Soul searching
…………………
We trudged
through the lanes of Deoghar towards Babadham , a sacred Hindu place of
worship. The ancient temple of Baba Baidyanath is one of the twelve
'jyotirlingas' in India. Baidyanath Dham, is in Santhal Parganas of Jharkhand.
As it
happens in any Hindu place of worship soon we were surrounded by Pandas. It was
irritating but I knew that it was inevitable. I looked at the crowd following
us and I did a random selection. I selected an old panda with a wisp of white
beard and unkempt hair in shabby gerua cloth.
I asked mischievously,”
Why you guys are chasing us so much?”
“What to do?
You are our crop.” He replied honestly.
“How many of
you are there around this complex?”
“1000 of us
depend on the pilgrims for our survival.”
“ok, let us
then proceed to the temple complex.” I said to the discomfiture of my wife. She
usually does not like to have a hanger on around.
The temple
complex has a big yard selling all kinds of items required for puja offering. I
knew these pandas have their preferred shops where they get commission and he was no exception. So it
started with a basket of flowers, some sweets and of course bel leaf which is a
must for Shiva Linga. Finally he took us to shop selling water from Ganges.
For the
first time I came across a shop selling graded water of Ganges. This particular
shop had shelves with water of Ganges arranged like stepped gallery. The bottom
most water in kansa pitcher was the cheapest and costliest was the one on the
top shelf. The bottom one was from Shiva Ganga, which is a pond in Deoghar so
was the cheapest. The costliest on the top was water from Gangotri, then next was
Rishikesh, then from Haridwar and so on.
I
reluctantly purchased the water of Shivaganga from the bottom shelf.
Thus after
getting armed with puja samgri we stood in the queue. The weather was dry and
winter had not yet set in November. Finally we reached the sanctum sanatorium,
a priest guided us to pay our offering to Shiva Linga.
Panda Rameshwar
was all along with us. After our offering to Shivalinga I paid him the usual rate with some extra tips for him being
honest. He was still hanging around with us.
Somehow
after the visit of holy place I was in good mood so I inquired, “Anything more
to see?”
Rameshwar
hesitantly asked,” Will you be interested to visit an ashram ?”
“Whose
ashram?”
“There is a sadhu
who practices occult.” He said hesitantly.
I remembered
to have visited such place during our visit to Tarkeshwar, those sadhus were in
a crematorium ground where fresh dead bodies were being burnt. They were tantriks.
“If it is in
a crematorium then we will not go.” My wife said.
“No, madam
it is a very serene ashram with lots of flora and fauna, you will like the
ambiance.”
“ Ok, lead
us there, we have sometime before we proceed to Maithon.” We got in our taxi
and he guided it to the destination.
The ashram
was just outside the town, we drove through the gate on the gravel road with
trees lined to a quint thatched hut. We could hear various birds chirping. A
pond was visible behind the hut.
We got down
from the car and Rameshwar led us to the hut.
I was
surprised to find a very young sadhu sitting on a raised platform inside.
“Arey
Rameshwarji come in, oh you brought some guests.” He smiled at us.
He invited
us to sit on small stools which were strewn around. He asked someone to bring
water for us.
Behind the
sadhu there were almirahs with glass panes. I could see some scientific
instruments on a table. There were canisters and bottles inside almirah. It was
looking more like the chamber of a homeopathy doctor.
He was
watching me closely and laughed seeing my dismayed look.
“Are you a
man of science?”
“Yes, I am
an engineer.”
“I am a
scientist of occult science.” He said with a twinkle in his eyes.
I never
heard such term as occult science. About occult every religion has something to
say.
“Is occult a
science subject?” I asked.
“When
Jagadish Chandra Bose was doing research on botany then there was no subject as
botany so he was known as physics professor similarly I am a master in physics
and did doctorate in metaphysics but practice occult.” He answered.
“What is
your subject of thesis?” I asked.
“Soul!” He
replied.
“Anything to
do with paranormal?” I asked
“Not really.
As you know our body is mortal but our soul is immortal. I try to locate those
souls.” He said solemnly.
“You mean
those souls which left body.”
“You will be
surprised to know that through my research I have found that the soul does not
die but it disintegrates in many parts. Many religions believe in rebirth but
then the number of birth would have been constant, when one dies that soul goes
in another body and another one is born so on. But in reality the population is increasing
exponentially, how do we explain that? My theory is because each soul gets fragmented after leaving the body and so enters in multiple bodies thus population increases.
All the souls of the world freely migrate in stratosphere.” He patiently
explained.
“Lobsang
Rampa talked about astral travel of soul in his book, Third Eye. He was a British
and claimed that a Tibetan lama’s soul inhibited his body. Is it something like
that?” I was eager to show off my knowledge.
“Not exactly
that. You see those canisters; I have captured some passing souls from Europe.
I mean fragments.” He pointed to the almirah behind him.
I did not believe
him but to humor him I said,” Is there fragment of Hitler’s soul ?”
He knew I was
not serious but sportively he ignored my flippant barb. He got up and brought
a canister with a spout with a pump like arrangement of an inhaler.
“I could
capture some of the local souls of talented people; here is one fragment of soul of a mathematician.”
“What do you
do with the souls such captured?”
“These souls
don’t recreate but get mixed with existing one. We inject these souls to those who need some kind of booster."
“But then a
person will have multiple personality.” I queried.
“Aren’t we
all having different personalities while dealing with situations, so no harm
having multi soul in one body? After all our mind is the commander which is
capable enough to decide which soul to use when.”
“We may
become like Dr.Jekyl and Mr.Hyde.” I said hesitantly.
“Now we are
getting somewhere in the discussion.” He said with a smile and continued,"In the film Exorcist a bad soul enters the body of a girl, then the girl was having two souls."
“How do you
inject the soul?” I asked eagerly.
“It won’t be
effective for you as you have a matured soul. Mostly people with disturbed
child come here; I examine those young ones and then prescribe soul for them.
Sometimes people with some near one dying come for soul but these souls are of
no use in a dying body as the other soul which is inhibiting won’t allow any
other soul to enter. It is not elixir of life. As far as injection is concerned there is elaborate method which i can not share with you.”
My wife who
was not enjoying the talk said,”It is getting late, we must leave.”
I
reluctantly got up, thanked the young scholar of soul and proceeded to our car.
“Amazing
story!” I told Mr Trivedi, who narrated his experience to me in my office
chamber over a cup of coffee.
“Do you
believe that claim of injecting soul?” I asked.
“After watching
the politicians changing their color I started believing that it is not the case
of change of heart but change of soul. See that young scion of a leading
political party returning after a sojourn of 45 days or so changed to a new person all
together. He must have been injected with some aggressive soul.” He guffawed.
“haha, well
said.” I joined him in his laughter.
