T HE G R E A T MY STE R Y

L IF E BE YO N D DE A TH

A s d ic ta te d by a Spi r it

D IW A N BA HA DU R HIR ALA L L . KA J
I
I NQ IAN E DU CA TIO N A L 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

_
BO M BA Y
1 938
 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

o a
.
,

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 ork s
o
. .

3 l , T ri b h o v an R o ad , B mb a y 4.
 PR EFA CE

No pleasure could be greater than the o ne

I experience in presenting this volume to the
p ub l ic
, in as much as l wa s given the unique
p riv i l ege o f expounding the G reat M ystery o f
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

, .
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

-
,

nephew and no cont r ibution to expression

, ,

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 ,

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 -
r

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 , .

V '
T HE GREA T MYS TERY OF L I FE B EYO ND DEAT H
Bu 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

h im to pick up the lost thread The dictation .

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
them out on the Board I n this process o f
.

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

,

p roducing in this , mysterious joint fashion ,

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

p erhaps be of some interest to the readers I .

Vl l l
 P REFA CE
h ave always regarded mysel f as a rather
p ro saic , matter -o f -
fact person not given
, to
i ndulging in any flights o f imagination I was .

n o t c onscious o f t he possessio n of any spiritual

p owers , latent or patent I had .heard casually

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 -

a nd desk tired clerks

- .My curiosity how ever
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

g lass and getting each one o f a mixed party

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

, ,

g la ss sur f ace towards one corner indicating

a n affirmative or the other corner indicating
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

y ears back . My o ffer to try the experiment
w as welcomed . We began with the fingers
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 ,

 PREFA CE
Lalu bha i S am ald as ,
the well know n -

c o operato r and indus trialist S ir Prabha

'
-
, ,

shanker Pattani the late septu a ge n a

,
e

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 .

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
.

a n d our average sittings were o f about 5 0

m inutes duration S ir A rthur dictating about
’

t wo pages in that time A s the work .

p rogressed , the st r ain on the young gentlemen

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

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

x iii
TH E GRE AT MYS T ERY OF LI FE B EYOND DEAT H
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 .

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 C O N AN DOY L E A ND

IT IS A NE A RL Y CO RRECT
EX P OSITI O N OF TH E MO ST MYSTE

R IO U S S ECRE TS OF HU MA N L I FE .

SH REE YA MA R A J .
 C O NTE N TS

PR EFA CE
I NTRO DU CTI O N
In sp i a t i on E i sten c e
r o f S pi its P ow
—
to
x r —
er

c all D esi e to espond D iff e ent m etho ds

- r r —
r

f
o e sponse A utomati c W it ing C y stal
r —
r —
r

Ga in g M di u m s p a kin g O uij a B o d Its

z —
e - e — ar —

w o k ing M ediu m s and Inst uments Mate iali

r — r —
r

sa ti on N o telepathy S pi it an d S oul I d ol
— — r —

wo ship r .

C HA PTER i
D EA TH
P hy si cal en d The —

ext a c tion o f t
r

ti i t y
v Ten —
st y Th e
a —

P us h R e c o d —
r

CHA P TER II
T HE LEAP I N THE DARK
Ca iage The Un kno wn egi on F as t move
rr —
r —

ment Bad t eatment S olita y state F ati

—
r —
r —

gue E nd o f the J
—
ou ney 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
—
r —
‘

—
r
—
x —

l ys P ot a c ted t ial D etailed invest igation

a —
r r r —

and p o c e d u e at t h e Cou t A n al ysis o f

r r r —

hu m an a c tion N o de f en c e The uli ng A s s— —

r —

s ig m n t o f plane senN e w b i t h o d e Inte val —

r r r— r

b tw e n su cc essive b i th s Unison Q ualities

e e r — —

needed f p g es S pe c ial t eatment ;

or ro r s— r

m d'e u ns n d ins t m ents

r a ru

x vii
THE GREAT MYS TERY OF LI FE B EYON D DEATH
C HAPTER IV
SEV EN STAGES OR P LANES
L o cation P esiding D e ities —
r .

F i st ~P l
r The Patala Is it Hell ? The
an e : — —

Cou t E lementals A c tivity of r — —

S pi its Haunting r —
.

S e c ond P lane T h e Bh l k S pi its o f low : u o a— r

o de N o a ct ivity F eedom f om r r— —
r r

c ont ol r .

Th i d P lane T he T p l k S pi its o f middle

r : a a o a— r

c lass Cont ol Attendan c e at —

r —

t ials Colle c tive a c tions T c h

r — —
on

w it h the W o ld r .

F ou t h P lane The Ch d l k Contented

r : an ra o a—

spi its F eedo m to move Tou ch r — r -

w it h h ig h e pow e s Yama s visits r r —

'
.

F ifth P lane T h e S y l k Ambitio s spi

: u r a o a— u
ts A dminist ative w o k Enri —
r r —
er

gi P esiding deity s e r— r .

S i thx P lane T h e S w g l k Happy ar a o a—

souls Cold spi its L oss o f tou ch —

r —

with the w o ld L oss o f memo y r —

r .

S event h Pl T h e D evalo k a G od li k e
an e : — -

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

—
r r —
e

b i ths an d expe ien c e Evolution R eap

r r

ing the f uits o f p st li fe D i ff e ent r a —

r

types o f bi t h s N umbe o f bi t h s usually r —

r r

e q ui e d f M o k s h a éMi i
r r o f li f S h o t
or —
ss o n s e— r

lives and thei missions Con c ept o f spi i t r —

‘
r

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
r —
r r —
o

pa ti c ula duty N o p hysi c al s enses N o need

r r — -

f f ood
or h lt A tt dor at t ials As
s e e rm en an ce r —

ig m
s n t o f spe c ial duties A tt endan c e on
en —

gods P etty investigations Visit to the

- —

wo ld P e p in t o the f utu e D aily outine

r —
e r —
r .

v iii x
 I NTR O DUCTI O N .

Inspi ation Exist n c e

r —
of S pi its
e Pow e to '

r —
r

call D esi e to espond Difi

—
r r t met h ods o f —
e r en r es

p o se
u A utomati c W iting C ystal Ga ing Medium
—
r —
r z —

S pea k ing O ui j a Boa d Its W o k ing M ediums and

—
r —
r —

Inst uments Mate ialisation N o telepat h y épi it

r —
r — —
r

and S oul Idol W o ship

—
r .

