Soul, Mind and Body by Jayanthinathan

Chapter – 5: Views on Soul by Heraclitus, a Greek Philosopher

So far: The basic characteristics of soul, mind and body were narrated. Soul’s rebirth was proved beyond doubt by the story of Shanthi Devi, which has been well documented and vetted. On the basis of rebirth of the soul of Shanthi Devi, various aspects of the soul were discussed. Then the views of three pre-Socratics’ Greek Philosophers viz. Thales, Anaximander and Anaxemenes were brought in. Thales viewed soul as water and magnet, Anaximander as Infinite and Anaxemenes as air. Now, let us elaborate on Heraclitus’s theory on Soul.

Heraclitus lived like Buddha, was critical like Nakkeerar (Chief Ancient Tamil Poet of Chola King) and thought like Adi Sankara.

Like Buddha, Heraclitus abandoned his riches in favor of his brother and wandered the mountains making his diet of grass and herbs.

Like Nakkeerar, he criticized the Greek Philosophers Hesiod and Pythagoras as frauds though learned and Epic poets Homer and Archilochus as fools deserved to be beaten.

Like Adi Sankara, he propounded his theory stating that ‘all things come out of the One and the One comes out of all things’ similar to Advaita theory. The theory of Heraclitus is known as ‘Logos’. Heraclitus was of the firm opinion that the world is governed by the Logos and so the only wisdom in humans is understanding the Logos.

Heraclitus claimed to know everything and was proud of his only book titled ‘On the Nature of the Universe’. But his writings are very obscure in nature to understand and hence he was called a ‘Riddler’. When he was invited by the King to come to his court to explain his writings, he refused by stating: ‘All men upon earth hold aloof from truth and justice, while, by reason of wicked folly, they devote themselves to avarice and thirst for popularity.’
He was a meloncholy man and it was presumed that he could not complete his book. He is nicknamed as a dark or weeping philosopher.

He had married a wealthy lady who had also made to surrender all her wealth before her marriage and had a son and a daughter who had also been taught to live a namodic life. He lost his vision and treated himself with a liniment of cow manure and baking in the sun, believing that this would cure him. After 24 hours of treatment at the age of 60, he died.

In spite of all these negative aspects, Heraclitus along with Parmenides another Greek philosopher, is probably the most significant philosopher of ancient Greece until Socrates and Plato; in fact, Heraclitus's philosophy is perhaps even more fundamental in the formation of the European mind than any other thinker in European history, including Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.

When Socrates was asked to comment on Heraclitus' book, Socrates replied:"What I understand is splendid; and I think what I don't understand is so too - but it would take a Delian diver to get to the bottom of it."

Obama Barack had got elected on one word – Change. Actually, the theory of change was first propounded by Heraclitus. His famous quote is:One thing in this universe which is permanent is Change. According to him, everything is in a state of flux or change and all beings are going and not remaining at all. To illustrate this theory of the state of flux, Heraclitus brought the simile of river and its flow of water. One could not step into the same water twice, but Heraclitus confirmed that inspite of its flow or change, the wolrd is one unified whole like the river which is constant, yet contains this perpetual change like its water.

‘Enough of Heraclitus and let us have his views on Soul’ - you seem to murmur. Sensing your mood, let me not delay any further.

Soul, according to Heraclitus, is the mixture of fire and water. You know that Fire and Water are opposite to each other and that one is capable of bringing end to the other. But, his Logos is: All Beings are by themselves opposites and all things come into being by conflict of opposites, and the sum of things ("the whole") flows like a stream. This is something like positive and negative being coming together for any existence. According to him, Fire is primordial source of matter.

Fire is the most complete emobodiment of the process of Becoming out of which all things, including even Soul, grow by way of a quasi condensation. But this primordial fire is in itself that divine rational process, the harmony of which constitutes the law of the universe.

Further, Heraclitus explains that things which are put together are both whole and not whole, brought together and taken apart, in harmony and out of harmony and that one thing arises from all things, and all things arise from one thing. This is one example of Heraclitus’s obscure passages for your consumption!

Soul, which is generated out of fire, has a limitless dimension: If you went in search of it, you would not find the boundaries of the soul.

He had also classified soul into dry and wet and even cultured and uncultured. For these, his views are: ‘Drunkenness damages the soul by causing it to be moist, while a virtuous life keeps the soul dry and intelligent. Souls seem to be able to survive death and to fare according to their character.’

