
p
i
away
as
soon
as
their
t
r
l
is
over
I
t
does
a
o
g
not thus have the appea rance o f an ordinary
but
it
has
that
o
c
e
loo
k
which
is
l
e
f
fi
n
a
;
p
s
.
,
.
.
.
,
,
.
,
.
,
,
,
“
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60
completely ab sent in other planes
The
number o f officials who f req uent this plane is
also large
The impor tance of this plan e
cannot be denied as it is also the centre of the
~
Administ ration D epartment of the spi r it
world A detailed review o f this departmen t
will be tak en up later on as it has n o di r ec t
bea ring on this chapter
There are two broad classe s
E lem en tals :
into which the spirits r esiding in the Patal a
L oka can be divided In the first class com e
These spirits have
S pirits of the ordin ary type
usually an in fer ior brain power and they are
in this plan e only on that account
A ll o f
them are in my esteem goo d people an d I
do no t know why they should suffer because
Is it not the mistak e
they have a poor brain
'
of the Creator to have brought such soul s
into existence ? A t any rate once created
they should be given favourable treatmen t
and there should be some device to improv e
their lot The other class consists of spi rit s
who have very powerful and fertile brains ; but
the only trouble with them is that the power
was misdirected and they reaped the fruits o f
their actions by be ing assigned to Patala L oka
A s it appea ed to me a g eat p esumption to iti c is
the C eato he e a s l late on I always made it a oin t
to d a w S i A thu s attention an d to as k him wheth e h
w ould not li k e to modi f y t h e senten c e But he w fi m
i
an d w oul d not give up t h e position he had ta k en up
a s the b ook was his w o k I have etain d su c h p assag
as dic tate d
.
.
,
.
.
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'
.
,
,
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,
,
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.
31‘
r
r
r
r
a so
r
r,
r
'
r
e
cr
r
r
p
,
e
r
r
r
as
.
,
r
r
,
.
61
e
an t
es,
T HE
GREA T
MYS TERY OF L I FE B EYOND DEATH
T h ese spirits are very intelligent and have a
c reative genius , but all such po w er has been
u sed for bad deeds
Being base sou ls , they
.
called elementals These int elligent spirits
w ho use their abilities in such a wrong way
are not able to proceed any further ; they
h ave to stay in this region as long as they
continue to act in the same wicked manner
S pi r its with a ve ry low order o f brain are also
c alled elementals ; but to my mind they should
n o t be so called because the word eIem en ta I
has a bad odour about it in so far as it
s uggests wilful wickedness or misdemeanour
o n the part of the spi r its concerned
A ctivity o f Spirits : In every plane spirits
r esid e ; but their activities are very often quite
d i ff erent and a study o f their activiti es in
d i ff erent planes is desirable
But we will here
confine ourselves to the activities o f elementals
o nly
Elementals who have not brains are by
their very nature dull and usually not rea dy
to do any work even when they were in their
W
l
h
s
m
a
existence
hile alive they ar e
p y
m ore o r less id le and are in a way dependent
on
others and thus obviate the ne ed for
s uppo rting
th emselves In the spi r it world
t o o they never move out o f their dens as it
W ere and they have made it a point not to
attend the Court I f they attended it it would
h elp them to progress further ; but little as
a re
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,
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62
THE GREAT MYSTERY
LI FE B EYOND DE ATH
OF
G ood mediums and spiritual ists do no t ther e
fore usually come in contact with elemental s
and some of t hem on that account very o fte n
doubt the existence o f the elementals alto ge
ther All elementals are however very keen to
keep themselves in touch with the happenings
in the worl d th r ough their medi u ms The ir
second activity is called service t o the cou rt
because a large number of elementals a r e
employed in the investigation of all the case s
that are before the court It may appear rather
strange that the divine court should employ
the agency o f elementals who are base and n o t
wo rthy of performing such duties
It has
been put forward by some responsible o ffice rs
of Yama s Court that good spirits have n o t
got the necessary power of carrying on the
work of investigation themselves It req ui r e s
spirits o f higher calibre and such spiri ts can
be easily f ound among the elementals I t m ay
be argued perhaps that the spirits with good
brains can be found in the sixth and the seventh
r
l
n
e
s
but
it
may
be
pointed
out
that
thei
a
;
p
powe r s ar e nominal and useless for the work
in view In this work the elemental p r ove s
very useful indeed to the Court It is with
his help that the administration of justic e
becomes pos sible
If the elementals are
faithful in discharging their duties they are
given some rewar d either in the shape of
a good birth or in the shape of giving a pos t
.
.
‘
’
,
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64
TH E SEVEN STAGES OR PLANES
the administ r ative department ; but in no
c ase , is a higher plane assigned to them That
can be done only i f the base nature has
This
i mproved even to a very sm all extent
a ctivity however does not fully occupy all the
e lem entals and maste r brains r equi r e some
t hing m ore to do
Hau n tin g : A large number o f intelligent
s pi r its of this plane therefore indulge in an
This term is not a
a ctivity called hau n tin g
h appy one in so far as it does not give a correct
idea of such activities But even after long
d elibe r ation I have failed to find a bette r word
than hau nting Ther e ar e two br oad divisions
of this type of actions In one class the spirits
c once r ned do not
mater ialise but car ry on
t hei r wo r k
th r ough their mediums
S uch
h aunting is to a lar ge extent harmless though
c as es have been found where such haunting
h as resulted in actual harassment
Thus a
s pirit
while talking on the Board gives some
thr eat to the medium or his client and very
o f ten such th r eats so imp r ess themselve s on
the mind of the medium that the spirit is
s uccessful in getting his desi r es fulfilled
Thus
I know of a case in which a med ium was
c ompell ed to kill a cer tain person only because
h is spi r it asked him to do so under the th r eat
o f death
S o metimes elementals who a re
fond of talking and a r guing impersonate
certain spirits o r are even bold enough to dis
in
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65
TH E GREAT MYSTERY OF L I FE B EYOND DEAT H
close thei r name and make the medium tal k
with them If on a ny ground such talks are
discou r aged they employ threats It may be
contended that those threats if ignored woul d
not materialise but such con tention is wr on g
because the elementals have lar ger powers a s
regar ds materialisation than other spirits
This leads us to the second type of hauntin g
whe r e elementals resort to materialisation The
spi r it usually has one medium and both of
them have established ve ry cordial relation s
to thei r mutual advantage S uch mediums do
not use any of the modes of invoking spirit s
mentioned in a p r evious chapter They have
such an elemental under their clutches though
this subjection usually involves a lot of t r oubl e
and waiting ; but once the relationship is
established the spirit bec omes ve ry tame and
acts as a tool for the medium Thus many
ba se acts are done through the instrumentality
of the elemental and those who su ffer fro m
the mischievous p r anks played by an elemental
consider it as haunting They may think that
the spirit is unnecessarily t r oubling them
little knowing that the spirit being a tool act s
according to the wishes of his medium But
a natu ral question What benefit would the
elemental der ive fr om being a tool of such a
medium ? The p r oblem was difficult of solu
tion to some of my friends and to me ; but
into contact with an importan t
a s I came
.
,
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,
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,
66
TH E S EVEN S TAGES OR PLANES
elemental he told me that if there was no work ,
ther e could be no elementals as they always
required some food for thei r brains If they
cannot find any work they prefer to act as
The
t o o ls rather than idle away thei r time
philosophy of the elemen tals is thus worth
app r ec iating but the only drawback is that
they misdirect their energies
This plane is in a way a place where ther e
is some thing more than democracy as n o
gover nment exists f or them Y et Y ama R aj
usually kee ps himsel f in touch with the
happenings in this corner of the spirit world
,
,
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,
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.
S E C O N D P LA N E
THE BHU -LO K A
The Bhu Loka :
F rom Patala we come to
the Bhu loka or the se co n d plan e in the spiri t
world It may be menti oned here that thes e
planes are near each othe r and there is littl e
change of atmospher e except in the P atala
This r egion is called Bhu lo ka and that too f o r
a good reason S pirits who a re assigned to
this plan e are full of earthly desire and if n o t
a ll most of them are dominated by the influ
ence of the baser instincts of mankind I t
should not be understood however from thi s
that all who have the fortune or misfo r tun e
to stay here ar e wicked because a fter all one
factor does not decide a case
S pirits of Low O r der : These genera l
remarks do not convey the real type of these
‘
—
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,
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:
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67
GREAT MYS TERY OF L I FE B EYOND DEATH
T HE
pirits and their qualities In the first place
m any of them a re below the average , so far
intelligence is con
a s the measu r e of thei r
c erned
S ome o f them have even not the
c apacity to do any act which can be regarded
substantial ; others who possess som e
as
owe
r
s
are
bent
upon
enj
oying
all
hrough
t
p
a n d lead a useless existence and in my opin
Then there ar e
a r e a burden to humanity
those who are fairly clever and ar e able to
l
n
some
work
but
who
refuse
to
do
u
t
p
which satis fy
a nything except certain things
their baser instincts S uch is the state o f Bhu
l oka
The last type of spirits are a danger to
i
t he spir it wo rld and their bodies on the Earth
a r e a st r iking monument of passion
No ac tivity : In a ge n e ral way we have
lanced
through
the
pe
sonnel
with
which
e
r
w
g
a r e conce r ned at p r esent
The natu r al desire
o f an investigator would be to get an idea o f
t hei r activities and I should al so give a natural
r eply
I should ask him a question What
w ould such a pe r son do on Ea r th ? He would
c ertainly lead a life without any activity if he
c ould get his bread somehow o r other
S uch
s pi r its neve r ca r e about the administration o f
the spirit wo rld n o r do they go to hear tri als
w hich are otherwise popular with spirits o f
o ther plan es
The chief reason is that they
h ave never thought of prog r ess in their liv es
M ost o f them pre fer to do nothing rather than
s
,
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v
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68
THE SEVEN S TAGES OR P LANES
go to hear trials much less to do any active
wo r k in the court or any other department
Ther e is one thing which would inter est them
but as that desire or passion cannot be satis fied
in the spi r it wo r ld they ar e very often res tless
They would like to be called by mediums if
they ca n find in them some satisfaction of thei r
desire I suppose you have not been able to
call such spir its because their company is
bound to have some undes i r able influence o n
all who come in contact w ith them
F r eedom fr o m C ontro l : The ways of the
spirit world are di ff erent from those of the
wo rld of the living and the method of ad m in is
t ratio n in this Ioka is a case in point
Thes e
spi r its who have not got a develop ed sense o f
respo nsibility are given up as incor rigible I
had a di scussion with Y ama himself and he
agreed that some means to improve them wer e
necessary but he held that certain means were
already in f or ce at the p r esent moment to
achieve the purpose ; I have however fa iled to
find any such means in force
To my utte r
amaz ement he told me that they have a
contr ol in the shape of bitter experience and
bad rebir ths He was further o f opinion that
they showed some improvement only whe n
they learnt by actual experien ce The divin e
authorities have thus thought it fit to let them
exist without practically any control and allow
them to do as they pleased But one thin g
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69
T HE
GREAT MYS TERY OF L I FE B EYOND DEATH
more and that is that S hree Lax m id ev i or the
G oddess of Wealth is supposed to look after
this plan e in a gen eral way though she is
s t r ictly forbidden to cont r ol any spirit unde r
ci rcumstances
F rom my experience
a ny
h owever I can say with confidence that h er
r eat
resence
in
this
Ioka
is
to
a
g
extent
p
good spirits o u t of
r esponsible for making
,
,
.
,
b ad
.
The Yama in Council has decided that
s pirits on the borde r line should not be assigned
because the company o f othe r
t o this plane
s pi r its makes it impossible for them to improve
d r agged lowe r a re
a n d the chances of being
m any
This r uling is responsible fo r the
s pa r se population the r e
.
.
TH I R D PLA N E
THE TA PAL O K A
We n o w leave behind the
lower st r ata of society in the spirit world We
d o n o t yet jump ove r however t o the crea m
b u t we come to the typical middle class
This
r egion which is j ust near the Bhu lo k a is called
t he Ta palo ka
Tapa in popular parlance
m eans penance and to some it may appear
that it is not a suitable name because there is
no relation between tapa and the spirits of
this stage But let me remove the illusion ;
'
the world Tapa is u s ed in the sense o f good
natured It is cer tainly true that pe ople in
t his pla n e are much better than those i n the
'
The Tapaloka :
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70
T H E GREAT
OF
MYSTE RY
L l FE
BEYO ND
DEATH
properly developed To some it may appear
that the world consists of many souls who
would be classed in this group ; but I feel if
only one of these three qualiti es is taken int o
consider atio n the numbe r of such spirits
w ould be fairly small A s it is I think it is
a faulty meth od of judging persons bec ause
it is very r ar e that such a combination of three
attributes can be found But divine method s
are also very r igid like those of governments in
the wo r ld of the living and it is no use findin g
fault with it I ver y often wonder whethe r
G o d o r the Cr eator feels ashamed at finding
so many of His products tu r ning out to be
me r ely medioc r e If I we r e in His po sitio n
I would cer tainl y feel ashamed However it
is no business of mine to cast any reflection s
upon such a Being
Con tr o l We have seen that a vast maj ority
of spirits are fo r ced to live in this plane
N atu r ally the p r oblem of administr ation is
also complex The spirits of this plane ar e
u sually of a good natu r e and most of them
a r e well behaved
The rules for them are n o t
rigid and only exceptional cases a r e under
st rict control These spi r its are allowed to go to
good mediums and whenever they go to a n ew
medium they ar e enjoined to r epo r t the fac t
to their head spi r it who is responsible f o r every
1 00 spirits
F urther they should r eturn hom e
before 1 2 midnight In case they fail to do so
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72
THE SEVEN STAGES OR PLANES
adequ a te reasons have to be given without any
demand be ing made by their head These are
the main points as regar ds control and su per
vision S o f ar as the official repo r ts go the
conduct of the majo r ity is mo r e than
satisfactory Yama thinks that this region does
not r equi r e a strong control and this work
is ther e fore assigned to the G oddess of L earn
ing or to put it in the Indian fashion S hree
S araswati D evi
S he is a goddess with a
mar ked per sonality and a st r ong driving for ce
S he is able to cont r ol the whole plane very
well and yet maintain ext r emely cordia l
r elations with most of the souls ent r usted t o
her car e
Her ki ndness is also worthy of note
in so fa r as she tries to promote many spi r its to
a higher plane by being libe r al as r egards th e
att r ibute of intelligence