I n spiratio n : 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

t hese mysteries to the wo r ld o f the living
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
,

m ine becomes successful In this case I feel .

, ,

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
.

g reat change is in evidence S piritualism h a s .

‘
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

,

a re known to p ractise fraud However it .

,

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

ets weakened F urther many per sons who
g .
,

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

the medi um or his cli ent ; f or when sittings

are numerous ,the res ults are much better .

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

,

m atic W ritin g . The wo rds are self explana -

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
alphabets f orming words and sentences But .

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
,

3
TH E GR E A T MYS TE RY OF L IFE BE YO ND D E A TH

separate 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
.
—

a n attempt to foretell the future this being ,

a ccomplished by the help of such spirits who

can guess the future With approximate

c o rr ectness . But the idea of holding conver
sa tio n s of other nature w ith spirits is not
'

d eveloped in this method Whatever may be .

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
—
.

Med u S peaking : Moreove r

i m - au to
matic ,

writing and crystal gazin g a r e in a way ve ry

s low for rapid communication between the
s pi r it world and the world of the living To .

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
4
 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 -

cati o n
, we have an arrangement called the
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

the impressions from the spiri t
invoked and communicates these impression s
by moving the wooden piece to the various
lette rs o f the alphabet forming words and
THE GREAT MYS TERY OF L I FE BE Y O N D DEATH
s en 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

,

o r any such underhand means are largely

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
n o t m ed iu m s in themselves S ome are born
.

m ediums and some achieve mediumship

t hrough laborious practice A person who is
.

a strong -willed man and who can attract

s pirits is a genuine medium There is som e .

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 ,

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

,

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

W s kno w
'
r eading and thou ght transfe r -
.

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

9
TH E GREA T MYS TERY OF LIFE B EYOND DEATH
pa r l ce , but i f view ed from a sp i ri tual angle
a n
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
a short while at least on things other than
t hose o f the world .Most Hindus believe that
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

o pinion that is the function o f idol worship
-
, ,

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 .
 CH APTE R I

DEA TH

P h ys ical d The Yama D u ta F o c e f ul e t a c

en — —
r x r

tion o f the soul Unnatu al deaths Ca p ti vi ty Ten

—
r — —

d y s a b no mal stay The P ush R e c o d o f deeds

a
'
r — —
r .

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 .

'
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

'
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 ,

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
.
-
s

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 .

S pirits have got to perfo r m this unpleasant

duty assigned to them by the Yama R aj , the
'
G o d of D eath This messenger is popularly
.

“
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

12
 DEA TH
s 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 ,

'
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
a r e f ew and far between The soul is very often
.

given a fair chance to close its bodily existence

peace fully ; but almost invariably the o p
p o r t u n ity is not availed o f and the use o f f orce
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
.

13
TH E GREAT MYS TERY OF L I FE B EYOND DEATH
commonly held that in the case of a sa intly or
g od soul the D uta is u n abl e to s eiz e the s ou l
o ,

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

'
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
.

the
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

‘5
As a esult o f a dis c ussion with S i A thu I w ote out
r r r r, r .

this pa ag aph ea d it ove t o him an d with his pp

r r , r r l a r o va

a dd d it he
e r e.

14
TH E GREA T MYS TERY OF L I FE B EYOND DEATH
n 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
.

y e t fresh befo r e him and he is all the whil e

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
h e is denied the power to talk with the m He .

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

16
 DEA TH
ex 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

pe riod A t the end of this period , the duty o f
.

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 -

r ea so ns It is sad to note that other religions

.

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
.

I7
 THE GREA T MYSTERY OF L I FE B EYOND DEAT H
to 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 speed o f 1 0 0 miles per hour A ll the while .

,

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 .

g a le puts the soul in a sta t e w hi c h is essent ia l

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 .

18
 C HAP TER II

TH E L EAP IN THE D A RK

C ar r iage The Un kn ow n
- e gi o n F a s t
r —
m o Ve
m e nt —
B d t eat m ent
a r S ol i ta y state F atigu
—
r —
e - En d
o f t he Jo u ne y r .

Carn age : The soul b eing blown up by a

e
’

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 Final Tribun al The spirit in ch ar ge no w
.

assu mes fu ll po s sessio n o f the sou l and

toward s that purpose he proceeds to rob
him o f his val uable po w er o f visio n The .

po o r so u l is a s it w ere thus blind f olded a nd

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

,

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 climbing we

,

l eave the world behind and move in an u pward

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 subs eq 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,

i n g being to test the soul But as soon as the

.

s ight is thus restored the soul mak es an

,

a ttempt to go bac k to his old w orld and it is

r are to find a soul w ho can curb such a very

n atural desire The consequences o f such
i

a ttempts are however very serious in v i ew o f

t he fact that the soul is at once ordered to tour

r ound the world The spirit thereupon tak es
.

h im to the old world again and the tour com

m en ces . The time allotted for the whole
j ourney is very limited and to in c orpo rate this

e x tra tour o f about miles in the

rogramme means a great deal o f extra t r o ubl e
p
a n d hardship . It is there fore , very advisable
,
'
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
20
 THE LEAP I N THE DARK
disc om fo rt and u nt o ld 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 it h the forced sever

“

severe trial indeed .

w
-

an ce fro m his earthly ten em ent fro m the ,

21
TH E GREAT MYSTERY OF L I FE B EYOND DEATH
re al 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

p per e tually dissatis fied w ith the soul as he is
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

.

a bout the speed the spirit gets extremely

,

a ngry and instead o f s lac k ening the speed ever

s o little , ac c ele ates it He is not am en able

r .

t o rea son or argument but acts in a tru ly

d e spotic fash ion Many times during the
.

j ourney the , soul requests him to restore h is

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

r etard his speed whi ch in its turn invites
r ebu k es and castigation f rom the spirit in
c harge Even towards the end o f the j ourney
. ,

the spirit does not bec ome in any way friendly

b u t continues to be as tacitu r n and harsh as
e ver Sometimes when it becomes ab solu tely
.

essential to stop he does so very reluc tantly

,

a n d that to o f or a very short peri o d T hi

.s so rt
o f attitu d e appea rs to me to be very stran ge
‘

22
THE d REA T MYS TERY OF L I FE BEYOND DEATH
such 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

, ,

g ood will on the part o f the s p irit he will ,

encounter positive harshness and will have to

u nde rgo the utterly demoralising experience o f

t he solitary st ate .