Atten dan ce at Trial s : D evi S hr ee S araswati
lways makes it a point to impress the import
ance of hearing t r ials upon every n ew recrui t
individually A s we have r emar ked some
where previously in this book this idea o f
hea r ing trials is app r eciated by the authoritie s
in particular To add to this many spi r its o f
this loka are themselves very keen on hearin g
tri als as they want to improve their lot by
getti ng some good out of it When I died as
Arthur and c ame to the spirit world this idea
did n o t appeal to me on various grounds Bu t
'
after a few y ears stay I f eel that in the a bsence
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73
T HE
o
GREAT MYS TERY OF L I FE BEYOND DEATH
f any other agency to impart k nowledge, hear
ing of t r ials wa s the only method available for
I suggested that if some
s elf improvement
so r t of a school could be started the purpose
w ould be se r v ed in a much shorte r space of
t ime because a f ter all trials are unduly long
But the r eply I r eceived was
a n d ti r esome
uite
app
op
r
iate
because
it
contained
the
r
q
f ollowing sentence
“
Y ou r idea is based on a misconception in
iso far as the Cou r t t r ials are designed to keep
the spi r its engaged fo r a much longer ti me
than it is possible to do in a school
Too
m uch leisu r e is not desi r able
Collectl v e actio n s : If I may be per mitted to
m ake a so r t of a sweeping statement
m edioc r e people a r e neve r sure of themselves
and would always flock togethe r They can
d o things prope r ly if somebody leads them as
they lack the essential quality of leader ship
T hese r emarks a r e de signed to justify thei r
I have even seen
a ttitude of c ollective actions
s pi r its who take with them a score mo r e even
when they go to a medium and when asked
q uestion s by the audience they consult each
othe r When some big p r oblem confr onts
t hem they cannot decide f o r themselves
In
a way I app r eciate thei r method because after
a ll a la r ge r number of poor
brains can find
o ut
some way out of the wood when an
i solated b r
ain fails to make any headway
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74
SEVEN ST AGES o f; PL ANES
THE
Tou ch with the world : Maya or w orldly
d e sire s a re things difficult to conquer and we
know of cases where people who have
r enounced the wo r ld often become victims of
S o me people are the
s uch an irresistible lu r e
W o r ldly desires and even
e asy p r ey of these
when they die unfulfilled desi r es dominate
their life in the next world too I f a minute
a nalysis were made in various planes it would
be appar ent that people of the Tapaloka are
invar iably keen on maintaining a strong
contact with the wo r ld which they like most
Thus weake r mediums would always find that
it is very easy to establish contact with them in
s o far as ve r y strong co ope r ation is exhibited
by spi r its I myself am in favour of such an
attitude on the part of spirits ; but those who
a re particularly successful in the World of the
D ead ar e o f opinion that such attach m ent on
t hei r pa r t is detrimental to thei r o wn interests
I however fail to ag r ee ; because if they talk
o r make mer ry with the living
it should add
to thei r efficiency and influence thei r conduct
Mo r e par ticular ly spi r its in the administr ative
depar tment might well be in touch with the
w o r ld if
they have r eliable mediums
“
'
R eliable is a wo rd which c r eated dispute
a mong some officials but I prefe r to be mute
on the point S ome are inclined to believe
that it is a most u n friendly act to call spirits
whom we know ; but whatever may be t he
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75
TH E GREAT MYSTERY OF L I FE BEYOND DEATH
arguments I feel invoking them does not
Perhaps the ch ances ar e
drag them down
just the other way
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FO UR TH
PLA N E
THE C
HA NDR ALO KA
The Ch an d ra Loka :
Chandr a means the
Moon and the name is particularly sui table
in so far as it gives an idea of calmness which
is so char acter istic of the Moon s light Thi s
Ioka is just near the Tapaloka and it is large
enough to make the existence of spirit s more
comfo r table than l n othe r lower planes O n e
may ask why ? We have al r eady left behind
the middle class and we are in the midst of
the uppe r st r ata of spirits and natu r ally they
get better treatment The density of po pu la
tion is much smalle r he r e than in the
p r eceding l ok as be cause it is very di fficult t o
c r oss the cordon of the middle class O nly
those wh o ar e extremely fo r tunate do n o t
stagnate m the Tapa loka S ome spi r its feel
that the conditions of thi s loka are so temptin g
that one would like to remain in this plane for
eve r Even I agree to a cer tain extent because
the only serious d r awback is that the whol e
atmosphere is incompatible with the cherishing
of any ambition
Contented S pi ri ts : To come to the
char acter istics of the spirits of this loka, the
most striking one is their contented natu r e
S omehow or othe r as soon as a spirit is
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76
TH E SEVEN S TAGES OR PLANES
romoted
from
a
lower
plane
to
this
plane
p
he gets such an amount of satisfaction that it
kills his desi r es completely I do not know
When
why they should be satisfied so soon
they are in the thi r d plane they perpetually
gr umble about bad t r eatment and par ticular ly
about the whole administ r ative machinery ;
but so on after their grievances are redressed
they begin to admi r e it while people like me
would never get complete satisfaction and
would always have some grievances and
complaints to make
S ome pe r sons have
always shown their inclination towards
contentment and in the opinion of the
autho r ities such pe r sons a r e regarded as
wo r thy of fu r ther p r omotion and good rebirth
Freed o m to m o ve : I n this Ioka, people are
very quiet and c alm and therefo r e t here is an
a bsence o f any elaborate system o f regulations
Chan dr a Ioka spirits are allowed complete
fr eedom of movement and they are at libe r ty
to go to thei r mediums any time they choose
I n this r espect
this loka compares very
favourably with the third plane lt may be
pointed out that no misuse of such liber ty is
allowed and be it said to the credit o f the spi r its
too that most of them give a satisfactory
account of thei r conduct l have met spirits
from this plane who are so fond of their
mediums on the Ea r th that they sometimes
stay with them for some days S uch an action
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77
TH E GREAT MYS TERY OF L I FE B EYOND DEAT H
w ould be se r iously dealt with in other planes ;
but here no notice is taken of it
Tou ch with higher p owers : I t has be en
remar ked mo r e than once that the general
cultu r e and ci r cumstances of the spirits her e
a r e much bette r than can be expected in lowe r
planes Natu r ally spirit s with better po wer s
of reasoning ar e in a position to take mor e
care about thei r per sonal matter s But as we
know the sou rces of information regar din g
advancement both spi r itually and mater ially ,
a r e not confined to this loka
Therefore intel
lige n t spi r its always make it a point to be in
touch with souls who have been particular l y
successful in the two wo rlds Highe r Power s
do not mean divine power s but only spirit s
who have achieved something which can be
called substantial It may be fu r ther added
that such contac t is easy to establish becaus e
highe r spirits ar e always eager to ameliorat e
the condition and solve the troubles of others
Yama s Visits : The p r oblem of control is
non existent in this plane and as a matter o f
fact it is nobody s r egion But after all eve n
good spi r its might raise so m e iss ues an d
the r efo r e some presiding god has been deemed
desi rable But those who worked there bei ng
fond of rulin g c r eated much un r est and sinc e
the last
year s Y ama has removed
K alka o r the G oddess of D estruction and he
himself goes to Chan dralo ka not regularl y
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78
GR EAT MYS TERY OF L I FE B EYOND
T HE
DEATH
W e have seen before that three factors d ecide
classification of the so u l into m iddle o r
The qualification which is so
h ighe r class
essential in this Ioka is absent in a large
At
m ajority of case s, and that is am bition
t he same t ime it holds good that the abs ence
o f the othe r th r ee factors may tu r n the scale
t he othe r wa y O nly a spi r it wh o has the other
th r ee facto r s in due p r opo r tions and over
a n d above that has some st r ong ambition can
a spi r e to be placed in the fifth plan e
We wer e talking of the nature of spiri ts in
d r eam of enter ing into
g e n er al Wh o could
the S urya loka This Ioka is not near othe r
l
a
n
s
s
but
at a consider able distance and
e
i
p
this shows the impo rtance attached to this
l
a
n
e
The
conditions
of
existence
not
as
a
r
e
p
c alm as we expe r ience in the Chand r a loka
O n the cont r ary W e are in an atmosph ere of
b ustle and activity which is so pleasing to
s pi r its
of my type and perhaps to my
I n a way those who feel like
m ediums too
W or king find themselves stationed in an
a dmi r able place
There is plenty of work to
d o and I can quote you cas es whe r e due to
s car city of wo r ke r s people fr om the fou r th
pla n e we r e admitted among us
Ambitiou s S piri ts : We have al r eady spoken
of the qualifications which entitle a spir it to
be in the fifth plane ; but a careful analysis of
the persons here gives us an i dea o f their
t he
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80
THE SEVEN STAGES O R PLANES
r
ambiti ous na ture Y ou will not find a singl e
spi rit here doing nothing Everybody 1 8 foun d
thinkin g and devising his or her own plans
Their ambitions are of two types one regard
ing thei r own betterment in the spiritual worl d
and then in the mater ial existence down
below The second is thei r fervent desire to
help other spi r its even at the cost of their own
inte r ests But one may be anxious to know
whether any such ambiti o ns have been realised
I can but give a rough idea about it because I
have never made any serious attempt to ascer
tain the exact number of cases in which such
desires were realised Y et I am on sure ground s
when I say that at least 4 0 pe r cent of good
ambitions are realised
W hat constitutes
ambition ? Bad or wicked desi r es are n o t
rega r ded ambitions at all ; only desires backed
by good motives and sound canons o f conduc t
a r e classed as ambitions
O f thes e too thos e
acts inspired by a spirit of public service ar e
regarded as pu r e ambitions and in the l o n g
ru n
it pays the spirit who does cherish such
aims The investment is sound ; yet it is n o t
ag r eeable to many because ther e is no
d efinite reward promised and a detai led
survey woul d indicate that pure ambitions
ar e very rar e
Adm inistrative W o rk : Every for m o f
gove r nment r equi r es pe r sons to operate the
system which is planned out by persons at
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81
T HE
GREAT MYS TER Y OF LI F E B EYOND DEATH
top In the world o f the living w e find
t hat r ecruitment of o fficers is made by compe ti
t ive examinations which are so desig ned as
t o test the gen eral ability o f the persons
In a similar way , in the spi rit w orld
r equired
t oo , S hree Yama R aj has to make definite pla n s
r egarding the persons to be taken up f or the
Naturally there
a dministrative department
i s no competitive examination and some other
d evice is employed S hree Yama R aj has made
it a rule that those spi r its who are not in the
fi fth plan e are not to be allowed to tak e pa r t
general administ ration ; but he has made
o n e exception and that proviso is for allo wing
t he elementals to help in investigations
The
d ivine regulation mak es it clear that only
s pirits o f the S u rya Ioka can participat e in the
w o r k of administration It may be mentioned
h ere that even among the spirits of the fifth
l
n
e
a
f
there
is
a
di
ference of degree i f not
p
o f kind
in thei r level of intelligence W hen
W o r k is to be assigned to di fferent spirits
n aturally
that facto r is to be borne in mind
I n some of the sittings with my mediums I
h ave found them urging that eve ry plan e w as
a unit by itself and that
ther e should be no
c hance o f there being any degree of di ff er ence
i n the intelligence of the spi r its of anyone
l
e
a
n
I have very o ften endeavoured to
p
c onvince them that when a university con f ers
a degree on several persons it does not assure
t he
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82
.
,
THE GREAT
MYS TER Y
OF L I FE B EYOND DEAT H
W hat functions are
efficient control
dele gated to such spirits is a matter of in ter nal
management and personal equation is the
deciding factor Y et fr om what I have see n
and experienced I feel that certain divin e
spi r its give full contr ol r egarding problems o f
daily occu r r ence and only r eser ve fo r
themselves p r oblems which are n ew in natu r e
and ar e grave enough to receive personal
attention and care from such high so u ls
themselves ; while in certain cases I have noted
that they do not want to delegate even ordi
nary power regarding the usual administrative
work and they feel deligh ted in was ting a
major po r tion o f their time in deali ng with
such problems though I may ventu r e to say
that the imp o rtance of such routine p r oblem s
is so little that they hardly deserve to be
termed as p r oblems
But taking a general
view it appear s th at the deity is the chief
minister while the others ar e his councillors
En ergiser : I t would appear from the above
desc r iption that spi r its of the fifth plan e have
a colossal amount of ener gy and vitality The
reason is r ather peculiar and hard to believe
I myself when in the fourth plan e refused to
believe it and I managed to see Y ama on that
point He agreed with me that the spirits had
no body and the r efore nothing wa s necessary
to keep th em fit But he proceeded fu r the r
a n d revealed to me that m V 1 ew of the deman d
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84
THE SEVEN ST AGES OR PLANES
m ade on these spi r its of the S urya Ioka , some
h elp was dee med neces sary and that took the
-
hape of some condensed vapour containing
a peculiar divine substance which I do candidly
admit I have never seen n o r drunk ; but its
r
esence
in
the
atmosphe
e
in
the
S
urya
Ioka
r
p
gives the spi r its the necessary energy
This Ioka being ver y
Pr e sidin g D ei ty
a ctive finds itself entangled in many problems
They may be either relating to
o f its own
the spirits personal a ffai r s or cer tain thi n gs
r ega r ding
administration and very often a
conflict between the spirits a r ises on a certain
i ssue which has therefore got to be taken up
by a very powerful autho r ity and we find that
G od Himsel f
popularly known as S hree
V ishnu Bhagwan tries to settle all impo rtant
aff airs though most of the work is delegat ed
to e fficient assistants of His o wn He is of
c ourse the best
administ r ative Head in the
w hole of the administrative corps
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S I X TH
THE S W A R G A L O K A
P LA N E
The Swarga Loka :
The S urya Ioka is so
t empting that pe r sons like me do not desire to
go to the sixth one which is called the Swarga
l oka I need not state the reasons which lead
m e to this pa r ticula r conclusion and the r efo r e
w e proceed fu r ther S warga Ioka is just nea r
the S urya L oka and there is no great di fference
between the two pla n es It is very natural
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85
TH E GREAT MYS TERY OF L I FE B EYOND DEATH
that there are only a f ew thou sand spirits in
this plan e and most of them h ave proved
themselves worthy of being classed as sixth
stage spirits The f actors which decide the
case are somewhat di fferen t from those of the
S u rya Ioka Ambition does not seem to play
an 1 m po r tan t part and we find that mos t
spirits of the sixth plane ar e not ambitious
O n the con trary calmness and such other attri
butes ar e of c onsiderable use to them But , it
should not be f or a moment deduced tha t
intelligence is not required because that
quality is necessary in every s tage in gene ral
and in this stage in particular Calm peopl e
with little b rains are no good for the sixth
plane ; yet this may not be invariably true n o r
do I claim any personal touch as I have neve r
i”
had the honou r of visiting the Swarga Io ka
Happy Sou ls : What does S warga indicate ?