24
 THE LEAP IN THE DARK

Fatigu e : A fter the so litary so ul gets his

gu id e again , he begins to proc eed f urthe r o n

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 .

p ressin g tha t the soul is o f ten f or c ed to req ues t

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

g u ides , and the tra ffic al on g the route is he avy
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
t hem . I f the soul was a person who had
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
r elative s . S o far , the soul was not in a p osition
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

t h ose wh o c ome r him His eyesight is

n ea .

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

i mpending trial The soul is not yet entitled
.

'
to enter the Y ama s Court He has to procure .

a pe rmit to enter this divine tribun al where

his case is to be decided The spi r it in charge
.
- —

u su ally during this period p r ocures the perm it

a nd tak es the soul in the Court where he is to

a wait his trial Control over the soul is now

.

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 .
 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 r — —

lays P o t a c te d t i al D etaile d i nvesti gation d

—
r r r —
an
p o c e d u e at the Cou t A na lysis o f hu man
r r r —

a c tions N o de f en c e The
—
uling Assignment of
—
r —

planes N e w b i th o d e Inte val b e tw een su c c s

—
r r r— r e

sive bi th Unison Qualities neede d f

r s— —
p or
'

ro

g ess S pe c ial t eatment ; mediums and inst uments

r —
r r .

The Patala : The place where Ya m s hold s

his Court is know n in Hindu mytholo gy as
Patala . Th e word ordinarily signifies the
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
p h e r e ; but the density o f the air pervading
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
a ny air whats oever The ar ea o f th is first
.

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
,

o ld w orld . The tri al does not begin at once ,

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
o f the Co urt with Y am a at its hea d A s we
.

29
THE GREAT MYS TERY OF L I FE B EYOND DEAT H

have e be fore , the Court is in the p lane

se n .

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
souls . The record keepers are classified int o
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

- -

send on such in f ormation shortly a fter a

person dies The other section o f the record
.

keepers does the work o f transcribing the

r ecords when evidence is sought from them
by the prosecutor at the time o f the trial .

Just behind these rec ord k eepers there are ,

abo ut a hundr d spirits who specialise in pro

e ~

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

.

above 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
d e f ective k no w ledge o f the spirit 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
.

o utc o me o f the circumstances which p re vail

o ne another Th i s helps to reduce

.

the agony and discom fort which a so ul

32
 THE GREA T TR I AL
is li kely to experi enc e . Yama however
d oes not desire the new comers to be in a
p o si ti on to kn ow all the laws w hich a re

applied in givin g the final decision and does

n o t there f ore allow these souls to mix with
s pirits a f ter the first twenty four hours are
c o mple te . A shre soul can get almost com
p le t e in f ormation about the rules in f orce there
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

a llowed to talk with the spirits . In this case ,

they are captives as this restriction is mean t

t o exclude them from the spirit world . In
o t h er respects , however they are completely
,

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

.

t ion of G od , the Creator

. Some times he
33
TH E GREAT MYSTERY OF L I FE B EYOND DEATH
inter feres in the work o f crea tion too , whi ch
is the so le province of G o d S imilarly .

C od a lso i f he thinks it expedien t

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

a matter o f principle But naturally they
.

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

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 world To so me minds it m ay
.

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 a r tial
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
,

first come first se rved , is adopted

, Thus the.

s pi r its of higher planes are taken up firs t f or

t heir trial . It may be indicated here that the

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
.

s acrifice c ould be permitted for the sak e o f

36
thec onven ience o f many sou ls who w ere daily
eagerly awaitin g their trial Yama re fu sed .

an d I had kee p q uiet It appears that the

to .

q ue s tio n which con fronts him is n ot one o f

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 ,

rank will be low as spirits o f higher plan es

,

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
.

two hun dr ed In a day about 20 norm al

.

ca ses are d ispo sed of and at this rate it t ook

37
T HE GREA T MYST ERY OF L I FE B EYOND DEATH
t here f ore some 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

,

p ermission to them f or the purpose ; and Y ama

a t once decides one way or the other whether

to grant the request or not In this particular .

c ase the soul had many friends and was

,

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

s ubse quently I t is desirable here to
u nderstan d how the trial is protracted and ,

l engthened . Even a fter the above men tioned

p reliminaries are gone through the trial does ,

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 ,

i t req u ires a c ouple o f days A fte r that the

. ,

r e ading o f the reco rds is order ed Many other .

i tem s are nex t taken in h and and Yama the n

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
.
l

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
“

the points involved therein V ery often they.

,

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

c aus e. Here it shoul d be made clear that a

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
a 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
.

g o a stage further in their pursuit of the

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
h e has done his duty .It is known all over the
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

f oresight to do so . This in general should ,

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

o f humanity as s u ch a wilfu l wrong done to
,

othe r s forms one of the most wicked actions

w hich mak e the souls who per form such deed s
l iable to severe punishment Next in magn i
tude c ome the deeds which are certainly had
.

b u t are not the resul t o f any predetermined

t ho ught an d th ere f ore su ch u npremeditated

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

vi ce amo ng peo ple who are less fortu nately
p l a c ed , bein g on the lower rungs o f the finan
cial ladder In cases o f han d to mouth
.
- -

existenc e such di shonesty is to a large extent

,

p ermissible though it is never en co ura ged .

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

p lane, while the spir it goes to the Investiga
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
p r i nc ipa l invest i gator and the so ul F rom .

t hi s it sh ou ld be pretty clea r that all this tak es

43
THE GREAT MYS TERY OF L I FE B EYOND DEATH
a long t me i
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

i

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 .

44
h ar dly needs 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 ,

o f the f amily being broader than the norma l

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

a nalysed and p resented w e find
, that Y ama
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

.

scrutiny of wil f u l acts there comes the class

,

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

r eaders that so far I have been speak ing o f
46
T HE GREA T MYS TERY OF L I FE B EYOND DEATH
b egins his speech or sermon whichever 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 .

p art of his speech makes the soul feel that

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
o nes or the cont rary If the good deeds out
.

n umber the bad he assumes that the soul is

,

p r ope r ly t r ained u p and the r efo r e he need not

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 u l as strongly as possible The so ul who
.

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
n ot d esire to penali se him , but it o nly orders
h im to remain in the old plane and
it 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 ,

p ossible , go there and in f orm them cle a r ly o f

t he decision given The spirit in charge refers
.