In Indian languages it means the Heaven The
id eal to be hankered afte r is pe r fect happiness
It may be doubt ed whether spirits have any
great pe r c eption of happiness as they ha v e
no physical existence But the spi r it identity
has of cou r se an idea of relative happiness o r
otherwis e though the concept of happiness is
di ff erent her e fr om that which is cu r rent i n
the wo rld of the living or in othe r stages o f
spi r it life The spi r it is happy at the idea o f
“
O
the I ot h M ay I 9 3 7 w e w e e in f o med th t S i
A thu Conan D oyle h been t ans f e ed to the Swa g
l o ka
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n
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86
r
rr
a
r
r
a
T HE
GREAT
MYSTERY
OF L I FE B EYOND
i nevitable
DEA TH
coldness r es u lts
In the same
m an ner when a sp 1 r 1 t goes to the sixth plane
his activity changes and the m ater ial an gle of
v ision becomes a divine one and i f my analysis
w ere to be applied the sphere changes with
t he usual consequences
Loss o f Tou ch with the W or ld : F rom the
above pictu r e of the life o f the spirits of the
S warga Ioka it is evident that they have given
c o m ple te satisfaction and obtained co m ple te
sympathy from the divine au thorities and that
desires are there f ore satisfied to a
a ll their
l a r ge extent
In such a state of a ffairs the
m ate r ialistic id ea l of life is conspicuous by
i ts absence
When a high degree of content
m ent is reached this is but natural
Many
mediums are incompetent eithe r by their
i nferior brains or
powe r s of attraction ,
and broadly speaking
t o call such spirits ;
m ost of the S warga Ioka spi r its are not within
the reach of even fairly powerful mediums
This is a factor which goes a long way in
r educing thei r possible touch with the world
o f the living
O ver and above these points
w e have al r eady seen that the quality o f ambi
tion is also absent
In this way a proper
t ouch with the world is not f easible and if I
'
w ere to exp r ess some impo r tant spirits vie ws
o n this point
there is no need also f or such
h igh spi r its to keep any st r ong connection with
W
eople
beyond
the
orld of the Dead I how
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88
THE SEVEN STAGES OR PLANES
ever beg to diff er be cau se to my mind it
r o ss selfi sh
a ppea rs that it would be a case o f g
ness on the part of those spirits who have
achieved a certain high s tatus in their spiritual
advancement A really good person is he who
even though he has no interest at stak e keeps
himself in touch with the world with the
philanth r opic idea o f assisting those who
dese rve some help
Loss of Mem ory It is difficult to give any
definite r eason for spirits in ge n eral and spirits
o f the sixt h plan e in pa rticular losing their
memory But if my reasoning is co r rect I
think that the fact of the contact with the
other wo rld being so nominal and insignificant
comes in the way of their r emembe ring events
o f thei r past life In fu r ther elucidating the
point we might well remind ourselves o f the
absence of memory which results after a so u l
is given a n ew life No pe r son when living
is able to give any idea of the life after death :
the reason is obvious because there a r e no
ways left open fo r him to continue his n o rm al
r elations with the world which he has just left
I n this way we clea r ly see that even a n o m in al
touch be tween the two worlds is very di fficult
to maintain and this is the ca r dinal point which
is responsible for the gradual loss of memory
I n the sixth plane it is more so because the r e
is the absence of str ong desi r e to make such
a contact possible F u r thermore as Yama R aj
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89
TH E GREAT M YSTER Y O F LI F E B EYON D DEATH
would put it there would be no end of troubles
and dissatis faction i f spirits were to remembe r
every incident of their past life I think he is
near er the truth in this case
Control is inevitable even in the Swarga
In popular parlance the S warga tends to
convey an idea of per fect harmony and
we would never dream o f control ; bu t
pe r fection is rare and even among fine r
people the r e are certain problems which
requi r e a finer handling too It is howeve r
fai r to say that the number of disputes is much
smaller than is the case in other Iokas because
afte r all these are good people
We have here a deity who is known a s
Pavan d ev in Indian mythology He is the G o d
of Wind as it were Inter pr eted in scientific
~
r
terms he is in char ge of the Tr ansport D epa t
ment His methods of expediting cases a r e well
known he r e and he therefore finds time to d o
othe r wor k ove r and above the work o f contr ol
of the S warga Ioka
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S E V E N TH
PLA N E
THE DE V A L O K A
The D eva Iok a :
The D eva Ioka is the las t
plane in the wo rld of the spirits It is the highest
rung in the ladde r of progress ; but it does n o t
mean the end of life s eparate fr om the Creator
I t is the best possible reward to get this promo
tion and I should think that only that man can
aspi r e to be among such spirits who has lived
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90
T H E GREAT MYSTERY OF L I FE B EYOND DE ATH
i f these
two virtues are accompanied by the
they achieve a
a b sence of fervent ambitions
s tate of mind which is so essential f or making
ordinary huma n
a spirit di fferent from the
being
They do not for a moment hanker
achievements ; they are cool
a fter mate r ial
and collected enough to thi nk o f higher
oblems
o
f
further
spiritual
advancement
r
p
e ithe r of their o wn or of their less fortunate
fellow beings The only vice which is likely
t o corrupt thei r m e n tal chastity is their snob ~
Those pe r sons the r efore wh o
b ish mentality
a r e not intellectual snobs are given permanent
b u t not eter n al
because there i s salvation
osition
in
the
l
n
called
the
D
evaloka
The
a
e
p
p
Indian word brings out the correct picture o f
the mental condition and attitude of the souls
i n this par ticular pla n e
In our modern
l anguage they may be termed god like so u ls
w ho ar e near our idea] of perfection
I am
a fraid it is not in the power o f the pen to give
a r ealistic idea of these s o u ls and I should say
t hey ar e mo r e than me r e descendants of A dam
No t ou c h wit h mediums : It is a popular
b elief among mediums both E nglish and
o thers
that by their powers of att r action no
s pi r it da r e r esist their force
But it will come
a s a bo lt f r om the blue that every dead perso n
c omes on l y when he is
inclined to talk with
t hat pa r ticular medium
Y ou must have seen
c ases where a sitting or a series o f sittings a r e
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92
,
T HE SEVEN S TAGES OR PLANES
more or less failures and in cases o f amateurs
they would be forced to admit their inability
to cal l a par ticular spirit The reason is al r eady
given It may be further added that spirits o f
al l pla n es except those o f the D evaloka are
near ly anxious to get an oppo rtunity to talk
with the people of the world which they have
left But all of a sudden a change occu r s in
the mind of the spirit when he is placed in the
D evaloka ; and very often he is anxious to
avoid any sort o f disturbance fr om the worl d
beyond and this is the cause why medium s
should not attempt to drag them in a wo rld
which for all practical purposes they hav e
renounced ; and to my mind it is a positive
disse r vice to tho se divine persons who we r e
among us some time before
No activi ty : R eaders must be eager to kno w
about the activities of such god like so u ls
But I am su r e I will disappoint you when I
say that in a deep atmosphere of c almness
no life of that sort exists D oes it not appear
very str ange to you ? I was really surprised to
learn that such a high promotion means a n
end of one s ac tive and industrious li f e In
my talk with the G o d o f D eath ve ry recently
he explained to me that they a r e in the makin g
fo r earning salvation
Naturally it puts an
end to the in d iv id u a l existence and this stage
is designed to act as a prelude to the termina
tion of such a type of life Absence o f activity
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93
GREAT
T HE
MYSTER Y
OF
L I F E BEYO ND DEATH
i s an evolutionary pr o cess lead in g to the final
‘
o
a
l
g
R est : Every soul who comes to the D eva
l oka has received all sorts o f necessary train
ing during the course o f many b irths which he
h ad to take and this process of gradual change
It is time
h as made him what he is to d ay
for him to leave the world for ever and be f ore
h e can do so a pe r iod of rest 1 8 neces sar y
b ecause the soul which is to be merged in the
G reat S oul should be pu r e and free f rom all
t ypes of excitements
Just as we need rest
a fter a st r enuous yea r s work in the same way
w hen the gr eat missio n of life is over a sigh
o f relie f is a necessary prerequisite
Cont rol though i nevitable in other stages
o f spiritual existence is not r egarded neces sar y
h ere
S ouls are fr ee to act as they please and
no rule of general conduct applie s
But if
w e go behind the lan gu age every soul gets an
i nterview with V ishnu or G o d by turns and
d uring that meeting any u ndesirable action is
commented upon In this way a nominal
indi r ect cont r ol is there ; but it is better inter
p r e ted if we say that in this loka there is the
~
paternal guidance of the kind hearted Vishnu
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94
THE GREAT MYS TERY
O F:
L I FE B EYOND DEATH
soul which departs from the body invariably
does enter some other body though such a
change involves some lapse o f time becaus e
no authority however competent it may be
can fix a body befor e a soul can take charge of
it F urthermore there is no scope for discus
sion in this case when it is a matter o f pure
fact I have endeavoured to ex amine the
n which justifies reincar nation rathe r
r eas o
than prove the theory of rebirth because suc h
an attempt on my par t would be futile as it
is a fait acco mpli The Hindus have known
this fact for many many years and to the m
the idea would appeal no doubt ; but to others
it may sound quaint though the present
development in the spiritual and occult field s
have led the people on that track
What
Bu ddhist D octrin e o f Kar m a
pu r pose does r ebi r th se rve in the general
advancement of persons who are in the rou
tine chain of births and deaths ? This is the
r eal crux of the p r oblem o f life
In the Hindu
books dealing with that subject there is n o
di r ect analysis of the problem as a Whole a nd
f o r some length of time the mystery of the
mission of life was not made clear to the vas t
majority of the Indian people L est it may be
misinterpreted I wish to state that l hav e
made no special study of religious books ,
an d
there are some spirits who hold that the Hindu
religion by indi r ect o r direct implications ha s
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96
THE TH EO RY OF RE BI RTH
-
given to the world the idea o f K arma I have
no authority to flout that o p1 n 1 o n ; but I am
on su r e r grounds when I say that the Buddha
who flourished in India in the sixth century
before Christ made out for the first time a
s trong case in favour of the K arma th e o r y , if
at all it existed be f ore The whole expositio n
of the doctrine is so lucid interesting an d
instructive ,
that I advise my readers to get an
idea of that original contribution to the theor y
o f R eincarnation and the real purpose of li fe
What is meant by K arma ? The E nglish tr
“
lation would lead us to the w ord Deed Bu t
only a shade of the real meaning of the
o r 1 g 1 n al is expressed by that word
K arma at
once makes one think o f the conseq uenc e s
and a fter e ffects of a particular action per
f ormed by a person The theory goes on to
express the idea in minute details but the gis t
o f the whole point is that the li fe of a perso n
a fter death in the spirit world is not of very
great importance ; but that particular persons
soul when given another birth has to reap
the fru its of the seeds which he has sown in
his previous life F or his good actions he gets
adeq uate and ample rewards in the shape o f
material happiness and prosperity ; while fo r
his bad deeds he has to suffer such su ffering s
taking the shape of setbacks which we com e
ac r oss in ever y day life
It is rather strange that no set-off l s allowed
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97
TH E GREA T MYS TERY O F L I FE BEYOND
DE ATH
every acti on is to be repaid in k ind though
it means a bitter experience indeed Bu t even
on like the Buddha has apparently
a high per s
n eglected the principle o f K arma , becau se his
t eachings have never endeavoured to explain
t he influences which the same doctrine ex er
and he has failed to
e l ses in the spirit world
n
h
erceive
the
concept
of
spirit
identity
I
t
e
p
good and bad act ions have
s pir xt world also
'
But there is a
t hei r e ffects on the spirit s li f e
v ast di fference ; every action is not to be paid
i n kind Y ama R aj while deciding a particular
into account the good and had
c ase tak es
d eeds and he finds out the resultant eff ect
a n d this e ffect i n 1 ts turn decides the a ssign
In this way we clearly see
m ent o f a plane
t hat the doctrine o f K arma finds direct appli
c ation bo th in the li ving and the dead worlds
with this di fference that the principle o f
s et off applies to the spirit world but not to
the living world
R ebirths and ex perience : The first thing
w hich should st r ike a person interested in the
Theory of R ebi r th is t he significance o f births
a n d deaths
What is the idea underlying this
r otation o f births and deaths ?
It is not d iffi
c ult to understa nd
it i f we believe in the
e volution of the soul regarding that vital part
a s a thing capable of f urther advan c ement
not as per fect and
a n d improvement and
c omplete
I f this assumption be true , the
a nd
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98
REA T MYSTERY
THE
G
B EYOND DEAT H
u rrz
or
-
The general theory of R ebirth
is placed be fore my readers attempting to
show the idea and principles underlying t he
whole problem W e shall no w examine how
the process of evolution works out in practice
Evolution unlike revolution does not attemp t
to set the house m order m one birth but , by
a long and gradual process which is smoot h
enough in normal cases It is the desig n o f
the spirit world authorities to do that difficul t
task m a series o f births which is a lon g
process indeed but no human or divine brai n
so far has evolved any better system Ho w
is the whole evolution pro gramme planned
out is an interestin g point no doubt Whe n a
soul is to be gl v en a birth he is not given a
bad position in life because the authoritie s
send out souls not with a V iew to test the m
but to know their real worth It I S a mistake
to assume that new souls start from the lowes t
point Very often it I S the reverse and n ew
Souls are placed in very good circumsta nce s
and surroundings to prove their worth It is
only when they either live a life not desirabl e
in that b irth or misuse certain opportunities
that they have to undergo rigid tests or prove
themselves wort hy o f living a good life
among a host of temptations and complica
tions But taking a good case in which the
soul has showed its worth a better birth wit h
e asie r conditions o f life and better opportuni
E volu tion :
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1 00
,
THE THEORY OF RE BI RTH
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ies to come out success fully lies in store f or
We thus clearly see the motive behind
h im
A ll that the Cr eator
t he process of evolution
d esires is the gene r al advancement of all the
We may further say that the whole
s ouls
p r ocess is so well ar r anged that a soul gets all
types o f experiences and the varieties of bi r th
provided ar e so many that there is no r e ason
to doubt the u sefulness of this meth o d by
which good r esults can be achieved But some
m ay feel doubtful of the whole exposition
g iven by me be cause they know that the
number of persons getting salvation 1 8 very
s m all I agree with them but what I contend 1 8
t hat if all the opportunities given during
v ar ious births are util ised properly
the final
l
is
not
far
f
f
But
in
most
cases
such
o
a
o
g
happy exploitation of good occasions is not
attempted o r it is beyond ordi n ary human
power and to this extent the ultimate go al
bec omes mo r e and more remote
Reaping the F ru its of Past Lif e : In the
r
paragraph we have assigned too
p eceding
m uch importance to the process o f evolution
But that is not the only idea underlying the
whole scheme
O ne bi r th imparts certain
legacies either good or bad and the next birth
v isualises thei r actual r ealisation
and in its
tu r n creates fu r the r obligations In this
fashion the wo r ld goes on till the so ul is
considered fit enough to be merged and n o
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1 01
GREAT M YS TERY O F LI F E BEYOND
T HE
DEAT H
longer be in this world of the living or o f the
dead Thus if the whole idea wer e to be
exp r essed in brie f every body incur s cer tain
obligations and is required to make them good
case may be in the
o r exact the m as the
s u cceeding in carnations This is reaping the
fr uits o f the past life the bad and good act s
of that life having their own e ffects I fo r
one believe that in the world o f the living too
a set off should be allowed and only the
balance good or bad should a ffect the perso n
concerned But since government does n o t
usually listen and payment in kind continue s
so far the only thing I can do is to suggest to
the peo ple concerned to organise and resort to
collective action because such matters receiv e
adequate attention and care only when the
authorities get an idea of the number o f
f
ersons
in
avour o f it I know however o f
p
a person w ell versed in spiritual matters , who
holds that such a step would make the world
such that the idea of advancement would be
completely defeated The wo rld would be too
simple to a ffo r d any scope for high ideals o f
life o r noble ideas of duty and sac r ifice The
test would b e d ilu ted to a considerable degree
and would lea d us to believe th at a stage o f
stagnation would be r eached My idea di ffer s
widely and I would like to know from suc h
people why th ey b elieve that the world would
be too -simple to live in In a way I believe
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1 02
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,
TH E GREAT MYS TERY OF L I FE B EYOND DEATH
~
eans
best
station
in
l
fe
The
urround
t
h
e
m
i
s
ings are so favourable that a person who is
w ise enough is bound to m ake good progress
du r ing his life in the world and even after
s uch an existence is extinct
I f I were to put
it cor r ectly har dships or setbacks in li fe do
a path
n o t exist and there lies before you
strew n with roses ; and there can be therefore
unchecked advancement F urthermore it is
evident that G o d gives such a type of birth
to those who are likely to prog r ess and a re
But the g r ave danger which stares
s till n ew
as it were in the face of these seemingly
h appy souls is temptation or m aya
It is easy
t o say that such hurdles should not prov e an
But it is
impediment to spi r itual progres s
e asier said than done because
the fascination
f or such wo rd ly joys and pleasu r es is very
o ften so strong that restraint is out o f ques
tion I f by accident or design such control
can be exercised the future of the soul
c once r ned is bright ; but if he f alls a victim to
thi s glorious maya, such a birth may never
come again
The thi rd type is the birth f u ll o f trou bl es,
t oil an d p o verty He r e perhaps the m aya does
not exist ; but its glamour is none the less as
acute as befo r e In such a birth or m such a
w r etched existence no ideals can be expec ted
n o r is the so u l expected to do any g ood to
others I f he manages to live a use ful existence
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104
,
THE T HE ORY OF RE BI RTH
-
an
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d not be a burden to others and i f he is able
make both ends meet by fair means he will
be deemed to have done all that could be
expected of him But the painful ex istenc e
and awful sur r oundings tend to drive the
per son to lose all his r eason and this may
fo r ce him to use unde rhand means to get
This sort of birth is in a way the
s om e relief
a cid test which can be applie d to so u ls o f a ll
There ar e a few other classes o r sub
t ypes
classes of births but I think these three
should serve to illust r ate the purposes fo r
which the bi r ths a r e employed in helping the
souls to come out Natu r ally my readers
would like me to give some interesting
details but unfortunately there are some
r e str ict 1 o n s which prev e n t m e fro m supplying
them here I would be the last person to
shiel d my inabilities under the plea o f restr ic
ti ons ; but he r e it is a fact
Nu mber of births u su ally req u ired f or
Moksha : W e have been talking of births all
through but I think it is n o w desi r able to give
an idea of the number of births usually
r equi r ed
for achieving the final go al the
merger A mong the Hindus or the Indians
in general ther e is a belief current that 8 4
lakhs of bi r ths have to be taken be f ore o ne
can think of salvation ; but I am not so sure
o f this because there is no such stipulated
limit and ever y case depends on its merits
to
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1 05
TH E GRE AT MYS TERY OF LI FE BEYOND DEATH
There may be cases where even 8 4 Iakhs o f
births may not earn the coveted Moksha A t
the same time instances o f persons gettin g
.
salvation in say a few hundred births are n o t
very rare The number largely depends o n
the quality of the soul But i f we w ere to
confine ourselves to the middle class o r the
vast maj ority o f souls they nearl y tak e abou t
8 0 to 9 0 thousand births be f ore they ca n
think of the divine merger It may be that
instead of 84 Iakhs it was 8 4 th ousand in the
o r iginal books
But due to public memory
being notoriously short such an exaggeration
may have crept in It is difficult to give an y
clear cut number and I do not want to mak e
a sweeping remark over such a delicate point
But in normal cases my estimate is very
nearly correct F urthermore eve n the au tho ~
r it ie s
can not know the required numbe r
because that depends upon the deeds o f the
s o u l in p r evious b i r ths There is no royal roa d
to attain salvation It is necessary for a sou l
to pass through various kinds of o rdeals an d
vicissitudes in the shape of bi r ths which ar e
certainly not com f ortable I often feel tha t
most per sons have such a psychological way
of viewing things that they refuse to grasp
the fundamentals of leading a good and
useful life They can visualise things only
when p r esented in a conc r ete form Thus
expe r ience has to be gathered and not learnt
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1 06
T HE
GREAT MYSTERY OF L I FE B EYOND DEATH
ause ? I ask my readers I f my ability does
n o t fail to analyse the problem under n o rm al
is it not the multiplicity of
c ircu mstances
b irths as well as of souls that is responsible
f or diverse missions o f li fe in existence ?
W hatever may be the explanation assigned to
the fact of there be 1 ng diverse missions of
l ife it is ce r tain that such diversity does exist
W hy such a number o f missions should be in
is a question which w ould give
e xistence
g ood food for r eflection and speculation to an
But I think it is none o f our
i ntelligent man
b usiness to go into these details
I now propose to take up some outstanding
m issions and give an analytical account o f
t hem
The first and the most important so
fa r as it r elates to the popular notions
m ission of life is sel f -betterm ent and gratifi
c atio n o f perso n al de sir e s
The wo r ds are in
way self explanato ry P eople with very
n a r r ow ideas
O f
existence a r e tempted to
h old this as their ultimate goal They in most
c ases have never ca r ed o r have not the powe r
t o think in a r a tional manner
S uch a class
o f people is
characte r istically composed o f
s pi r its of the thi r d stage or the tapalo ka They
a re
middl e class people with ideas which
c e r tainly do not do credit to the conception
o f a good and well lived human life
This may
b e an exaggeration yet it is more or less
c orrect in so far as it attempts to depict the
c
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1 08
THE THEO RY OF RE BI R TH
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class The concept o f self betterment is o r
can be interpreted in one s own way Bu t
keeping in mind broad divisions it mean s
good of one s sel f and f amily Even this is
'
not clea r as the wo r d f amily has in course
of time ass um ed different meanings ; but o u r
typical man does not go beyond the very
narr ow circle of his f amily This much fo r
the quantitative aspect o f betterment But we
have neglected the qualitative as pect so far
The betterment in this respect can assume
two forms ; one mater ial an d the other spiri
tual G r atifica tio n of worldl y desires including
passions and baser instincts of o ur race form
the former sort of betterment S uch people
can never progress as their actions would be
o f such a nature that every act would involve
'
the I They would never think o f others and
would not even shudder when injuring the
inter ests of others I f or one would say that
such people deserve no place on our earth
But that apart the divine au thorities also
t r eat them wi th contempt The idea o f spiri
tual betterm ent has found favour among the
Hindus R enounc ing the world for self
better ment is a common thing in I n dia Here
the aim is not deprecated as the person tries
to attain the goal which is divine But the
only thing which is bad is that the pe r so n
does not shoulde r the troubles and r isks which
are meant for him and in this way he makes
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1 09
THE GREAT MYS TER Y OF L I FE B EYON D DEATH
his per i o d of training shor t indeed w ith the
usual consequences
F urthermore
even
during the period of tra1 n 1 n g, he stays away
f rom the world f or all practical purposes , and
in this way that particular incarnatio n is said
to have failed in its basic motive and I f or
Anyway , it is
o n e w ould call it no training
not a good and nobl e way o f leading l i fe
which presents very few opportunities for
testing and tra1 n 1 n g But I have f ound that
such people do progr ess and that too fairly
rapidly
No w coming to the second mission o f life
we come to a class of people who do not car e
to think of to morrow and their mission is
one which can be aptly descr ibed as aimless
They are very pec uliar in this
ex istence
respect and resemble animals more than men
and in my opinion they are absolutely unfit
fo r birth as human beings
The only thing
that makes them w ork is the problem of
keeping the body and so u l together I f they
can manage to get their bread without any
t r o u ble they w oul d not exert themselves
In
this way they lead a very low li f e even
though their character may be good The
id eals o f high social service or status are cons
u
o
u s by their absence
i
c
They never aspire
p
to progress either materially or spiritually
P e r haps they seem to advocate stagnation and
they are certainly stagnation incarnate
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1 10
TH E GREAT MYSTERY
OF
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L IF E B EYOND DE AT H
A s a matter of f act , we ar e performing the
most nat u ral act which G o d has ordain ed us
to do No w supposing f or a moment one o f
us fails to perform the duty to oneself it is
a vice no doubt Thus non performance is a
crime but faithful adherence is not a virtue
In this way it must have been clear to yo u
that every one of us sho u ld do his du ty
towards himself because if such acts were n o t
done the progress of the world both spiritual
and m ater ial would be checked This lea d s
me to express a V iew that per f ormance o f
duty cannot be cla ssed as a mission though
there are some who do maintain that it does
form a mission I leave this f act to be judged
by my r eaders There exists a fine line o f
di ffe r ence between duty and service W hereas
duty relates to oneself service relates to all
except one s own self
F urthermore ther e
can be only one type o f duty while servic e
can be su bdivided into two major classes O ne
is service without any d esire f or reward or
even a par tial retu r n ; the other kind of ser
vice is rendered with a definite idea of a
complete or partial return in some form
Turning our thoughts to this latter type o f
service it is evident that it falls short of the
noble and lofty id eal which is attached to thi s
sacred wo rd If it is rendered with an idea of
getting the full reward in my opinion it
ceases to be service ; but i f partial reward i s
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1 12
,
THE
TH EORY O F its 13mm
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xpected it is certainly an act which please s
divine autho rities and to that ex tent the
pe rson concerned 1 s said to prove that he has
lived a use fu l li f e S ome may argue that even a
d esir e for spiritual advancement which may act
a s an inducement should tak e that deed a way
f rom the category o f service This is lo gically
tru e ; but as there are rules in the courts o f
the wo r ld o f the living which mak e certain
things legal by its approval in the same
fashion our court has regarded this particular
de si r e as absolutely valid and the r e is no scope
fo r furt her di sc ussion
Now coming to the mission o f p u re
f or one am inclined to thin k
serv ic e, I
that too with good rea sons that
a nd
such an ideal cannot exist and w ill not exist
in the imper f ect human world and i f I may
ven ture to say it is not even f ound in the spirit
world Perhaps you may f eel that I am dog
m atic in my views ; but before you f orm that
idea do thin k abo u t the abstruse principle o f
serv me in the wi dest sense
Every one o f us
f rom the very birth as it were does every
a ct with the idea o f receiving some good out
o f it
and this particular instinct does not dis
a ppea r even with the passage o f time Human
n at u re itself is against pure service
P erhaps
this instinct makes us materialistic and we
form a distinct class by ourselves It is rather
d ifi cu lt to pass any j udgment about the
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1 13
T HE GREAT MYSTERY O F LI F E B EYOND DEAT H
'
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but I am
sure that there are certain moments whe n
they also forget the concept o f pure se rvice
and become a prey to the material instinct
I have not enough courage to give furthe r
details on this point Coming to the world o f
the living there are people who do certain
acts without any idea o f gamm g anything
from them But such acts are far and f ew
betw een since it o ften happens that though
the service is rendered without at the moment
any desire for reward after it is per f ormed
the human mind feels that there should be
some reward f rom the party who received the
benefit In this way the lurk ing desire creep s
in and shatters the very ro ots of pure servic e
to pieces I would q uote my own example
W hen I thought of writing this book in Ma
haba leshwar in the year 1 9 3 6 I had an idea
of pure servi ce S ubsequently as the boo k
developed on original lines and when I
received some in f ormation that it is wel l
spoken of a lurking desi r e crept l n my mind
that I should get a good reward for my labour s
either in the shape o f a better sta ge or an
excellent birth I did not deliberately thin k
in this way ; but very gradually such idea s
crystallised in my mind This is an adequate
explanation for illustrati ng this natural weak
ness of the human mind Thus it seems to me
t hat the idea o f pure service is rather abstruse
m ental trend o f the divine beings ;
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1 14
,
GREAT
T HE
MYSTER Y
OF L I F E
BE Y O ND D
EATH
be that for the bad conduct o f a partic u lar
rigors of death are the o nly
s o u l , t he
i
n
unishment
and
short
li
f
e
is
given
uch
s
a
p
c ase s to furnish an occas ion f or inflict ing that
unishment
This
explains
the
phenomenon
p
still
births also S hort lives of say four or
f
o
fi v e years or even more may be n eeded in
s ome cases to complete a period o f time , and
for granting pro
n o t to add any experi ence
m otion fro m one sta ge to the higher one
T hes e explanations may be true ; but d o they
n o t seem to be based on consideration s devoid
o f human f eelings ?
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t alked
about the spiritual world ; but the soul
h as to go back to the material wo rld
This
b r in gs o u t an interesting problem and that is
Dur ing the material life does the so u l sever
h is connection wi th the world o f the dead ?
I f we were to think as living people do , the
s ou l
as soo n as he is born has to leave the
s piri t world completely
B u t this is not true
E arly Hindus thought and perh aps the
m odern Indians also think in the same strai n ,
t hough I f eel this was due to the f ac t that
r egular spiritual talks
were not conducted
But the facts are that a soul though indivisible
h as two bodies or forms as it were The c hie f
f orm is the soul which go es to the material
wo rld for training and for all practical pur
p oses this is the soul in the popul ar sense
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1 16
T HE THEO RY O F RE B I RT H
-
B u t , the o ther f orm , which in its power s i s
roughly o n e eighths o f the m ain form , is the
'
soul so far as the spirit world is c oncern ed
But it is not call ed a sou l but a sp irit S u ch
a spirit is as it were k ept to give a correct
id ea o f the soul concerned This spirit in the
lan gu age o f the Court is c alled an identity o f
so and so I den tity is a word which just
expresses the meaning and it is as it were ,
a faith ful repr oduction o f the soul Perhaps
this id ea o f the identi ty may appear strange ;
but when you spiritualists find that some
people even though they are reborn can stil l
talk it is beyond doubt that there is some
agency which does the work o f tal k ing and
~
this particular phenomenon can only be ex
plained by the concept of spirit identities
The proof for the existence of such identities
can be easily f ound in practical sittings
Change of Sex :
Be fore concluding the
chapter about the theory o f rebirth , it is
d esirable to disc uss the problem o f the c hange
of sex Those who have no belie f in re incar
nation have abstai ned from discussing the
point I do not know whether the Hindu s
have bo thered about it I am not sure and
there fore this statement is open to correction
But whatever the world may think about it
G od w ants to give various types o f bir th s and
there fo re He gives both types o f births Thu s
a pe rso n may be a m ale in one birth and a
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l l?
T HE
GR E AT
MYSTERY OF L I FE B EYOND DEATH
‘
f emale in the next one
But very o ften it
h appens that there are a se ries o f births d u ring
w hich time the soul does not change the sex
But it i s certain t hat the proportion do es not
3
0
7
beyond
the
limit
of
0 that is a soul
o
g
has to take at least 3 0 per cent o f the total
b irths as a m ale and 7 0 per cent as a female
o r vice versa
l cases , the pro
But in n o rm a
The
change
o rtion is nearly 5 0 5 0
o f sex
p
i s a n ormal thing though I am sure this state
m ent will come as a surprise to m o st o f you
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1 18
GREAT MYST ERY O F LI FE B EYO ND DEATH
T HE
imagination are abl e to visualise such a be ing
Winds also find a place in the world o f the
d ead But fortunately or un fortunately , there
is no rainfall In normal cases these elemen t s
a r e calm and do no t in any way prove to be
a h indrance to spirits
F urthermore we have also th e inevitable
phenomena o f days and ni ghts Of cou rse ,
we h ave no seasons because variations in the
temperature have no e ffect on us In this way
it must be clear that normal natural conditio ns
exist ; but there is one gre at di ffe renc e
between the two worlds ; in the living world ,
these elements play a very important part in
the lives of people wh ile in the spirit w orld
they have no effect
No Su pport Necessary : A part from this
di fference just pointed out there is also a
great di ff erence in the two wo rlds in this that
in the world of the humans there is the earth
to support the material beings I t is very
difficult to imagine a world without the earth
because human beings who have phys ica l
senses require some support to car ry on thei r
no r mal work to grati fy their desi r es I am
su r e that human ex istence without such a
concrete form would be impossible and i f the
earth were to d isappear human existence
would come to an end A mong the Hindus
there is a belie f that when there are many
pe ople away from the path o f virtue and the
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1 20
A DA Y I N T HE L IFE O F A SP I R IT
Creator f eels that it is better to w ind up his
Cr eation , He w ould destroy the earth But I
differ fro m this ill -found ed V 1 ew becau se
divine beings rarely advocate such a des tr u o
tive policy I n a way this digression has n o
place here R esumi ng our main theme we
find that the spirit world is a world withou t
the earth These identities having no physical
se nses do not require the concrete suppo rt
which human be ings need badly It is I know
very difficult to imagine correctly the worl d
of s pi r its because the human conception o f a
world is always associated with an idea o f
so me conc r ete existence I also think that the
power of the pen would fail to give correc t
t o uches to the rough picture I have tried to
po r tray before my readers But i f you can
s omehow conceive of a being devoid of all
sen ses except the mental facultie s such a
w orld would not appear inconceivable to
you though I will not blame those minds who
r e fu se to grasp it
A spirit is not a being with
a body o r a fo r m It is at its best a reservoi r
o f energy or a spark o f li fe or the guiding
fo rce o f human beings A s electricity is an
energy which cann ot be caught the spirit in
the same manner cannot come under h u man
sway or influe nce
No particu lar du ty : Spirits are better des
cr ibed as iden tities becau s e
the word spiri t
conveys a wr o ng m eaning in so far as it tend s
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12 1
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T HE GREAT MYS TER Y OF L I FE B EYOND DEATH
give an idea o f se pa rat e existence
S pi rit life in a way there is none ; an d w e
s pirits are merely shadows o f the r eal be i ngs
who are in the mortal world and it is very
n atural that these
shadows should have no
rt
c
ular
li
f
e
o
f
their
o
w
n
though
th
y
do
in
a
i
e
p
a way represent the soul s past li fe I t is how
e ver erroneous to hold that no li f e fo r id en ti
t ies exis ts at all The distance be w een the so ul
on the Earth and the spirit here justifies a
s eparate life though as you will subsequently
n otice the li f e which they lead is hardly worth
t he name
The beings who f orm the spirit world are
n o t in a position to undertake any regular
w ork A ll the senses except that o f the m ind
a r e taken away from the spirits a n d this rea so n
i s enough to justi fy their inability or failure
t o take up any work which would req uire
c onstant
e ffort S ome argue that i f their
m ental faculty is strong they should be in a
osition
to
take
up
duties
that
relate
to
such
p
m ental
faculty and verily spirits w ith
a dequat e brain po w er do make use o f the ir
e nergy
The Court authorities have there fore
always abstained from assignin g any duties
t o al l spir its ; only those who show exceptional
willingness and ability are requested to a ssist
t he gover nment
No physical senses : A s w e have seen
b efore in this chapter and perhaps el sewhere
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1 22
THE GR EAT MYST ER Y O F LI FE B EYOND DEAT H
uthorities see their way in this respect How
t h ey do it or whether t hey do it o r not is a
c omplete mystery to me But it is a fact that
the iden tities are always quite fit
The
problem o f f ood is connected with that o f
shelter The conditions in this connec tion
are the same as in the case of food ; s helte r is
not needed ; and as a matter of fact no thing
is provided But it is true that wlien we go
out for a stroll we do like places w ith go o d
climatic conditions though the reason f or such
preference is mainly a psychological one Thi s
vi ew is mine ; but some hold that spirits are
a ffected b y climatic changes W hen however
I requested a person holding such a view to
explain and substantiate it he was not in a
position to do so and I continue to hold to my
belie f of the r eason be ing a p sychological o n e
only
A ttend an ce at trial s : In the preceding pa ge
s
we have dealt with the Co u rt more or les s
completely and given some information abo u t
the attendance of spirits
No w we shall go
into some further details Tr ials are conducted
f or judging the souls who return after complet~
ing their term of life The deeds of the pa st
life a re placed before the Cour t and an analy
tical sur vey of the pa st existence is car ri ed
out Thus the Court authorities have dee med
it d esirable that these dec isi ons and discussi on s
should be utilised for some good purpose
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1 24
.
A D AY I N THE LI FE OF A SP I R IT
W hat purpo se they can serve is clear enough
.