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
.

p lane to the so u l so that he may find it easy

t o reach there He is then asked to return in
.

a rea sonably short time as he is not supposed

to stay there be fore unison and the new birth

p ermit is required as a sort o f an entranc e pass .

New Birth Ord er : A fter the lap se o f the

n ecessary period the soul presents him self
,

t o the Court for a new birth order A s usual ,

.

i t tak es some time before Y ama can give

a ttention to the tried soul F urthe rmore even
.
,

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

p rovide f or him A f
. ter the n ecessa ry

i n formati on is obtained , and a fte r it is

50
 THE GREA T T R I AL
a sce 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

g u ar a ntee o f giving the birth selected by him .

V ery o ften , the o ption give n is such that it

'
t ends to become a Hobso ns choice Th e
.

r iddle often is incapable o f solution and

t herefore Y ama gives plenty o f time to the
s oul to decide ; even consulting people of the

w o r ld through mediums is allowed .The

i dea is that Y ama does not want to bear the
o dium of hav ing given a ba d birth . S omehow
o r oth er , the selection 1 8 made and it is now
f o r Yama to app r ove of it or force on him
a birth which in his
.
O pinion is appropriate .

I n very many cases Y ama agrees but there

,

s eems to be no definite ba sis on which he

d ecides this problem . In my talk with him ,

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

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

,

c u py his pla n e f or a sho r t time This concludes .

.

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

52
 THE GR EAT 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
sou l . The higher the standard o f duty main
t a in ed the larger is the reward reserved f or
,

t hat soul The concept o f du ty is not only

.

a n impo r tant factor but broadly speaking it is

,

the only factor which helps one in his spiritual

m arch towards salvation It is said that in
.

v ery old times many advanced souls used to

l eave worldly connections and confine

t hemselves in som e lonely pla ce for their
s piritual advancement ; but i f I may be
permitted to express my opinion I must state ,

t hat those souls have not made use of thei r

s urroundings ; but having gone out o f thei r
,

world th ey only made their li fe o f suc h a

,

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
,

g ra d u a l and cumulative e ff ect in deciding th e

,
'
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

,
i
,

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
u nderstood world o f spirits Instrume nts .

54
 CH A PTER IV

THE SEVE N S TAG ES O R PLANES

L o c at ion P esi d in g D eities —

r

F i st Pl
r The P atal Is it H II ? The
ane : a— e -

C o u t E lementals A c t i v i ty of s p i i t Haunt ing

r — —
r s— .

S e c on d P lane The Bh l k S pi i ts o f lo w : u o a— r

o d e N o a c tiv i ty F ee d o m f o m co nt ol
r r— —
r r r .

T hi d rPl The T p l k S pi its o f m i ddle

an e : a a o a— r

c las s C t L A tten d an c e
— onat t i als C llec tive
ro —
r —
o
a c ti o ns Tou c h wi th the W o ld
—
r .

F ou th r Pl The Ch d l k Con t ented

an e an ra o a—
spi its F eedo m to mo v e T o u c h with highe
r —
r —
r

p owe s Ya m a s vis i ts '

r —
.

F if th Pl n The S y l k A mbi t i ous sp i i t A d

a e : u r a o a— r s—

mi n i st a tive wo k E ne g i se P esi di ng d e i ty
r r —
r r— r .

S i t h p lane The S w g l k Ha p p y s ul s C o l d
x : ar a o a— o —

s pi i ts L oss o f t o u c h wi th the w o l d Lo s o f
r —
r —
s

me mo y r .

S eventh Pl n The D va k G od l i k e so ul s N o
a e: e a— - -—
v

tou c h wi th m ed iums N o a c t i vi t y R e s t — —
.

L ocation : S o far w e have spoken o f the

s pirits and their li f e at the Court In this
w
.

chapter other phases o f the li f e of spirits ill

b e taken up It is at least well known in India
.

that the w orld o f spirits is divided into seven

p la n es and in the western w orld too the idea ,

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
s p irit w orld ;
- and very o ften specu lation is
56
r i fe o n that matter S o far as I know how ever
.

there are only seven stages crea ted for spirits ,

o f all types Even accept ing this f act there

. ,

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

,

n umbers to these stages Bu t I have come .

,

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 .

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 has its own d eity, who 1 3 entrusted with

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
FI R ST PLA N E THE P ATALA .

The Petals : The first loka i s known as t he

P atala.The w ord signifies the lower region s
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

59
T HE GR EAT MYS TERY OF LI FE B EYOND DEATH

is a plan e associated with something 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
souls . It is rather strange to find such a
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

c hapter spoken of the Court as far as 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

t he D ivine Tribunal but as a Plane in the
'

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
p ermanent residents and all those who come
g o away , as soon as their t r ia l is over I t does
.

not thus have the appea rance o f an ordinary

p la n e ; but it has that o ffi ce -loo k which is
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 .

E lem en tals : There are two broad classe s

into which the spirits r esiding in the Patal a
L oka can be divided In the first class com e .

S pirits of the ordin ary type These spirits have .

'
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

they have a poor brain Is it not the mistak e .

'
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 .

31‘
A s it appea ed to me a g eat p esumption to iti c is
r r r cr e

the C eato he e a s l late on I always made it a oin t

r r, r a so r , p

to d a w S i A thu s attention an d to as k him wheth e h

r r r r
'
r e

w ould not li k e to modi f y t h e senten c e But he w fi m . as r

an d w oul d not give up t h e position he had ta k en up i , an t

a s the b ook was his w o k I have etain d su c h p assag r , r e e-

s,

as dic tate d .

61
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 wer has been
,

u sed for bad deeds Being base sou ls , they

.

a re called ele mentals 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

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
‘

h
p y sm a l existence W hile alive they ar e
. .

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

62
THE GREAT MYSTERY OF LI FE B EYOND DE ATH
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
p la n e s ; but it may be pointed out that thei r

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

64
 TH E SEVEN STAGES OR PLANES
in 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

i mproved even to a very sm all extent This .

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

a ctivity called hau n tin g This term is not a

.

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

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 ,

a s I came into contact with an importan t

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 ,

t o o ls rather than idle away thei r time The .

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 - .