I t is certainly the best possible training ground
for spirits
I f spirits were to attend
.
the Court tr ials and take a live interes t in
various proceed ings ; described in a previo u s
bound to help them in
chapter , these are
advancing both spiritually and materially
These tr ials are co nducted so care f ully and
e fficiently that a spirit is sure to find something
definitely interesting and useful for him
P erhaps my earlier description may have led
you to believe that the ju d gments are merely
sermons or threats from Yama But it is far
from that The Court authorities have how
ever n ever made attendance at tr ials co m pu l
so ry I f I were consulted on this point I
should certa inly say that every spirit should
devote so me time o f the day in heari ng tr ials
beca u se there is no other institution or place
where a spirit may get some guidance or help
re gardi ng his betterment But i f he w ere to
devote say an hour or two at the Court the
am ount of knowledge which he would secure
would be substantial and it may stand him in
g oo d stea d in his next life Here I may make
it clear that very advanced spirits are not likely
to r eceive any benefit by attending the Court ;
but they can certa inly help in the administra
tion
Assign ment of special du ties : F ro m the
abo ve description w e might perha ps c o nclude
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1 25
,
THE GREAT MYSTERY OF
B EYOND DEATH
LI FE
that spirits have no work to do ; but tha t is
not universally true
F rom the chapter on
the S even S tages of souls it is apparent that
only spirits o f the fi f th plane or of the S urya
I
L oka are in a position to do some work
have alr ea dy explained to you be for e that
other spirits are not able to help in general
administrat i on
But , i f you ;re member
“
elementals have also considerable power s in
this respect The Court has therefore mad e
u s e o f these two classes o f spirits f or carrying
on its w ork This is n ot however the no rm al
duty o f the spirits it is a special duty assigned
to them Thus some spirits are made u se o f
in investi gations while others are u se ful in
recording events o f importance and others yet
are used for pleading cases an d so on A s I
have discussed pr eviously the whole edifice
of court administration rests on the hon o rary
services rendered by spirits o f the S urya Lo ka
I have no idea o f belittling the share o f the
elementals ; but their work is not honorary
bec ause they can only be persuaded to work
if some definite reward is forthcoming for
them W hether hono r ary or paid , however
they help the Court in many ways
The
po wers which they possess m elt away the
most formidable obstacles in the work of
di fficult investigations
Their methods may
not be perfec t ; but the results which they
achieve are simply marvellous a nd the Court
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1 26
TH E GREA T MYS TERY O F LI FE B EYOND DE ATH
fered to them
Attendanc e on Gods : S o far we have been
describing duties which relate to gener al
administration There are other duties how
ever which d o n ot c ome under this classifica
ti on ; but it w ould be out o f place to d isc u ss
We shall therefore tak e up
all such duti es
only a few of them
O ne o f the most
important of such duties is attendance on
P
o
ds
e r haps at this juncture it migh t be
g
expedient to defin e a god,or a d iv m e so u l
The p oint as a matter of fact w ill come f or
discus sio n towards the end o f this book But
it w ill serve our purpose f or the time being to
define them as souls who have been able to
c on q u er the weaker side o f hum an natur e and
to that extent are free from w orldly desires
S el f-cont rol and service dominate their lives
S uch beings who have
a n d we call them gods
proved themselves wo r thy o f guiding other
spirits d estim es are naturally over burdened
with work and do require some other spirits
to help them in carrym g out the dut ies
entrusted to them It is d esirable to eliminate
t he illusion about attendance on gods because
in Indian mythology , the picture is penned in
such a way tha t we are led to believe that gods
r e q uire the attendance o f spirits to look a f ter
their personal comforts
This is erroneo us
because gods never require spirits to look a ft er
them O n the contrary they al ways advocat e
of
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1 28
A DAY I N THE L I FE OF A SP I R IT
true spirit of service It is only in their
o fficial capacity that they seek other spirits
Even f or this wo r k nobody is forced
h elp
the service is absolutely
t o help them and
Ve r y often it is di fficult to select
v oluntary
w orkers because the r e a re many spi r its who
o ffer their services ; and here also the fifth plane
s oul gets pre f erential treatment
Petty in vestigations : In the preceding
a
r
ag
r
aph
we
said
that
gods
re
q
uire
some
p
h elp and it is ve r y common that such aid is
n ecessa r y in solving problems which con f ront
This duty thus in a way falls
e very plane
classification of domestic or local
u nder the
It should not be supposed that petty
d uties
i nvestigations are not carried on by the Court ;
w e find as a matter o f fact that a large number
o f spi r its are used by the cou r t fo r this
r
r
u
pose
The
wo
k
does
not
call
high
o
r
f
p
i nte llectual powe r s and any willing wo r ker is
al lowed to do it A fte r the inquiry is over
t he spirit conce r ned is asked to give a complete
r epo r t o f it and it is he r e
that we find that
s ome spi r its fail to ca r ry out the wo r k entrusted
t o them
But the consequences are not
s e r ious
because this wo r k does not deal with
i mpo r tant problems
In a way it trains up
s pi r its to perfo r m responsible duties
Visit to the W orld : S o fa r as the life o f
s pi r its is concerned
ther e is no reason why
t hey should go to the world of the Iiv m g
t he
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1 29
GREAT
THE
MYS TER Y
or
L I FE B EYON D DEAT H
Nature does not desire
that th ere should be
any active and close touch between the livin g
and the dead
But this sh ould in no W ay
convey the wrong and sometimes popula r
idea that G o d is against such communications
The only thing that the Court authorities main
tain is that there being no need of maintainin g
such a touch they need not; facilitate such
meetings A t the same time they expres s
their willingness i f such meetings could be
conveniently arranged and that too withou t
disturbing the spirits from the duties assigned
to them Thus if we were to analyse thes e
words or r ather read between the lines it is
clea r that they do not give any active suppor t
to either mediums or spirits Even the reward
which mediums get for doing this work is very
little But taking things as they are it seem s
to me that it is the duty of those who have th e
power to invoke spirits to devote some time
f r om their leisure moments for m u tu al
advantage But some might doub t my words
because they might be holding that no mutual
advantage ensues from such spiritual meetings
I do not want to challenge their doubts but I
would r equest them to imbibe the id eal o f
s ervic e eithe r to the dead or to the living
L ooking at the mo r e p r actical side of the
question we find that ther e are enough spirit s
a n d mediums to hold frequent and successfu l
s ittings and the part played by the professional
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1 30
T HE
GREAT MYS TERY or LI FE
ND
BEYo
DEATH
ear ly all spirits are eager to cat ch the first
which they come acr o s s to
o pportunity
It
e stablish c ommunic ation with the livin g
i s also true that there are some spiri ts who
h ate going to mediums ; they , by their v ery
n ature are reserved and never f eel lik e talking
f or a lo n g ti me The number of such spirits
F urthermore we find
i s however very small '
that there are certain mediu ms who persis t
i n maintaining touch with one particular
ls pir it only ; but that is not very desirable f o r
a fter some time they know each other so well
t hat it does not prove very useful to ei ther of
It is in the interest of all to ca ll
t he pa r ties
v arious spi r its ; and spi r its should also m ake it
medium friends as
a point to have as many
ossible
In
this
way
the
two
worlds
tend
w
i
ll
p
t o become one unit and there will be no larg e
aps
between
the
two
types
of
persons
o
f
the
g
In a way this book is desi gned
s ame C r eator
t o fill in an important
gap in the systematic
l ite r ature r elating to the life in the other w orld
S pi r it communications are not yet per fect and
that is the cause why many people doubt the
v ery existence o f
spirits and why those too
w ho agree to talk with them get disappointed
when they are not able to get details of the
'
s pirits
past life little realising the short
c omings
o f the spirits
It is certain
t hat
the mechanism is not fool proof
a nd
to a small degree impersonation
n
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,
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1 32
A DAY I N THE LI FE O F A S P IR IT
is p r actised But it is also true that such occu rr -r
enese are not many in so f ar as the number o f
such spirits is not large F un can only ex ist
for a short time and there f ore lo ng drawn
sit tings are very probably genuine To su m
up such meetin gs between mediums and
spirits are very practicable and both the world s
should co operate in devising a per f ect method
of making such talks as success ful as possible
Pew into the Fu tu re :
It is a popular belie f
'
that spirits or dead per sons souls are superior
to human beings and attain divine po w ers
People seem to assume that as soon as the
soul goes to the other wo r ld it gains an insight
into the past present and f uture and th u s
becomes a person who can f oresee all f utur e
'
events at a moment s notice But when we
come to concrete facts we must realise that
the so u l does not get this insight and he remain s
where he was ; even his mental powers do not
increa se O n the contrary I am afraid , he lo ses
some o f his m en tal abilities and his memory
is definitely shorter t han be fore S ome o f you
might be startled to realise the really limited
exten t of the powers o f spirits : but when once
you come to real i se this you w ill agree with
me that spirits are not in a position to predic t
future events The belie f that they are in a
bett er position to guess the future is more or
less correct They being in an unbiased state
of mind can look f orward without fear o r
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1 33
GREAT MYS TERY OF L I FE B EYOND DEATH
T HE
favou r and to that extent their guesse s may
b e co rr ect
But this is possible only when the
full data are laid open be f ore a spirit who is
w illing to think over the mate r ial so presented
t o him
Ill planned data or concealed facts
a r e a severe handicap to the spirit concerned
F u r th er if a par ticular spirit is consulted v er y
o ften
he g r adually develops a bias towards
t hat par ty and ultima te
ly his guesses become
m ixed p r oducts of j udgment and favour or
r
ejudice
A
ssuming
for
a
moment
that
the
p
uess
is
unbiased
even
then
the
probability
g
o f thei r turning out co r rect is hardly 5 0 per
c ent
This particular wo rk is not the normal
function of the spirits and that is the reason
w hy we should not blame them for their
uesses
being
incorrect
A
t
the
same
g
there
no obj ection if such
t ime
r
uesses
re
taken
in
a
lighter
mood
and
t
eated
a
g
a s semi jokes
D aily R ou tin e : Every life is wedded to a
r outine and in a way a r o u t1 n e 1 8 an inse pa rable
accident which the human and the spirit liv es
Human life is known to
h ave to experience
u s and I need not describe its routine ; but we
take up the spiritual li fe as it is
s hall no w
f r om day to day S pirits like human beings
a lso need some r est and they utilise night for
that purpose R est is not to be confounded
w ith sleep because spi r its having no bod ily
Thei r
e xisten ce are not in a position to sleep
,
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1 34
TH E GREAT MYST ERY OF L I FE B EYOND DEATH
'
‘
.
par ticular plan e
They do not keep
themselves occupied for the whole day ;
yet spirits who ar e by their very nature indus
t r io u s and active a r e always f ound busy a n d
many of them go actually to the human world
espec i ally in the evenings and a fternoons
A spiri t
P erhaps this may sound a bit absurd
does not come dow n to the world when he
desires to talk with a medium and one may
wonder why spirits should use their evening s
m V i siting the E arth ; but the reason is quit e
clear ; most spirits have finished their allotted
tasks and the Court session being nearly at
an end it is very convenient to have a strol l
then S ome spirits who have multifariou s
activities often find no time for such a migra
tion and on the cont r ar y use it for attendi n g
to their mediums A t night time the p r inci pal
give repo r ts
Those who a re
activity is to
engaged in the investigation department are
busy during the early hours of the night ; bu t
the other s who have done a good day s work
r ightly ear n a good rest
Among the activitie s
du r ing the night time lectures and stories
fo r m an impor tant part because out of so
many spir its there are certain pe r sons who
come fo rward to deliver some lectures O the r s
who find their mind better suited to highe r
and intellectual topics begin some friendly
debates or discussions on various topics ; while
those who are not inclined to tax their brain s
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1 36
A DAY I N THE LI FE O F A SP I R IT
either with sedate lectures or cont r oversial
debates take pleasure in the popular pastim e
o f t alking
This gives an idea o f the routine
day to day life of the spi r it identities a n d
departures from this routine are rare indeed
,
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—
.
1 37
CH AP TER VII
TH E B O NDS W ITH TH E WO R LD
a ff e c tions Change o f sp h e e a fte
death I fl
o f pl
on tempe ament o f
spi its Condition o f f eelings b e f o e death M ediu m s
and c oldness o f spi its U f l fill d desi es S h add h a
and t h e p og ess o f spi its B lood elations and
f iends A tt a c tion at fi st si ght
W o r d ly
r
“'
n
—
‘
an es
u e n ce
r
r
—
r
r
r
r
r
-
n u
—
r
r
e
r
—
r
-r
—
r
r
—
.
W ordly aff ection s :
Human existence has
its o wn charms spoken of as maya by the
I ndians or wo r ldly bonds by the E nglish s peak
These words so far as I kn ow
i n g people
a r e used in such a way that thei r real meaning
is obscure to us and the more W e t ry to
u nderstand their
significance the greater is
the confusion caused The situation cr eated is
V iewed f r om a practical
n o t a happy one
oint
of
view
it
is
nothing
but
the
outcome
p
of close and continued association with certain
r
e
sons S eeds of good relation ar e sown and
p
the ultimate r esult is that we get ourselves so
c losely associated attracted and bound up that
l i fe without certain persons becomes next to
i mpossible
In this way I have tried to explain
the o r igin of wo rldy bonds I t is howeve r not
c ertain
whether these relationships are the
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1 38
,
THE GREAT MYSTERY OF LI FE B EYOND DEATH
keenly interested in their f riends There ar e
thus two types o f bonds : one which arises o n
account of conditions of birth and the second
one on account of relations which are formed
by human e ff orts But usually marr i age fo rms
a third type of bond and it is a class by i tsel f
because we thereby turn a f riend into a rela
tive and the bond is diff erent from the other
two described be fore
Change of Sphere aft er Death : L i f e in the
world marks a stage only if we consider the
aggregate life of a soul both the mortal an d
spiritual togeth er because death does n o t
mean an end of the person i n the real sense
With this idea in our mind we natu r ally f eel
anxious to know whether the soul keeps up its
past relations This is a point which has c o n
~
fused m any brains and I am a fraid no clear
cut reply is likely to be given in thi s bo ok
But it can be safely asserted that death even
though it may n ot signify an end does mar k
'
a ve ry definite and a strong change in the soul s
life This change is better describe d by sayin g
that after death there is a change of spher e
'
in the soul s li fe and this accounts for the fact
that old bonds are not kept up and the soul has
to leave the world completely All the same
though it is n o t absolutely impos sible t o
ma i ntain the old relationships it certainly d o e s
require a very strong degree of feelings to
keep up some part of th ese even a fter death
.
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1 40
THE B ONDS W ITH THE W ORLD
case of ordinary people however death
casts a curtain over the past life severing all
o ld connections
Influ en ce of Planes o n Tem perament of
s p irits : Tr acing further the analysis of human
we have to consider the part which
r elations
di fferent plan es play in the life of spirits In
the first plane we know that the r e ar e two
types of spirits O f these the elementals
h ave very strong relations with the world
This is possible because they have some more
powers than other spi r its ; mediums also stand
to gain fo r some time at least by establishing
Mutual advantage
connections with them
th er efo r e strengthens the bonds betw een them
But these bonds ar e those after death and it is
very doubtful whether these spi r its care to
strengthen their old relations It is cer tainly
true that if an opp or tunity occurs they are
very glad to meet their old friends o r relatives
and are ready to help them as far as it lies in
their powers V ery often attempts are made
by them to ask their dear ones to meet them In
this way the bonds do not get effaced at least
among the elementals I f we consider other
class of spi r its in this plane they have not
the brain power to form any relations and i f
these were formed their desires being weak
they can not r emember anything of the past
life W o r ldly a ffections among the second
class of the fir st plane spir its are thus very
In
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1 41
THE
MYS TER Y OF L I FE B EYOND DEAT H
GREA T
‘
loose and sentiment is abse n t in thei r lives
In the second plane o r the Bhu lo ka , we
know that ther e are spirits who are below the
average in thei r br ain power but a r e a bit bette r
than thei r counte r part in the Patala Their
desires a r e weak and thei r powers of attraction
very little and few m ediums care to talk w ith
them In this case feelings do exist but they
are nearly do r mant and only in exceptional
cases we find some satisfactory expression o f
feelings though it must be noted that thes e
spirits are not , by their very nature cold :
In the thi r d plane we have a class of spi r its
who represent the average or the middle class
and here we find the normal human bond s
too Most o f the spi r its are fairly intelligent
and have to a certain extent developed
independent thinking and have certain like s
and dislikes They are persons who always
cherish the memories o f their life in the world
and are always fond of remembe ring their
relatives and fr iends as far as it is possible to
do so But there is not that fervent d esire
which is found among the fifth plane spirits
and the memory is also not strong In this
way the spi r its of the Tapaloka are always
found making an attempt to maintain a very
close touch with the world and if they get
suitable mediums they are able to respond
fai rly well
In the Chandra loka we find spirits who
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1 42
—
.
”
DEA TH
GREAT MYSTERY OF L I FE B EYOND
THE
m ost of them being somewha t connected with
t he administrative auth orities , they find it very
e asy to get suitable mediums and this m ak e
s
i t possible fo r them to maintain the old
associations Their desire to meet people o f
t he world should however on no accou n t be
c onfounded with the similar
desire o f third
r
lane
spi
its
which
are
the
desires
of
fond
p
n ess not of ambition
S pirits o f the S u rya
l oka ar e always keen on meeting people who
are above th e average or thos e who have
a chieved some success in the material world
often invites
a n d this attitude on thei r part
unwarranted criticism of being regarded as
e ither status o r
intelligence snobs ; but this
such an attitude is
I S not true in so far as
j ustified on account of the fact that the idea
behind it is one of progress It cannot be
denied however that very often the old bo nds
h ave to be neglected on the g r ound of in ferio r
But this is inevitable
s tatus or brain power
In the sixth stage o f the spiritual ladder we
find that there is an apparently backward
march the S urya Ioka denoting the climax
But this statement is far from the truth It is
h owever certain that in this stage bo nds
b ecome very loose and the tendency of spirits
is towards spiritual advancement completely
neglecting the material side
O ne o f the
s triking features in this plane is coldness which
All talk o f past
i s the dominating trait
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1 44
THE BO NDS WITH TH E WO RLD
elationship is thus out o f place ; feelings do
their live s
n o t play any important part in
Th ey are always eager to avoid people who
In this
w ould drag them to wo rd ly desires
n ature seems to help them f or their memory
a lso gets stable as it were and they very easily
f orget their p ast relatives and f riends
It would be presumptuous on my part to
auge
the
f
eelings
o
f
persons
in
the
seventh
g
P erhaps I do not
are god li k e
s tage who
ossess
enough
powers
to
read
their
minds
p
but it is agreed on all hands that they are fre e
from maya or wo rd ly temptation s I am afraid
h o w ever m aya has its sway even upon them
Their feelings cannot find a
s ometimes
because mediums have
s uitable expression
e ither not the powers to call them or they have
n o t got the necessary
courage to face them
They speak very little and it is not proper for
u s to make surmises about these high so u ls
Co n dition of f eeling s bef ore death : D uring
the li fe o f every man there are occasions
w hich rouse his feelings ; but in all cas es the
i ntensity is not the sa me ; because every man
h as a di fferent temperament
But death is
s uch
a unique incident that all people
e xperience the same t ype o f f eelings irr e spec
t ive of their nature
People who in their
l ifetime may have even conceived a disgust
f o r wo r ldly life never wish to leave the world
E ven those who have renounced the worl d
r
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1 45
T HE GREAT MYS TERY OF L I F E B EYOND DEAT H
forget their philosophy of li f e and beco me
purely m ater ial
F amily ties and a ff ection s
become absolutely fresh be f ore the eyes of the
dying person His love and care for them
become very strong and i f he 1 8 surrounded
by members of his or her family the feeling s
are so strong that none but a dying person can
realise them Those who have many friends
remember them with the
i n the same way
same intensity o f feelings A ll this is very
natural and yet one thing which one could
desire is that G o d should have devised so m e
method by which a dying person can over
come these feelings It is ab solutely necessary
because as it I S the pain of death is
very little but for these intensified feelings
Even a fter the death of a particular person
such strong feelings continue to remain stron g
for some time The pain of parting graduall y
diminishes and the horror o f death be ing over
the soul gets cooler than be f ore He get s
settled soon and is able to cope with the n ew
s itu a tl o n easily and in a few
days normal
feelings begin to guide his life But the tim e
taken to regain this normal position depend s
more upon the temperament of the perso n
concerned rather than the nature o f his death
Med iu ms and Coldness of Spirits : The
picture which is just put before you should
m ake you believe that in the world o f the dead
t he chie f quality is all pervading coldness
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1 46
GREAT MYS TER Y
T HE
OF
L I FE B EYOND DEATH
w orldly desires are satisfied and in a way the
But , in the
there are certain
i mperfect human world
n
ersons
whose
lives
are
not
normal
a
d they
p
d ie at a time when they are not prepar ed to
W hen they d ie ,
face the inevitable death
d and
t heir m i ssmn o f life remains u nf ulfi ll e
They are naturally
t heir desires unsatisfied
m ost reluctant to leave the world
Moreover
i f so m e o f them meet with an unnatural death ,
the strength o f unfulfilled desires is extr emely
reat
S
ometimes
when
even
everything
is
g
a particular problem may be facing
n ormal
t hat pe r son
and this may create a state o f
u nstable
equilibrium f or leaving the w orld
The complications of these abnormal circum
s tances are h owever not severe
inasmuch as
in m
ost cases it is very di fficult to procure a
s uitable agency to maintain the o ld r elation
Even if some o f them can find a
s hip
m edium that medium may not be in a po sition
t o br i ng about the reunion
F urther the dead
rson
realising
his
or
her
inability
t
do
e
o
p
a nything towards the
achievement o f those
o bjects
assum es an air of contentment , and
desires beco me a
g radually their un fulfilled
t hing o f the past and the spirit begins to tak e
i nterest in the n ew surroundings in whi ch he
r esides
F urther people who die an unnatural
d ea th sometimes crave to go back to the worl d
a nd for days together make serious attempts
'
o
n
er
s
p
is ready to meet his end
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1 48
,
THE B ONDS W ITH T HE WO R LD
do so ; but in every case time is the bes t
c ure and gradually these excited f eelings coo l
Bu t
dow n and normal conditions prevail
the only significant fact about these abnorm al
cases is that a ft er their death they tak e som e
m onths to settle down and to this extent , they
are regarded unhappy
to
,
.
,
A mong
the Hindus there are certai n
ceremonies which a living person per f orm s
for the dead one to help him in his spiritual
life I am not a Hindu and there f ore I do no t
know all the details about those ceremonies
but the outstanding among them is the
S hraddha ceremony It is the annual offerin g
given to the dead so as to satis fy him but in
which respect the satis f action is neces sary is
not made clear But it seems to me that the
was to appease the departed
o rig in al idea
'
persons unfulfilled desires by trying to satisfy
some needy person in that direction ; Thus
f or ex ample in a case o f a person whose chie f
attention was centred in eating good food
the relatives try to satis fy that desire by f eed
ing poor persons
I n the light o f the
in f ormation available to the spirits all have
agreed that such actions do not in any way
satisfy the un f ulfilled desires o f the dead ,
nor
Th i p a ag a p h was d i c tate d by S i A t hu i n e p l y
t o an i sue is e d by m a t the p ibility f a cti o n s n
the p t of th l ivi ng do ing g ood t o the so ul s of th
d p a ted
,
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,
”
s
ar
r
r
ra
s
e
r
r
e
s
o
e
o ss
r
~
r
o
r
o
.
e
.
1 49
T HE
GREAT MYSTERY OF L I FE B EYOND DE ATH
The only
d o they help their further progress
b enefit which accrues to the dead is that he
f eels that h is relatives have not to tally
.
,
forgotten him A t the same time the living
per so ns der ive some satisfaction in trying to
But i f a person knowing
h elp their dear ones
facts continues to perform the old
a ll these
I am sure he is not getting a n
c eremonies
adequate return and the best way would be
to discontinue such practices
Blood -rel atio n s and f riend s : The general
enesis
of
bonds
with
the
world
has
een
b
g
But most of you are
d iscussed before
e
r
haps
anxious
to
know
whether
near
p
relatives or properly speaking blood relations
take an active interest in the persons they
h ave le f t behind and f urther whether they
a ttempt to better the prospects of their relatives
i n the livi ng world
It must be stated that
t he
spiritual planes have a very s trong
i nfluence on the dead persons ; but bro adly
s peaking
blood relationsh i ps like that o f the
father and the son b rother and sister mother
and son or daughter are difficult to be broken
u p at once and to dilute such f eelings there is
the need of the time element which varies
from one to five years according to the nature
o f the person concerned But all thes e f eelings
are only f ond a ffections which do not
materialise into action
In case o f friends
t he whole pr oblem depends upon the i ntimacy
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1 50
,
CH APTER VIII
THE PO
WERS A ND D I SABILITI ES or
S PI R ITS
Ment a l po we s G
I
Ele m ental s
d
haunt
in g E vi l c ons que n c e s of he lp f om e le m ntal s D
pi it s Highe sp i i t s
In spi at i on A d
d in y
v ic e G uesse s a bo ut f utu e A c c ess t
divi ne
souls~ M ed ium s i fl
M ate i ali s a ti on D eta il
of n ext bi th A tten d a n c e o n m ed iu m s Vis i o n P
du c ti o n o f soun d M e mo y K no wled ge of p a st
b i th T ans m is si on o f news Boons S p i i t s a m o ng
the m selve fil m p n ti an d m islea di ng
r
an
en e ra —
—
e
—
s
ar
r
r
r
—
'
n
—
r
u e n c e—
—
:
r
—
r
r
er so
a
ro
—
—
r
—
—
s—
s
—
—
r
r
—
o
—
—
r
e
—
r
—
r
on
.
Mental Powers General : I n the prec ed in g
chapters you must have seen that though
spirits are deprived o f their physical senses
they do retain their mental powers It is natural
that the spirit identity which is a minor part o f
the whole soul cannot be expected to posses s
the same amount o f ability and memory a fter
death The ebb is however not so marked and
the identity faithfully retains m uch of the
f ormer ability and memory Y et in m an y cases
~
even a casual observer finds that detailed in fo r
mation cannot be obtained from the spirits ;
and an atmosphere of vagueness pervades
cy is all the
spirit communications This tende n
m ore pronounced on account o f the fact that
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152
,
,
THE PO W ERS AN D D I S ABILITIE S O F S P IRITS
mediums in general f ail to translate all the
in formation imparted by spirits Th ese are
in general the short-comings which aff ect the
mental po wers o f all the spirits
Elem en tal s an d Hau nting : S ome may
Bu t
1 n clu d e the element als among the spirits
I have always regarded them as somethin g
di ff er ent and for the purposes of this book
spi r its do not cover th ese elementals A s we
have seen be f ore these identities have mor e
W hat are the
powers than average spirits
causes which m ake them power ful is n o t
known to most o f the spirits and I also do n o t
ro
f
e
s
to
k
no
w
all
the
details
about
them
s
p
But it is certain that these so u ls somehow o r
other manage to retain f u ll mental po wers
with a sharp memory
A nd further they
can do certain things which persons with
physical senses can only perform
I reall y
do not k now what powers act as such fin e
substitutes o f physical powers It m ay be
that these persons while alive were ex cep~
t io n a lly brilliant and had developed a stron g
and sturdy power which seems to serve thei r
purpose even after their death
It goe s
without saying that all their ability is mis
direc ted and they prefer to use their po wer s
to ac hieve things which a person with go od
and moral ideas would hate In this manne r
We see that elemen tals are quite distinct fro m
spirits and ou r ign orance about such peopl e
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1 53
,
T HE
GR E A T
MYSTERY o r L I FE B EYOND DEAT H
,
i s also pardonable because none o f us would
be willing to mix with them We have o ften
h eard of people mistaking elementals f or
spi r its and they loosely say that spirits can
But it should be made clear that
h aunt
s pi r its cannot and do not hau nt , even though
It is only an
t hei r desires are not satisfied
who is capable o f haunting
e lemental
e specially when his desires are not satisfie d
H aunti ng has usually a bad odour because
impl i es the element o f injury to
i t directly
s om e perso n th r ough the agency of the ele
m ental
The r e cannot be haunting w ithout
a bad motive and thus two facts are in sepa r
S ome of my mediums have often
a ble
exp ressed their desire to meet an elemental ;
b u t the above f acts being rigid
it is m o st
i nadvisable to do so
Haunting may take various shapes But in
a ny f orm
it is an act o f the elemental which
may be pe r formed on his o wn account or on
a ccount of his
medium
The elemental is
c apable o f coming
down to the earth and
b eing empowered to r emove things or create
v a r ious
noises he is able to frighten the
F urther
p erson whom he des n es to trouble
h e is in a position to materialise and this act
o f his is bound to give a very rude shock to
t he person who has the misfortune to come
i nto contact with him
The feeling o f revenge
i s so pronounced among the elementals that
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THE GREAT MYSTERY O F LI F E BEYO ND DE AT H
they like F urther obtaining o f riches and
wealth is also very easy for them To bring
information from distant places which is n o t
known because o f its being kept sec ret o r
otherw ise is also within their powers The
only thing that they cannot do is to change
the other important incidents o f either the
medium s life or that o f the person sugge sted
by the medium
Thus f or example if a
medium who is in touch with an elem ental
is ill no powers o f the elemental can relieve
him of the sufferings and to this extent the
powers of the elemental cannot be a su bsti
tute for divine powers W ith the assistance
of elementals every conceivable material
prosperity can be secured but the pric e
would be too high in the end
Ordin ary spirits : In some connection o r
the other we have spoken about the average
spirit But here a few words may be added
to complete the pl ctu re When a person dies
he is shorn of all powers except the mental
ones which even are not allowed to remain
a t thei r former level
But more or less thes e
powe r s are not taken away The popular
'
idea is that the dead person s spirit a fter
undergoing a change is better equipped with
the powers of thinking judging and predicting
But I will again repeat that they are just the
same not one ounce more than be f ore , so far
as the mental powers are concerned ; and
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1 56
.
THE PO WERS AND DISABI L ITiES OF SP IR ITS
when the mind is deprived o f the
o pera tion
o f o ther physical po wers it is very likely to be a
b it inefficient in pe r f ormance
Higher S pirits Inspiratio n : S o f ar we have
d evoted our time to thinking abo u t the powers
of ordinary spirits
But when we think o f
spirits who have advanced both spiritually
we find that they are endowed
a nd mentally
w ith one very important po wer and that is of
Many of the mediums think
1 n sp1 r1 n g others
that all spirits in general should be able to
inspire ; but they are mistake n in so far as it
req uires a very high degree of mental
efficiency to perform the wor k properly and
f urthe r more it necessitates a continued and
a very powerful effort on the part o f the spirit
concerned
This seemingly easy work o f
inspiring is as a matter o f fact a very d ifficult
task But spirits who are in the fi fth plane
or abov e are generally able to do so It is
recog nised however on all hands t hat the
desire to inspire springs only when the spirits
feelin gs are aroused Thus f o r example i f a
particular soul i s interested in some person
livin g in the world he can inspire him t o
per form a certain thing or to abstain from
doing so It very often happens that he may
fail to inspire if all the circumstances are not
favourable The first requisite o f success fully
per forming the work is that the party beyond
the world of the dead should be efficien t
co
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1 57
TH E GREAT MYSTER Y OF L I FE B EYOND DEATH
enough to catch the suggestions from the
world beyond O ther spirits can also inspire
but they use their powers in few cases In
their case the chance of failure is sm all ; But
some o f you may feel that in the present stat e
of spirit u al development there are mediu m s
who can do the work better But they fail
to realise that the spirits can only tal k whe n
the mediums desire while if they can i n spl re
the need of this intermediate agency is
r emoved
and the spirits can communicat e
the 1 r ideas whenever they like But I have
told you be fore the authorities here are not
at all kee n on such free and intimate relations
be ing established between the two worlds
Advic e : It is natural that so u ls who
advanc e fu r ther both spiritually and mate
r ially are eq uipped with high mental powers
They have a trained memory and in thei r
various lives have faced problems which can
be regarded as fairly complex and di fficult o f
solution In a word they have seen the
wo r ld completely a nd their mind is moulded
by vast and rich experience Naturally such
spirits can judge things in a most rational
way and keep their heads cool , while discuss~
ing even the most controversi al points
R ashness and haste are not in their nature
F urther the powe r of analysis 1 3 so well
develop ed that every problem set to the m
appears simple These spirits when interested
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1 58
T HE
GREAT MYSTERY OF L I FE B EYO ND DEAT H
Access to d ivin e sou ls :
These high spirit s
sixth or the seventh
a r e either in the fi fth
plane and on account o f the status they hol d
they enjoy certain privileges the chie f amo ng
which is permission to approach divine so u l s
“
'
The wo rds divine soul do not include the
Creator himsel f but his representatives only
Thus all these spirits can see the G o d of D eath
or the Yama R aj himself and other divini ties
but not the all pervading G od In case of
spirits who are in the seventh stage and who
are awaiting salvation an ex ception is made
sometimes though such incidents are very rare
A s a matter o f fact I have o ften endeavoured
to meet G o d Himself but I have never been
successful so far Even those who get an
audience with G o d are never able to discuss
anything because He never enters into any
discussion and the period is so short that the
s pirit may at the most state his problem or
i
t
rievance
as
the
case
may
be
Be
said
to
g
the credit o f Yam a R aj however that he grants
a free interview Where there is no limitation
o f time and he is ready to prove his point
O ther divinities are generally kind and they
give a patient hearing t hough in all these
cases red r ess of grievances either personal
or collective is not common , because they in
general maintain that the whole machinery
is perfect and there should be no cause f or
c omplaint
and wha tever appears to us as
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1 60
THE
PO W ER S AND D IS ABI L ITI ES OF SP I R ITS
troubles is a scribed to the l ack of correc t
We are asked
r eal isation of the real situation
to bel ie ve that we have no reason to compl ai n
and that we must sur r ender ou r selves befo re
the mighty S oul who has n o doubts abou t
the wisd om of what is done either by Him
or His agents
But I beg to di ffer even
though I have the misfo r tune to differ from
my Cre ator I am in a way not f ree to give
my reasons fo r differing from such a G reat
A utho r ity nor have I definite proofs to
establish the fact of imperfection that prevail s
he r e
Med iu m s I nflu en c e : It has been an
established fact that all spirits of the dea d
world of seve n planes can be invoked by
mediums inc luding the elementals even S ome
o f us think that
when a particular spirit is
invok ed h e must come ; this however is n o t
correct because after all friendly relationship
depends on mutual willingness and i f a spirit
does not want to come he can most easily
'
de fy a med ium s call The analogy of a tele
phone is correct here because it is just lik e
receiving a call and then breaking o ff the
co nn ection It is however t r ue that n obody
can pr event a medium from calling a spirit
but if we talk o f normal circumstances we
find tha t most of the spl r l ts are ve ry keen t o
talk with med iums ; on the contrary their
desire to talk is not adequately satisfied Bu t
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1 61
T HE
GREA T MYST ERY OF L I FE B EYOND DE ATH
have seen spirits who are by their na ture
re served and f eel very unh appy when
v ery
With some spiri ts the
t hey are made to talk
or the feelin g of being say a
c ommunal
E urope an or an Indian is so strong that an
I ndian sp i rit does not like to respond to the
c all of an E nglish medium and th e converse
The weak nesses o f human
i s also true
n ature a r e also present in the spirits and dis
mediums and spirits is
c rimination among
therefo r e unavoidable to a large extent But
zi t
m ay be stated that i f a medium is of a
t olerant disposition spirits o f all kinds would
l ike to meet him
F urther we find that
relationship exists between
n owadays better
s pirits and mediums of different nationalities
Materialisation : In the Introduction w e said
abo ut materialisation and , i f I
s omething
mistak e not I have given you some rough
i dea o f the whole phenomenon and it is no
u se repeating the s ame
It must be admitted
t hat all spirits are not gifted with the po wer
t o materialise
Elementals , who are very
p owerful are invariably success ful in ta k ing
a shape ; but other normal spirits are not able
t o condense the necessary vapour to take
s ome concrete f orm
No particular plan e is
e ndowed with this power
But in practi cally
e very loka, there are stray cases o f spirits who
c an materiali se ;
but even among them we
find that they are not invariably su ccess ful
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1 62
,
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TH E GREAT MYS TERY OF L I FE B EYOND DEATH
to achieve th ose powers When I was dis
cussing this point with Y ama R aj he told m e
wa s
that
mate r ialisation
a
degradin g
phenomenon fo r a S urya Ioka spi r it and he
advised me to think of the final me r ger and
to abandon all ideas of individual existence
My point still cent r es round the inability o f
good spi r its to take a form even for the sak e
of convincing the people in the world o f
the living of the existence of spirits But it
is no use thinking of a thing which is
considered undesirable fr om the point of view
of both material and spiritual progress I
also feel that the G o d of D eath is co r rect in
the views he holds about materialisation
Details o f n ext birth : In various seances
you must have exper ienced that all spir it s
a r e ve ry r eluctant to disclose any informatio n
about the bi r th which they have taken and
some of you 1 am su r e must have resented
such an attitude on their part But the reason
is not far to seek Every spirit is ordered by
the Cou r t authorities not to disclose material
facts abou t the n ew or current birth
The
wo r d material is ve ry vagu e
But if m y
interpretation is correct it means that the
info r mation disclosed should be adequate o r
definite enough to give out the full particular s
of the n ew bi r th S upposing by any chan ce
the details given suffice to trace the dea d
p e r son in his new birth such a pe rson is sai d
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1 64
,
THE POW ERS AND D I SABILITI ES OF SP I R ITS
have broken the divine command and the
p erson dies at once as a penalty for the breach
o f promise and has to stagnate in the same
r
lane
nea
ly
ten
bi
ths
This
is
the
r
f
o
r
p
r it is concerned
unishment
so
as
the
spi
f
a
r
p
medium tempting to elicit the
B u t the
not while on the
i nformation has to su ffer
w o r ld of the living but when facing t h e Fin al
Tr ial
I therefo r e advise my mediums not
expe r iment Y ou must
t o tr y this ha r mful
be a ll the while wonde r ing why the author ities
But the
d o not desi r e such facts to come out
r est r iction
exists fo r very good reasons
S uppose a r elative of a pe r son is dead and he
d iscloses his next bi r th
The living person
then t r ies to trace him in his new gar b and
all the while conside r s him as his relative
a n d bonds of a ffection grow up
and if this
were allowed the ci r cle o f near relatives
w ould expand like a spiral spring
the
c omplications of o u r domestic life would have
no end and human life would indeed be a
bu rden I f you can visualise such a society
p erpetually increasing its relatives and f r iends
l am su r e you would advocate the same
r es t r ictions which a re laid down by the Cour t
I t is p r ima r ily fo r the safety and happiness
of ou r selves that divine autho r ities have kept
t he new bi r th a closed book
to
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THE GREAT MYS TERY O F LI F E BEYO ND DEAT H
that the divine authorities have never o bj ec ted
to spirits attending the mediums But at the
same time I must admit that such meetings
and calls have never been encouraged even
for advanced spirits This might appear to
you very strange ; but refer ences to such an
attitude on the part of the divine authoritie s
have been given in ancient works about spiri
This is evidenced by the fac t
tu alism in India
that some religious Hindus do not conside r
it proper to call their departed relatives or
friends But per sons in the world should n o t
think for a moment that divine authorities are
absolutely against it because if such were the
case the powers to call spirits would not have
been given Their point o f view is that if
spirits wer e to develop a very str ong c ontact
it would r esu lt in a d u al existence which
from var ious points of view is not desi r able
Thus spiritualism practised with moderation
and caution does meet with the approval o f
divine autho r ities
V ision : Every fortunate hu man being is
endowed with the power o f sight ; but the
importance of sight is never fully realised
except by the few who are depr ived o f this
precious gift
This commonpl ace power o f
vision is not so common in the world beyond
The reasons are obvious because all the
physical senses cease to exist and whatever
s
A
owers
r
e
there
emerge
out
o
f
the
brain
a
p
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1 66
T HE
.