S E CO 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

,
-
r

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

67
T HE GREAT MYS TERY OF L I FE B EYOND DEATH
s pirits and their qualities In the first place .
,

m any of them a re below the average , so far

a s the measu r e of thei r intelligence is con
c erned . S ome o f them have even not the
c apacity to do any act which can be regarded

as substantial ; others who possess som e

,

p owe r s are, bent upon enj oying all t hrough

a n d lead a useless existence and in my opin

a r e a burden to humanity Then there ar e

.
,

those who are fairly clever and ar e able to

p u t l n some work but who
, refuse to do
a nything except certain things which satis fy
,

their baser instincts S uch is the state o f Bhu

.

l oka . The last type of spirits are a danger to

t he spir it wo rld and their bodies on the Earth
i v

a r e a st r iking monument of passion .

No ac tivity : In a ge n e ral way we have

g lanced through the pe r sonnel with which we

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

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 .

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

a ny ci rcumstances F rom my experience

.
,

h owever I can say with confidence that h er

,

p resence in this Ioka is to a g r eat extent

r esponsible for making good spirits o u t of
b ad .

The Yama in Council has decided that

s pirits on the borde r line should not be assigned

t o this plane because the company o f othe r

s pi r its makes it impossible for them to improve

a n d the chances of being d r agged lowe r a re

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

'

The Tapaloka :
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

70
THE GRE AT MYSTE RY OF 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
.
,

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 s

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
,

73
 T HE GREAT MYS TERY OF L I FE BEYOND DEATH
o other agency to impart k nowledge hear
f any ,

ing of t r ials wa s the only method available for

-

s elf improvement
- I suggested that if some
.
,

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

, , ,

a n d ti r esome . But the r eply I r eceived was

q uite app r op r iate because it contained the
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

a ttitude of c ollective actions I have even seen
.

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 .

74
 THE SEVEN ST AGES o f; PL ANES
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 uch an irresistible lu r e S o me people are the

.

e asy p r ey of these W o r ldly desires and even

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
75
TH E GREAT MYSTERY OF L I FE BEYOND DEATH
arguments I feel invoking them does not
,

drag them down Perhaps the ch ances ar e

.

just the other way .

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

,

76
 TH E SEVEN S TAGES OR PLANES

p romoted from a lower plane to this plane ,

he gets such an amount of satisfaction that it

kills his desi r es completely I do not know
.

why they should be satisfied so soon When .

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
i

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
.

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 q

‘k

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 ,

78
 T HE GR EAT MYS TERY OF L I FE B EYOND DEATH

W e have seen before that three factors d ecide

t he .
classification of the so u l into m iddle o r
h ighe r class The qualification which is so
.

essential in this Ioka is absent in a large

m ajority of case s, and that is am bition At .

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

g e n er al Wh o could d r eam of enter ing into
the S urya loka This Ioka is not near othe r
-
.

p l a n e s but i s at a consider able distance and

this shows the impo rtance attached to this
p l a n e . The conditions of existence a r e not as
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 , , ,

m ediums too I n a way those who feel like

.
,

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
80
 THE SEVEN STAGES r
OR PLANES
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

81
T HE GREAT MYS TER Y OF LI F E B EYOND DEATH
t he 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
r equired In a similar way , in the spi rit w orld
. ,

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

a dministrative department . Naturally there

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

p l a n
, e there is a di fference of degree i f not
,

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

p la n.e I have very o ften endeavoured to
c onvince them that when a university con f ers

a degree on several persons it does not assure

82
THE GREAT MYS TER Y OF L I FE B EYOND DEAT H
efficient control . W hat functions are
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

,
l

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

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
s 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

p r esence in the atmosphe r e in the S urya Ioka -

gives the spi r its the necessary energy .

Pr e sidin g D ei ty This Ioka being ver y

'

a ctive finds itself entangled in many problems

o f its own They may be either relating to

.

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 .

S I X TH P LA N E THE S W A R G A L O K A

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
.

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
had the honou r of visiting the Swarga Io ka i” ’

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
n r r a r

A thu Conan D oyle h been t ans f e ed to the Swa g

r r as r rr r a

l o ka .

86
T HE GREAT MYSTERY OF L I FE B EYOND DEA TH

i nevitable 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

a ll their desires are there f ore satisfied to a
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 ,

t o call such spirits ; and broadly speaking ,

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

p eople beyond the W orld of the Dead I how .

88
 THE SEVEN STAGES OR PLANES
ever beg to diff er be cau se to my mind it
, , ,

a ppea rs that it would be a case o f g r o ss selfi sh

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
.
,

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

, .

terms he is in char ge of the Tr ansport D epa t

, r ~

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 .

S E V E N TH PLA N E THE DE V A L O K A

The D eva Ioka : 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 ,

90
T H E GREAT MYSTERY OF L I FE B EYOND DE ATH
if these two virtues are accompanied by the
a b sence of fervent ambitions they achieve a
,

s tate of mind which is so essential f or making

’

a spirit di fferent from the ordinary huma n

being . They do not for a moment hanker
a fter mate r ial achievements ; they are cool
and collected enough to thi nk o f higher
p r oblems o f further spiritual advancement ,

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 ~

b ish mentality . Those pe r sons the r efore wh o
a r e not intellectual snobs are given permanent

b u t not eter n al 'because there i s salvation '

p osition in the p la n e called the D evaloka The .

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

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
.

93
T HE GREAT MYSTER Y OF L I F E BEYO ND DEATH
is an evolutionary pro cess lead in g to the final
‘

g o a l
.

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
h as made him what he is to d ay It is time .

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

~ .

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

.

r eas o n which justifies reincar nation rathe r ,

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 .

Bu ddhist D octrin e o f Kar m a What .

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
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

97
 TH E GREA T MYS TERY O F L I FE BEYOND DE ATH

a nd every acti on is to be repaid in k ind though

it means a bitter experience indeed Bu t even .
,

a high per s on like the Buddha has apparently

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
e l ses in the spirit world and he has failed to
,

p erceive the concept of spirit identity I n.th e

s pir xt world also good and bad act ions have

,
'
t hei r e ffects on the spirit s li f e But there is a
.

v ast di fference ; every action is not to be paid

i n kind Y ama R aj while deciding a particular

.

c ase tak es into account the good and had

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

m ent o f a plane In this way we clearly see

.

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

a n d improvement and not as per fect and

c omplete . I f this assumption be true , the
98
 THE REA T MYSTERY
G or u rrz -
B EYOND DEAT H
E volu tion : 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

1 00
 THE THEORY OF RE -BI RTH
t ies to come out success fully lies in store f or
,

h im. We thus clearly see the motive behind

t he process of evolution .A ll that the Cr eator
d esires is the gene r al advancement of all the
s ouls . We may further say that the whole
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 ,

g o a l is not far o ff. But in,most cases such ,

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

p eceding
r paragraph we have assigned too
,

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

1 01
T HE GREAT M YS TERY O F LI F E BEYOND 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

o r exact the m as the , case may be in 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
p ersons in f avour o f it I know however o f .
, ,

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 .
, ,

1 02
TH E GREAT MYS TERY OF L I FE B EYOND DEATH
m eans th e best station in l ife The s urround.
~

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

,

n o t exist and there lies before you a path

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
s till n ew . But the g r ave danger which stares
, ,

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

impediment to spi r itual progres s But it is .

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
.

104
 THE T HE ORY OF -
BI RTH
RE -

an d not be a burden to others and i f he is able

t o make both ends meet by f air 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
s om e relief This sort of birth is in a way the
.

a cid test which can be applie d to so u ls o f a ll

t ypes . There ar e a few other classes o r sub

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 .

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

1 06
T HE GREAT MYSTERY OF L I FE B EYOND DEATH
c ause ? I ask my readers I f my ability does
.

n o t fail to analyse the problem under n o rm al

c ircu mstances , is it not the multiplicity of
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

e xistence is a question which w ould give
g ood food for r eflection and speculation to an
i ntelligent man . But I think it is none o f our
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 .

middl e class people with ideas which

‘

a re

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

1 08
 THE THEO RY OF RE -B I R TH
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
,

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 ,

o n e w ould call it no training Anyway , it is

.

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

,

ex istence .They are very pec uliar in this

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

p ic u o u s by their absence They never aspire
.

to progress either materially or spiritually .

P e r haps they seem to advocate stagnation and

they are certainly stagnation incarnate I
1 10
TH E GREAT MYSTERY L IF E B EYOND DE AT H
'

OF

A s a matter of f act , we performing the ar e

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

1 12
 THE TH EORY O F its-13 mm
e 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

serv ic e, I f or one am inclined to thin k
a nd that too with good rea sons that
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

1 13
T HE GREAT MYSTERY O F LI F E B EYOND DEAT H
'

m ental trend o f the divine beings ; 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

1 14
T HE GREAT 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
s o u l , t he rigors of death are the o nly
p unishment and a short li f e is given in s uch
c ase s to furnish an occas ion f or inflict ing that

p unishment .This explains the phenomenon

o f still -births also S hort lives of say four or
.

fi v e years or even more may be n eeded in ,

s ome cases to complete a period o f time , and

n o t to add any experi ence for granting pro

,

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 ?

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 .

1 16
 T HE THE O RY OF 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

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

,

g o beyond the limit of 3 0 -7 0 that is a soul

, ,

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 But in n o rm a
. l cases , the pro
o rtion is nearly 5 0 5 0 The change 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 .

1 18
T HE GREAT MYST ERY O F LI FE B EYO ND DEATH
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

1 20
 A DA Y I N T HE L IFE OF 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
12 1
T HE GREAT MYS TER Y OF L I FE B EYOND DEATH
to 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

p a rt ic ular li f e o f their o w n though th e y,do in
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

‘

p osition to take up duties that relate to such

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
, ,

1 22
THE GR EAT MYST ER Y O F LI FE B EYOND DEAT H
a 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 ges ,

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 .
.

1 24
 A D AY I N THE LI FE OF A SP I R IT
W hat purpo se they can serve is l
enough
c ear .

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
chapter , these are bound to help them in
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
1 25
THE GREAT MYSTERY OF LI FE B EYOND DEATH
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

L oka are in a position to do some work I . .

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 ,

1 26
TH E GREA T MYS TERY O F LI FE B EYOND DE ATH
of 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
all such duti es We shall therefore tak e up
.
,

only a few of them O ne o f the most

.

important of such duties is attendance on

g o ds
. P e r haps at this juncture it migh t be ,

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

a n d we call them gods S uch beings who have
.

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
.

1 28
 A DAY I N THE L I FE OF A SP I R IT
t he true spirit of service It is only in their .

o fficial capacity that they seek other spirits

’

h elp . Even f or this wo r k nobody is forced ,

t o help them and the service is absolutely

,

v oluntary Ve r y often it is di fficult to select

.

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

p a r ag r aph we said that
, gods req uire some
h elp and it is ve r y common that such aid is
n ecessa r y in solving problems which con f ront

e very plane This duty thus in a way falls

.

u nder the classification of domestic or local

d uties . It should not be supposed that petty
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 _

p u r pose The
. wo r k does not call f ‘
o r high
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 .

1 29
 THE GREAT 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

1 30
T HE GREAT MYS TERY or LI FE BEYoND DEATH
n ear ly all spirits are eager to cat ch the first
o pportunity which they come acr o s s to
e stablish c ommunic ation with the livin g It
.

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

.

i s however very small ' F urthermore we find

.
,

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

t he pa r ties .It is in the interest of all to ca ll
v arious spi r its ; and spi r its should also m ake it

a point to have as many medium friends as

p ossible .In this way the two worlds w ill tend
t o become one unit and there will be no larg e

g aps between the two types of persons o f the

s ame C r eator In a way this book is desi gned
.

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
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

,

1 33
T HE GREAT MYS TERY OF L I FE B EYOND DEATH
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
p r ejudice A ssuming
. for a moment that the ,

g uess is unbiased even then the probability

,

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
g uesses being incorrect A t the same .

t ime , there no obj ection if such

g uesses a re taken in a lighter mood and t r eated
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

h ave to experience Human life is known to
.

u s and I need not describe its routine ; but we

s hall no w take up the spiritual li fe as it is ,

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

e xisten ce are not in a position to sleep Thei r
‘
.

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 .

P erhaps this may sound a bit absurd A spiri t .

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

.

activity is to give repo r ts Those who a re

.

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

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 .

1 37
 CH AP TER VII

TH E B O NDS W ITH TH E WO R LD

W o r d ly a ff e c tions Change o f sp h e e a fte r r

death I fl o f pl on tempe ament o f

“'
‘
—
n u e n ce an es r

spi its Condition o f f eelings b e f o e death M ediu m s

r —
r —

and c oldness o f spi its U f l fill d desi es S h add h a

r —
n u e r —
r

and t h e p og ess o f spi its B lood elations and

r r r — -r

f iends A tt a c tion at fi st si ght

r -
r r .