GREAT M YSTERY O F L I FE B EYOND DE ATH
m ethod than speech ,
becau se speeches have
to be couched in ph r ase s while thoughts can
S o much for
b e sent without such t r ouble
But as regards p r oduction o f sound
t alking
t h e spi r it is not in a position to c r eate any sound
I had a
n o r does any substitute exist for it
t alk with the G o d of D eath and he in his
u sual way said that we neve r need that power
d I agr ee with him because the nature of
an
duties o r the pleasu r es in which we
ou r
i ndulge a r e so designed that p r oduction of
so und has no place in o u r system o f life
F u r ther mo r e Y ama told me t hat the world
which spirits leave fo r sometime is full of
e ve r y type of sound and there is no nee d to
r
ollute
the
divine
atmosphe
e
which
is
devoid
p
But my argu
o f any k ind of distu rbance
m ent cent r es r ound the inability a n d not the
undesi r ability of the spi r its to c r eate any so u nd
A s the matte r s stand however there is no way
At this point it must be made clear
o u t of it
t hat spirits can create sound th r ough their
m ediums and the most common example is
found in planchettes and even to a sm alle r
B oards because some
l n the O uija
e xtent
The elementals however
s ound is p r oduced
d o possess this powe r and this is often proved
w he n they make noises by tampe ring with
other small pieces
o u r fu r niture and such
P roduction o f sound is thus not rare but
t otally absent so far as the spirits o f the dead
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1 68
THE
POWE RS AND D I SA BI L ITI ES OF SP I R ITS
wo rld ar e concerned bar r ing the elementals
S ome mediums have r equested spi r its to
create sounds to p r ove their existence ; but I
am su r e they are ignorant o f the above facts
Mem o ry : In this book great importance
has been given to the mental factor both in
the case of human beings and spirits and it
has o ften been said that spirits possess the same
But this is not absolutely
m e n tal powe r s
true because in ce r tain respects the abilities
of the spi r it and the living person di ffer It
w a s my constant endeavou r to find the cause
and in the light of my p r esent knowledge it
appears that the mind of the spi r it is weaker
t han the so u l s because the spi r it mind works
in isolation so far as the physical senses are
concer ned It is a fact that the other qualities
o f the mind do not depreciate to a large
extent ; but the faculty of memory is
Memo r y stands in
considerably weakened
a special class by itself and that too with a
go o d r eason It is obvious that if a person
were to reme mber incidents of lives after
lives his m e n tal stability would be lo st and
c umulative effects of various sad and painful
incidents would be absolutely unbearable fo r
the delicate thinking inst r ument the mind
To keep o u r liv es fr ee fr om these t r oubles
G od ha s thought it fit to weaken the memory
Memory does not r emain
after one dies
pe rmanently weak however because as soon
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1 69
T HE GREAT MYS TERY OF LI FE BEYOND DEATH
as the perso n is reborn the mind regain s its
full form
Kn owled g e of past birth : I n the precedin g
para graph we have seen how the po wer of
remembering diminishes and the actu al res ult
of the said effect is seen when we find that
the spirit after some time gradually f orgets the
life he had led before
This pr ocess is not
very quick and it takes a fairly long time t o
e fface all the detailed in formation o f the pa st
life But at the same time my r eaders must
be aware of the fact that soon a fter the death
of a per son the sphere o f life is changed and
there is a definite break in the whole sys tem
of memory
But hazy and vague idea s
per sist f o r near ly twenty year s and thi s
accounts fo r the fact that most of our dead
fr iends o r relatives are in a position to
r emembe r
something and are cer tainly in a
position to recollect what the living pe ople
say The idea behind the short-lived memory
is already explained before I have always
viewed this p r oblem fr om a di ffer ent stand
point because I feel that when a pe r son is
made to forget the incidents of prime
importance in his life be naturally f orget s
the experience he has gained and the price
paid for not recollecting sa d incidents o f past
lives is too heavy
The so u l like a rollin g
stone gathers no moss ; but the authorities
maintain that the evolutionary efiect upon
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1 70
T HE
GREAT MYS TERY
or
u ps
BE Y O N D
DEATH
to be found ; either one o f the mediums
o r both are not e fficient or the spirit d o es not
o
sess
the
necessary
ability
or
the
conditions
s
p
i n which the spi r it is called are not n o rm al
O ver and above these facts the element of
t ime which lapses betwe en the two sittings is
impo r tance
This should
o f c o nside r able
impediments which lie
s u ffice to explain the
tr a n sm 1 ssm n
of
i n the path of successful
messages S imila r conditions obtain in the
sent to spirits But
c ase of messages to be
t h e distinction lies in the f act that only one
m edium is to be used ; and to that extent
the task is easie r The spi r it is not at the
m e r cy of the medium fo r thoughts can be
assed
between
them
at
once
while
in
the
;
p
the t r ansmission o f the message
o ther case
d epends upon the sweet will of the other
m edium
Bo ons : We hear a lot about the bo ons
w hich gods and goddesses a re supposed to
c onfer on various
s o u ls
To a large extent
these divinities are in a position to confer such
boons and favours ; but it is not in the hands
all classes to give boons It
o f spi r its of
s hould not be thought
howeve r that spirits
o th er s beca u se
a re not in a position to help
those spirits who are in touch with divine
s o u ls can m ake requests to them to favou r a
r
r
u
l
a
ticula
Thus an indi r ect method of
s
o
p
c onfe r ring
Bu t
in
favours does exist
n ot
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1 72
,
.
THE PO W ERS AND D I SABI L ITI ES OF S P I R ITS
practice such methods are not in use an d
spirits are not in a position to help other so u ls
in any way This is naturally cor rect because
spirits ar e in no way better than living per son s
and we all know that human beings are n o t
able to give any boons S ome of you m ay
refer to ancient Hindu mythology wher e we
come across various incidents in which saint s
and such o ther spiritually advanced per son s
a re supposed to have either given a boon o r
a curse ; but to me it appears that thos e
pe r sons must have expr essed such desi r e an d
in a few cases purely by accident these boon s
o r curses may have proved correct ; but such
r esults can neve r be b r ought about by huma n
o r spi r itual design
Spir its amon g themselves : All the whil e
we are talki ng about the various activities o f
the spirits and it is desi r able to know their
way of living among themselves
Barrin g
relatives f o r the time being the identities o f
numer ous souls live in pe r f ect harmony an d
peace Thei r r elations are absolutely n o r m a l
and fr iendly S uch happy conditions exis t
when they have had no per sonal
only
know ledge of each othe r befo r e their death
so far as thei r past life is concer ned Bu t in
the case of those spir its who knew each other
befo r e their death the conditions a r e not so
id eal
The same human weaknesses prevail
the re an d all the good and bad qualities a r e
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1 73
T HE
GREA T MYS TERY OF LI FE B EYOND DEATH
to be seen In sho rt the behaviour o f spirits
i s just the same and f r iendship or enmity is
All this depends upon various
t he resu lt
o ther factors and no definite causes can be
I am su r e you must have got adequate
g iven
t
h
e
roof
of
this
side
of
spirit
life
in
the
course
p
o f various sittings
Coming to r elatives we find that the
past bonds a r e r evived and for some time at
l east thei r behaviou r is such that the natural
In this cas e
r elationship can be clearly seen
as in many other cases the element of time
But as a gen eral
p lays a very important part
c onclusion it may be stated that their relation
s hip is ve r y simila r to that of human beings
and the gene r al atmosphere is smoother on
a ccount of the fact that there a re few things in
which conflict o f inter ests arises
Im person ation and misleading : This po int
is of considerable impo r tance to the people in
rathe r than to the
t he world o f the living
spi r its b ecause the system of communication
is such that spi r its can imper sonate other
S uch impersona
S pirits if they care to do so
tion often passes undetected and the person
if not deceived
c oncerned is naturally misled
S ome may argue that there is no r eason to
have such an apprehension ; but spirits who
h ave considerable fr ee time at their d ispo sal
are very o ften tempted to go to a medium for
a chat and this is to some exten t natur al Eve n
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1 74
CHAPTER IX
THE F I NAL G O AL
A im o f li f e in w d ly sense Idea o f K a ma R
in c a nation A mbition M ksha M e ge t h e pe
lia end L ongevity o f li f e G d F o m ; esi d en c e
pow e s ; da shan elation to othe gods The C
ato vs Yama F inal in fluen c e ove t h e wo ld P
pose f C eation
or
r
r
o
—
—
r
r
;
r
:
e
en
r
re
—
r
r
.
r
o
—
r,
r
r
—
o
r
—
—
—
r
r
—
—
u r
.