W ordly f ection s : Human existence has

af

its o wn charms spoken of as maya by the

I ndians or wo r ldly bonds by the E nglish s peak
-

i n g people These words so far as I kn ow

.
, ,

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 .

n o t a happy one V iewed f r om a practical

.

p oint of view it is nothing but

, the outcome
of close and continued association with certain
p e r sons S eeds of good relation ar e sown and
.

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

1 38
THE GREA T 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 .

1 40
 THE B ONDS W ITH THE W ORLD

In 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

r elations
, we have to consider the part which
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
connections with them Mutual advantage
.

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

- -

1 41
THE GREA T MYS TER Y OF L I FE B EYOND DEAT H
‘

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

,

1 42
 THE GREAT MYSTERY OF L I FE B EYOND DEA TH
”

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

lane spi its which are the desires of fond
‘

-
p r ,

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

a n d this attitude on thei r part often invites

unwarranted criticism of being regarded as
'e ither status o r intelligence snobs ; but this
— -
,

I S not true in so far as such an attitude is

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
s tatus or brain power But this is inevitable
. .

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

i s the dominating trait All talk o f past

.

1 44
 THE BO NDS WITH TH E WO R LD

r elationship is thus out o f place ; feelings do

n o t play any important part in their live s .

Th ey are always eager to avoid people who

'

w ould drag them to wo rd ly desires In this.

,

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

g auge the f eelings o f persons in the seventh
s tage who are god li k e P erhaps I do not
‘

-
.

p ossess enough powers to read their minds

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

,

s ometimes . Their feelings cannot find a

s uitable expression because mediums have
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

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
.

i n the same way remember them with the

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 .

1 46
 T HE GREAT MYS TER Y OF L I FE B EYOND DEATH
w orldly desires are satisfied and in a way the
ready to meet his end But , in the
'

p er so n is .

i mperfect human world there are certain

,

p ersons whose lives are not normal a nd they

d ie at a time when they are not prepar ed to
face the inevitable death W hen they d ie ,
.

t heir m i ssmn o f life remains u nf ulfi ll e d and

t heir desires unsatisfied They are naturally
.

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

g reat . S ometimes when even everything is
n ormal a particular problem may be facing
,

t hat pe r son and this may create a state o f

i

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

s hip. Even if some o f them can find a

m edium that medium may not be in a po sition
,

t o br i ng about the reunion F urther the dead

.
,

p e rson realising his or her inability to do

a nything towards the achievement o f those
o bjects assum es an air of contentment , and
g radually their un fulfilled desires beco me a
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

1 48
 THE B ONDS W ITH T HE WO R LD
to do so ; but in every case time is the bes t
c ure and gradually these excited f eelings coo l
,

dow n and normal conditions prevail Bu t .

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

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 .

o rig in al idea was to appease the departed

'
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
”
s r r r r r r

t o an i sue is e d by m a t the p ibility f a cti o n s n

s ra e s o o ss ~
o o

the p t of th l ivi ng do ing g ood t o the so ul s of th

.

ar e e
d p a ted
e r .

1 49
T HE GREAT MYSTERY OF L I FE B EYOND DE ATH
d o they help their further progress The only .

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

h elp their dear ones But i f a person knowing
.
,

a ll these facts continues to perform the old

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

g enesis of bonds with the world has been
d iscussed before . But most of you are
p e r haps anxious to know whether near
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

1 50
 CH APTER VIII

THE PO WERS A ND D I S A BILITI ES or

S PI R ITS

Ment a l po we s G I Ele m ental s

r —
d haunt
en e ra —
an

in g E vi l c ons que n c e s of he lp f om e le m ntal s D

—
e r e —
r
d in yar pi it s Highe sp i i t s
s r — In spi at i on A d
r r : r —

v ic e G uesse s a bo ut f utu e A c c ess t

—
divi ne r —
o

souls~ M ed ium s i fl
—
M ate i ali s a ti on D eta il
'
n u e n c e— r —
s

of n ext bi th A tten d a n c e o n m ed iu m s Vis i o n P

r — — —
ro

du c ti o n o f soun d M e mo y K no wled ge of p a st
—
r —

b i th T ans m is si on o f news Boons S p i i t s a m o ng

r —
r — —
r

the m selve fil m p n ti an d m islea di ng

s— er so a 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
i

.
, ,

even a casual observer finds that detailed in fo r ~

mation cannot be obtained from the spirits ;

and an atmosphere of vagueness pervades
spirit communications This tende n
- cy is all the .

m ore pronounced on account o f the fact that

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

1 n clu d e the element als among the spirits Bu t .

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

,

powers than average spirits . W hat are the

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
p ro f e s s to k no w all the details about them .

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
1 53
T HE GR E A T MYSTERY ,
o r L I FE B EYOND DEAT H
is 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
h aunt . But it should be made clear that
,

s pi r its cannot and do not hau nt , even though

t hei r desires are not satisfied It is only an

'

e lemental who is capable o f haunting ,

e specially when his desires are not satisfie d .

H aunti ng has usually a bad odour because ,

i t directly impl i es the element o f injury to

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

a ble . S ome of my mediums have often

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
,

p erson whom he des n es to trouble F urther .

,

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

154
TH E GR EAT 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

r
.
,

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

1 56
 THE PO WERS AND DIS ABI L ITiES OF SP IR ITS
when the mind is deprived o f the o pera tion co -

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
a nd mentally we find that they are endowed
,

w ith one very important po wer and that is of

1 n sp1 r1 n g others Many of the mediums think
.

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
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
.

1 58
T HE GREAT MYSTERY OF L I FE B EYO ND DEAT H
Access to d ivin e so u ls :
These high spirit s
a r e either in the fi fth sixth or the seventh
,

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

g rievance as the case may be Be it said to .

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
,

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
r eal isation of the real situation We are asked
.

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 .

1 61
 T HE GREA T MYST ERY OF L I FE B EYOND DE ATH
1have seen spirits who are by their na ture
[
, ,

v ery re served and f eel very unh appy when

t hey are made to talk With some spiri ts the
.

c ommunal or the feelin g of being say a

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

i s also true The weak nesses o f human

.

n ature a r e also present in the spirits and dis

c rimination among mediums and spirits is

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
.
,

n owadays better relationship exists between

s pirits and mediums of different nationalities .

Materialisation : In the Introduction w e said

s omething abo ut materialisation and , i f I
'

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

1 62
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 ,

that mate r ialisation wa s 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

,

1 64
 THE POW ERS AND D I SABILITI ES OF SP I R ITS
to 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
p lane f o r nea r ly ten bi r ths
. This is the
p unishment so f a r as the spi r it is concerned .

B u t the medium tempting to elicit the

i nformation has to su ffer , not while on the
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

t o tr y this ha r mful expe r iment Y ou must
.

be a ll the while wonde r ing why the author ities

d o not desi r e such facts to come out . But the
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 .
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
tu alism in India .This is evidenced by the fac t
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

p owers a r e there emerge out o f the brain A s .

1 66
 T HE
. GREAT M YSTERY OF 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

b e sent without such t r ouble S o much for
.

t alking .But as regards p r oduction o f sound ,

t h e spi r it is not in a position to c r eate any sound

n o r does any substitute exist for it I had a
.

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 ,

an d I agr ee with him because the nature of

,

ou r duties o r the pleasu r es in which we

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

p ollute the divine atmosphe r e which is devoid

o f any k ind of distu rbance But my argu
.

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

,

o u t of it At this point it must be made clear

.
,

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
e xtent , l n the O uija B oards because some
,

s ound is p r oduced .The elementals however

d o possess this powe r and this is often proved
w he n they make noises by tampe ring with
o u r fu r niture and such other small pieces .

P roduction o f sound is thus not rare but

t otally absent so far as the spirits o f the dead
“

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
m e n tal powe r s But this is not absolutely
.

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
considerably weakened Memo r y stands in
.

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

after one dies Memory does not r emain
.

pe rmanently weak however because as soon

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
1 70
 T HE GREAT MYS TERY or u ps BE Y O N D DEATH
n ot to be found ; either one o f the mediums
o r both are not e fficient or the spirit d o es not

p o s sess the necessary ability or the conditions

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

o f c o nside r able impo r tance . This should
s u ffice to explain the impediments which lie
i n the path of successful tr a n sm 1 ssm n of
messages S imila r conditions obtain in the
.

c ase of messages to be sent to spirits But .

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

,

p assed between them at once ; while in the

o ther case the t r ansmission o f the message
,

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
o f spi r its of all classes to give boons It .

s hould not be thought howeve r that spirits

a re not in a position to help o th er s beca u se

those spirits who are in touch with divine

s o u ls can m ake requests to them to favou r a

p a r ticula r s o u l Thus an indi r ect method of

.
,

c onfe r ring favours does exist Bu t

. in , .

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

.

only when they have had no per sonal

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
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

t he resu lt . All this depends upon various
o ther factors and no definite causes can be

g iven . I am su r e you must have got adequate

p roof of this side of th e spirit life in the course
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
r elationship can be clearly seen In this cas e
.
,

as in many other cases the element of time

,

p lays a very important part But as a gen eral

.

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
t he world o f the living rathe r than to the
,

spi r its b ecause the system of communication

,

is such that spi r its can imper sonate other

S pirits if they care to do so S uch impersona
.

tion often passes undetected and the person

c oncerned is naturally misled if not deceived
, .

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 .

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
or —
r —
e

in c a nation A mbition M ksha M e ge t h e pe

r — —
o —
r r, en

lia end L ongevity o f li f e G d F o m ; esi d en c e

r — —
o : r r

pow e s ; da shan elation to othe gods The C

r r ; r r —
re

ato vs Yama F inal in fluen c e ove t h e wo ld P

r .
—
r r —
u r

pose f C eation
o r .

A im of l if e in wo rd ly
e se : In the p r eced s n

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
.

1 76
 T HE F I N AL GO AL

l i fe beyond dea th though they might have

s ome vague no tio ns about it Salvation or
.

m erger is not their final go al and they never

,

s eek to make any special e ffort to gain it .

S til l however we know that most of these .

people do wo r ship G o d an d pray to Him not ,

t o advanc e them spiritually but to , redress

t he 1 r unhappiness in this very worl d This .

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 .

177
TH E GREAT MYfl fi-
BY O F LI FE B EYO ND DEAT H
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
1 78
T HE GREAT MYSTERY O F LI FE BE YO ND DEATH
and deaths we would not be able to get
,

a dequate experience and a change o f sphere

would be impossible . W e clearly see

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
g uide our activities in various births This .

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

t o progress furthe r and further V ery o ften

.
,

c onten tment is conside r ed as the be st quality

which a human being should acqu ire f or

s piritual advancement . This is a point how
ever o n which many people have expressed
d ifferent opinions . Taking a rational view
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

p rogress and that too both materially and
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

,

1 80
 THE F I NAL GO A L

is 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

part Further such salvation is n o t possibl e
.

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

,

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 .

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 .

Merg er, the pecu liar end : Merger or salva

tion is the final stage in the natural evo lution
o f a soul . It is a promotion from the seventh
s tage or the D eva L oka But one thing that
.
,

d i stinguishes merger f rom other stages of

e v o lu tio n is that it puts to an end the individual
'

e xistence . It relieves the soul who gets

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

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
may ove r power the so u l Moreover the
.

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 .

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
-
.

1 85
TH E GREA T MYS TERY OF L I FE B EYON D DEATH

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

c onceive some form for this G r eat S oul but ,

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

,

o f many souls which we possess is only a ,

s park o f energy and that the re is no matter .

Y et we must not forget that G o d , being able

,

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 .

1 88
 THE F IN AL GO AL :

In 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

s oul He can improve the status of a

:

p a r t l cu la r so u l in the world He may merge ,a

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

a lso ,
He h as no limitations o f physical Senses
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

1 89
THE GREA T 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

1 90
THE GREA T MYST ERY OF L I FE B EYOND DEATH
o fD eath or the D estructor and the S upreme ,

Be ing or the Cr eator and the gen eral adm inis

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

c abinet The functions o f this body are
.

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
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

1 93
T HE GRE AT MYSTERY OF L I FE B EYOND DEA TH
a re gener ally very smooth and cordial and
t hey always take an important step a fter
c onsul ing each other .O ccasions o f impo rtant
d ifier e ces o f opinion are v ery rare and in
c ase such a sharp di fference of o pm i o n
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
.
, , ,

t he Trinity Himsel f and all

, these separate
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

1 94
 T HE GREA T MYSTERY OF L I FE B EYOND DEATH
a 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

d to

d o this. It is also believed in authoritative

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
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 THE F I NAL GOAL
an d nephew for the extremely cordial suppo r t
and help which they have given me in
b ringing out this book . W ithout their
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