A im of l if e in wo rd ly sen se : In the p r eced
ing chapters we have tried to give some ide a
about the life after death and in a way the
book is complete ; but it is in the fitness o f
things that some idea of the final go al should
be given in the pages to follow It is rather
difficult to say anything definite about the
aim of life either in a worldly sense or in the
spi r itual one though the latter is less complex
R egarding the wo r d ly aim of li fe it must be
admitted that various people hold diver gen t
views ; but if we keep in mind the gener al
class of people or to put it in other wo rds
the materialist class we find that thei r aim
cent r es r ound the idea of self betterment
They in the fi r st instance want to become
happy themselves and then to make thei r
families happy They seldom think of the
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1 76
T HE F I N AL
GO AL
l i fe
beyond dea th though they might have
no tio ns about it Salvation or
s ome vague
m erger is not their final go al and they never
e ffort to gain it
s eek to make any special
S til l however we know that most of these
people do wo r ship G o d an d pray to Him not
redress
t o advanc e them spiritually but to
unhappiness in this very worl d This
t he 1 r
i s one class of aim of life i f we bear in mind
v ery b r oad classifications
Then ther e are other sets of people who
as it were d o not care much fo r the h elp of
G od and generally do not believe in wo r ship
Their belief is that the K a r ma theo r y is the
o nl y co r rect one and they try to achieve their
a dvancement by leading a good and produc
t ive life and thereby ea r n a good subseq uent
birth
In this belief I find that ther e is
n othing wrong if one
expects a rewar d for
w hat he has done though better results may
be achieved if such people h ave some respect
f o r the D ivine A uthority
Even this class o f
people does not seem to covet the Merger
t hough at the same time they wish to advance
t hemselves spiritually
The third class of people in this cla ssifica
t ion is that of those who do not take any active
i nte r est in the w o rld in which they are living
Thei r ideas of life are r athe r di fferent They
t ake the world as a tra p or maya and n o e ffor t
i s spared to avoid this m a te r ia l contact
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177
TH E GREAT
LI FE B EYO ND DEAT H
MYfl fiBY O F
Material advancement either o f themselves
or of th eir familie s o r o f the w orld is not thei r
aim They are mad after salvation and birth s
a n d deaths are regarded as a great n u isance
I fo r one feel that when we are sent to the
wo rld the world should not be regarded as
a trap and we must understand that we a re
expected to d o ou r best in whatever sphere o f
lifewe are placed A t the same time spiritual
advancement should no t be lo st sight o f
because we must not forget f or a moment that
spiritual and material advancements are
interrelated and neglect o f on e of the two is
su r e to a ffect the gen eral progress
I dea of Karm a : In this way we come to the
conclusion that Karma is the main thing so
far as the activities in the world of the living
are concern ed Coming to K arma or deeds
we know that when we are judged in the
Court a detailed an alys1 s 1 8 made o f all the
activities whiclu we have carried on durin g
our lifetime It is not necessary to recapi
tulate the classification which I gave in the
ear lier part o f this book
But one thing
sho uld be said that only very important act s
performed by us have a bearing on our future
d evelopment and the minor acts are of n o
consequence F urthermore it is agreed on
a ll hands that goo d actions only do not ea r n
a re ward and the divine
authorities expec t
s ome sort of
worship for future spiritual
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1 78
T HE GREAT MYSTERY O F LI FE
DEATH
BE YO ND
and deaths we would not be able to get
a dequate experience and a change o f sphere
W e clearly see
would be impossible
t here f ore the utility o f rebirths and the re is
n o reason to develop a distaste f or th is ve r y
n atural thing
A mbition : T aking rebl r th as a reality , w e
h ave to consider the main force which should
This
g uide our activities in various births
w orld a ffords an ex cellent tra1 n 1 n g ground
a n d we are expected to prove that w e want
V ery o ften
t o progress furthe r and further
c onten tment is conside r ed as the be st quality
which a human being should acqu ire f or
This is a point how
s piritual advancement
ever o n which many people have expressed
Taking a rational view
d ifferent opinions
i t must be admitted that contentment means
s lackening o f our activities and it would not
be in o u r interests to practice it in the ea rlier
part o f our aggr egate li fe that is , from the
fi r st birth till salvation
In that period the
s oul should
bubble forth w ith ambition to
rogress
and
that
too
both
materially
and
p
s pi r itually
A t the same time I a gree that
a mbition also has limits
A fter say getting
i nto the fifth pla n e or S urya loka there is
n othing wrong if that feeling gradu al ly cools
d own and perhaps at that stage contentment
m ay be a useful method o f earning salvation
I n a w ord f or individual existenc e , a mbitio n
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1 80
THE F I NAL
GO A L
the only quality which can prove use ful
but when that desire f or in d iv id u al existence
changes into a desire f or mixed existence with
the S upr eme Being contentment is o n e o f
the methods I have seen cases in which
contentment was never practis ed an d yet
sa lvation was earned , though delayed by a
few years We can ; there f ore stick neithe r
to ambition nor to contentment and no o n e
dictum ca n be invariably true
Moksha : In this book we have been tal k in g
about sal vation or Moksha very f reque ntly
and yet no exact idea of that state o f a sou l
has ever been given In a way I am not a
suitable spirit for the purpose o f definin g
Moksha as I have not attained that s tage
But from what I know it is a status con ferred
on those so ul s who have tak en an adeq uat e
number of births have secured the necessary
exper i ence and have progress ed both
materially and spiritually the f ormer in the
earlier part o f li f e and the latter in the later
Further such salvation is n o t possibl e
part
if there is a lurking desire f or ind ividual
existence A spirit satis fying the above
conditions over and above the necessary
wor ship can attain salvation
Worship is a vague expression and I have
failed to mak e out what type o f devo tion
constitutes the necessary amount o f worship
Naturall y it cannot be anoth er word fo r
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18 1
T HE GREAT MYSTERY
OF
L I FE B EYOND DE ATH
flat tery
At the most , it may be an apprec ia
tion o f the qualities which the S upreme Be ing
possesses or it may be deemed necessary to
pay our respe cts and hom age to the Almighty
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The c urrent forms of w o rship have very often
n eglected this real f orm of devotion and have
m ade it a by wo r d f o r flattery a nd g od s are
alleged to reward t hose o f us who flatter
them Indian mythology is replete with such
a pparent instances ;
but there we a re con
f ounding d evotion with flattery
A nyway
it is certain that without true devotion , salva
tion is not easy as a fter all salvation is a sort
o f appreciation o f the qualities o f a so ul
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Merg er, the pecu liar end : Merger or salva
tion is the final stage in the natural evo lution
It is a promotion from the seventh
o f a soul
But one thing that
s tage or the D eva L oka
d i stinguishes merger f rom other stages of
e v o lu tio n is that it puts to an end the individual
It relieves the soul who gets
e xistence
sa lvati on
from the trouble o f births and
d e a ths if it is a trouble at all
F urther it
shows that you have sto o d the test o f li fe
creditably and you are fit enough to be merged
with G od and thereby become one w ith H im
But what we feel is that a fter att aining this
d eve lopment o f mind and a f ter securin g such
r ich experience
we are lo st to the w orld we
have se rved so well
A so u l who has led
su c h an ac tive li fe for years has to lead a li f e
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1 82
TH E GREAT MYSTER Y O F LI FE B EYOND DEATH
seventy years D uring tho se interm ediat e
twenty years the soul may be forced to lea ve
the body ; but it is in the hands o f the so u l to
avoid moments of weakness in which death
Moreover the
may ove r power the so u l
mission of life also p lays an important r ol e
and the longer you delay the ful filment o f
those missions the l onger you live and it is
al so to our advantage to have more than one
mission of life because then only it bec omes
diffi cult to fulfil all of them These are the
factors which h ave nothing to do with the
physical body as such S till however it shoul d
be stated that the soul has to t ake help from
the body and therefore a heal thy body is
necessa ry for a long life Thus a sound mind
in a sound body avoids many moments o f
m e n tal and p hysical weaknesses a nd thereby
takes advantage o f the f ull lease of li fe It is
not necessary to give some ideas about the
methods of maintaining good health as it is
a matte r out of my sphere It thus appear s
that to make use of the full span of li f e is
easy ; but the actu al facts make us feel the
other way as in most cases the condition s
laid down are difficult to abide by A t the
same time there are instances in which we
find that full advantage is taken by the so u ls
concerned
F rom ages there is a lurking de sire in
h uma n minds to conquer death
B u t every
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1 84
T HE F I NA L GOAL
one , when dying f eels that such an attemp t
proves futil e D eath 1 s a thing which can be
delayed du r ing the pe r iod allowed by th e
Court a s explained be f o r e But f urther than
that is beyond the human range Accordin g
to my knowledge it is not possible to postpone
it an d attempts made to defy it ar e alway s
fruitless
It does not mean however that
we s hould su rr ender at once because what
we may take as death may tu r n out to be a
moment of either m en tal or physical weakness
and it is in our powers to avert that c risis
In Indian mythology we find instances o f
certain persons having been made immortal
But I have found that such a boon woul d
never be confer r ed on a so u l in this world in
so far as the ordinary hum an body is so mad e
that it can r oughly last for l 5 0 years and
not more than that
Thus the grant o f
immo r tal ity is a flight of imagination o f so m e
Hindu w riters It is a reality in the spiri t
world because every so u l is immortal
R ewards however for special serwce o r
ext r eme devotion are sometimes given and if
bo ons are given for lengthening li fe the d eci
sion of the Court can be changed I t may be
added that Yama R aj has eq ual po w ers a n d
therefore the Cr eator even can not grant suc h
a boo n without h1 s consent
God : The g r eat mystery is no longer a
mystery for us But every thing in the spirit
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1 85
TH E GREA T MYS TERY O F L I FE
EYON D
DEATH
B
wo rld is capable o f being
explained ex cept
one thing and that is the G reat S ou l or the
S upreme Being F rom the very inception of
this world we humans have always assumed
that there is the Almighty G o d and that He
h as c reated the world or in a wider sen se the
Universe and that He guides controls and
s upe r vises each and every activity per f orm ed
by millions of His sons and daughters
This
idea o f this extra cosmic Being is still held
by all of us
He is given va r ious names i n
v arious count r ies
and He is said to possess
n umerous qualities and
virtues But none
o f us has eve r seen Him nor any exact idea
o f this S o u l has
ever been given Y et the
w o r ld is r uled by Him for centuries and it will
be ruled for millions o f centuries without w e
peopl e getting even the faintest idea of Him
In these circumstances I begin to describe
Him in my o wn way with considerable
d i ffidence and I am sure my readers will be
b r oad minded enough to overlook my inability
t o do J
ustice to it
Fo rm : Va r ious authors have attempted to
but
c onceive some form for this G r eat S oul
I de finitely know that like e very other soul
He has no form whatever and in this connec
t ion I m
ay add that this S oul being compo sed
which we possess is only a
o f many souls
s park o f energy and that the re is no matter
Y et we must not forget that G o d , being able
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1 86
T HE GREAT MYSTERY O F LI FE B EYO ND DEATH
His own pu rpose and there He stays with
His personal attendants He has al so a so rt
of a court not for deciding cases as the G od o f
D eath does but to hear appeals f or mercy and
for carrying on the work of creation He is
in a way r esiding in every nook and corner
in so far as He has powers to see and kn ow
what is happen i ng all over the world and this
is true in so far as every part of the Soul goe s
to the world by rot ation in the shape of fr ag
m e n ted souls which take birth in the world
Po wers : Where there I S a limit there can
be an analysis of po wers But in this case
there being no limit there is as a matter o f
fact no need to enumerate the po wers
po ssessed by Him
Y et to nam e a few of
the many possessed by Him He has ful l
power s of creation and there is no hig her
au thority in this respect t hough He gener ally
consults the G o d o f D eath in determin in g
the broad policy to be followed A s regards
the work of destruction He has no po wers
Even if He i s angry with a particular so u l it
is not in His hands to deprive him o f his li fe
He in that case seeks help from Y ama R aj
Taking the sphere of gen eral administration
of both the spirit world and the human w o rld
He has complet e control and in discharging
His duties He has arranged such a method
o f distributing the work that only very
important questions come up be fore Him
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1 88
THE F IN AL GO AL
:
I n this way , He a dministers the world , as is
the case with our human governments He
posses ses many special powers o f mercy ;
He ca n grant a new lease of life or grant a
s pecial promotion in the advancement of
He can improve the status of a
s oul
in
the
world
He
may
merge
a
u
l
o
l
a
r
r
t
l
c
s
a
u
p
soul eith er when it proves too bad fo r the
world o r He thinks that it is deserving o f
such a high position It may appea r strange
that G o d is not expected to prove what He
feels abo ut a particular soul and He unlike
Y ama R aj can take arbitrary action Here
it appear s that He is more absolute than
Y ama It is not desi r able to enlarge upon
the usual powe r s which are common among
higher souls But one most important power
is the o ne o f knowing the future and the past
He h as no limitations o f physical Senses
a lso
which spirits have in the spiri t world
Darshan : This S upreme Being is endowed
with the special power of taking f orm at any
moment and there fo r e He can give a physical
darshan whenever He desires
But such an
oppo r tunity 1 8 g1 v en only to those who are
very much devoted to Him and that to o after
a protracted period of worship A mong the
Hindus there is a belief current that penance
for a long time is bound to result in mak ing
G od take a physical form
I do not definitely
know how far this is true ; but it is feasible
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1 89
GREA T
THE
MYS TER Y o r
11
m: B EYOND DEATH
no doubt But I m ay m ake one thing cle ar
and that is that a per son who can sec u re suc h
a concr ete vi sion of Go d does not necessar ily
get salvation o r get a very good birth Yet
a soul who can induce Him to come down is
generally a high soul and hence the co rrel a
tion of the two facts I wond er whether it is
in our interests to , as it were sacrifice the
whole o f our life for that darshan So me say
that that is the best and noblest moment of
life not of one birth but all the 8 4 lacs as i t
were But I myself do not fancy this idea
because our mission of li f e is to prove use ful
to the world and not to satisfy this personal
desir e
R el ation to other gods : In the precedin g
paragraph we have seen that there is a
definite system of government The he ads
of the di fferent departments and o f di fferent
planes are a ll divine bein gs and are termed
gods Even controllers o f di fferent elements
are called gods too Curiously enough Hindu
mythology is full of such n ames and it is
nea r ly confusing to analyse those long
descriptions o f various gods I f eel there is
much of imagination rather than actual
substance be cause they have been in the fi r st
place given physical form which is not true
Moreover the names given are also not inv ari
ably t r ue and their powers unduly exaggerated
Coming to the relations of the S upreme G od
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1 90
THE GREA T MYST ERY OF L I FE B EYOND DEATH
f D eath or the D estructor , and the S upreme
Be ing or the Cr eator and the gen eral adm inis
o
t rator known as V ishnu
We may r egard
S hiva as the G o d o f D eath a nd Brahma as the
S upreme Being
But leaving aside these
Indian names the three important functions
o f the Universe are represented in this final
The functions o f this body are
c abinet
mainly of a delibe r ative and advisory natu r e
Without such meeting of these three gods it
would not be possible to carry on the wor ld
p r ope rly The wo r k of c r eation and d estru c
tion has to be ca r r ied on in such great
ha r mony that co oper ation between the three
is almost imperative We have talked about
gods and in this connection I may state that
there are goddesses too They also like gods
wo rk in the gener al system of administration
and enj oy equal powers w ith gods There is
one point which strikes us that when in the
spi r it world no sex distinction exists there is
no reason to have goddesses I am not in a
position to clear the point But it appears
that certain souls who have been rai sed to
this divine status had more female births than
m ale ones and hence this female n ame
attached to them
The Creato r vs Yam a : The Creator or the
S up r eme C o d and Yama or the G o d o f D ea th
are the two most important beings in the
whole system of government and it is
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1 92
,
THE F I NAL GOAL
desir able to co nsider their relationship a nd
their ind iv id u al power s It may be remarked
that the impor tance of the G od of D eath is
underestimated to a large extent and even the
Hindus who worship all p ossible diviniti es
have neglected him
His position is never
r ecogn ised by us and it is a high time tha t
we should real ise the true situation The
great powers of Y ama R aj are alo n e adequat e
to show the very importan t position he
enjoys in the spirit-world He is supreme in
deciding the policy regarding destruction and
even promotion to a higher stage is dependen t
on his ruling While giving new birth he is
the person who determines what type of birth
to give a nd such other allied things
The
Creator who has vast powers regardin g
cr eat ion an d over all other spheres of human
life does not keep all the powers in His hands
but delegates the contr ol to His subo rdinates
It is curious to note that G o d who has
complete control of eve r ything has thought fit
to take away a ll control fr om over Y ama and
He does not contr ol gu ide or supervis e
proceeding s in Y ama s Court Y ama thu s
in reali ty is equal and not a subordinate I f
these two powerful S ouls were to wor k in
isolation the whole Universe would come to
an end There is therefore a great need fo r
a j oint policy of work for these two S o u ls
The r elations between the Creator and Y am a
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1 93
T HE
GRE AT MYSTERY OF L I FE B EYOND DEA TH
gener ally very smooth and cordial and
take an important step a fter
t hey always
O ccasions o f impo rtant
c onsul ing each other
d ifier e ces o f opinion are v ery rare and in
such a sharp di fference of o pm i o n
c ase
becomes rigid Vishnu is supposed to paci fy
the parties concerned by His ready powers o f
b ringing about a c ompromise
Final I nflu en c e o ver the W orld : The abo ve
facts may lead you to believe that the Creato r
is not as powerful as He is depicted to be
But this is an illus i on i n so far as He does
c arry on the wo r k of creation destruction and
a dministration th r ough his two v ery po wer fu l
a gents
D o not for a moment think that
V ishnu and Y ama are any di fferent S ouls
than His own A fter al l the Creator G o d is
these separate
t he Trinity Himsel f and all
i nfluences of the Th r ee Big S ouls emerge out
o f the one G o d
His in fl uence on the world
i s f ar reaching and very wide
It may perhaps
a ppear
that events can take place e ither
w ithout His knowledge or consent
But it
must be realised that even the slightest move
ment in the Un iver se is according to His
i ntentions
His control is absolute and the
w orld moves on through the element of time
and will go on for years together unt il the
C reator thinks of taking away all His frag
m ents of energy from the world
P u rpose of Creation :
This is the las t
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1 94
,
T HE
GREA T MYSTERY
OF
L I FE B EYOND DEATH
merge r But one does not understand why
t here should be no end to the work of creation
T he Creator does not rest s atisfied a fter His
whole energy has been sent to the world in
fragments The reason is not clear nor is it
explained by Him : but what appear s to me
is as under : We assume that the Creato r i s
compo sed o f hal f the o r iginal energy and the
other hal f is fragm ented into various so u ls and
they ar e in the wo rld A s time p asses some
o f them get merged and if that process we r e
t o continue in a number of years the world
w ould be devoid of life and again there would
b e E nergy and Matte r
There would be thus
n o sense in creating the world i f G o
were
t
o
d
It is also believed in authoritative
d o this
c ircles here
that i f the E nergy were to be
d evoid of any contact with the world ther e
c ould be no e ffective
touch o r link and this
c ontinuous
chain of creation and merger
m aintains that necessary link
It m ay strike
u s to inqui r e why thi s E nergy should be so
a ct i ve a ll these years
I s it not an idea l state
of
a ffairs to go back again to the point o f
starting ; that is to say make the Universe
s atic ?
But
may
I
remind
you
that
every
t
t h ing in our wo r ld either m ate r ial or spiritual
i s essentially dynamic ?
Be fo r e I conclude this s mall book I would
b e most ungrateful if I were not to thank very
s incerely D e wan
Bahadur Kaji and his so n
a
.
.
.
'
,
,
.
,
,
.
.
,
'
.
.
,
,
,
,
1 96
THE F I NAL GOAL
an
d nephew for the extremely cordial suppo r t
and help which they have given me in
W ithout their
b ringing out this book
a ssistance
my first hand knowledge would
h ave r emained
absolutely obscure S pecial
m ention should be made about their readines s
t o suit my o d d and rigid
demands regarding
t he time for writing the book
It is a great
s ac r ifice on their part to have underta ken this
work in its true sense of pu re service and I
w ish their e fforts ar e appreciated by the
p ublic
.
,
.
-
.
.
TH E END
1 97