Opposites are not for opposing things, but they are there only to conform to the everlasting rational formula of unity, which is called logos. If there are no opposites, then there will be no life left in the universe. This is the fulcrum meaning of the following quotes of Heraclitus: “Day and night, up and down, living and dying, heating and cooling – such pairings of apparent opposites all conform to the everlastingly rational formula (logos) that unity consists of opposites; remove day, and night goes too, just as a river will lose its identity if it ceases to flow.”

From the foregoing, we have known the main idea of Soul as expounded by Heraclitus,who is called a weeping philosopher.

In our next month issue, we will be writing about the views of Democritus, who is called a laughing philosopher.

Chapter 4: Soul, Mind and Body - Views of Greek Philosophers by Jayanthinathan

Chapter 4: Soul as viewed by Greek Philosophers

In the previous chapters, a few characteristics of soul such as rebirth, mobility, and power to penetrate through solid particles such as walls, fortresses, woods, bodies etc. with ease had been dealt with to some extent.

The souls had been differently described by Thales as water and magnet, Anaximander as Boundless Stuff and Anaximens as Air who are ancient Greek philosophers belonging to Milesian School. This school is considered as first ancient Greek philosophic institute and they are called ‘Presocratics’ indicating that they came before Socrates.

Before plunging into the various theories about soul as held by these three Greek philosophers, let us try to know the dictionary meaning of the word soul and other concepts. The Encyclopedia Britannica defines soul thus: “Soul is a spiritual substance. Soul animates the bodies of living creatures. Soul is the principle of life and activity within them.”

Old German conception of the soul is related to sea and it is ‘a living water.’ Early Germanic people believed that the soul of deceased rested at the bottom of the sea. There was a practice amongst the Germans to ritually binding or restraining the corpse of the deceased in the grave to prevent its return as a ghost.

Some ancient Greeks referred to the soul as psyche meaning human mind and anima which means breath and life.

In the New Testament, the soul is narrated as "life", as in : "For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" (Mathew 16:26).

Hence Water, Air (Breath), Life, Mind and Movement characterize soul. In fine, the word ‘soul’ makes living things alive by breath apart from its movement and thinking faculties.

Originally, the Presocratic’s philosophers, in particular, those belonging to Milesia School, had thought that the soul owed its origin to magnet, water, air or none of these, but boundless stuff. We will be taking up the messages of these three greek philosophers viz. Thales (water and magnet), Anaximander (boundless stuff) and Anaximenes (air) one by one.

Thales, Father of Greek Philosopy:

Thales was one of the Seven Sages of Greece. Many regard him as the first philosopher in the Greek tradition as well as the father of science.

Thales of Miletus, who is credited with successfully predicting a solar eclipse occurring in 585 B.C., attributed soul to magnets, as the magnets are capable of moving iron. All living things are to be able to initiate movement and hence magnets must in fact be alive or, in other words, ensouled. Here iron is body and magnetic power is soul.

Thales had not stopped with the theory of magnet to soul. He stated that the origin of all matter is water. The largest constituent of the universe is hydrogen, which makes two of the three atoms in water (H ² O). Scientists believe that liquid water is prerequisite to life, and we know with certainty that the first life forms flourished in the oceans, so water is indeed a primordial substance.

By this, Thales had stated that water which is considered primordial substance, is the basis of all things and the soul is therefore from water. Thales famous quotes is: All things are full of God. Hence, it can be inferred that soul is also godly.

According to Thales, the soul is magnet, water and godly.

Let us now try to know about Anaximander’s views about Soul.

Anaximander:

Anaximander was a pupil of Thales, founder of the Milesian School of philosophy. He succeeded him as master of the School where his work influenced Anaximenes and Pythagoras.

In philosophical treatise, one will come across two words - apeiron meaning infinite or limitless and arkhe meaning beginning or origin. These two words were first introduced by Anaximander.
The Pre-Socratics were searching for the element that constitutes all things. Each pre-Socratic philosopher gave a different answer as to the identity of this element (water for Thales, air for Anaximenes, fire for Heraclitus).

But, Anaximander understood the beginning or first principle to be an endless, unlimited primordial mass (apeiron or infinite). This primordial mass have infinite as its characteristics and is subject to neither old age nor decay. This infinite perpetually yields fresh materials from which everything we perceive is derived.

Anaximander’s principle of things is that the constituent of all substances is not water, air or fire, but they are thicker than air and fire or more subtle than water and earth. Anaximander argued that water cannot embrace all of the opposites found in nature — for example, water can only be wet, never dry — and therefore cannot be the one primary substance and this applies to air and fire as well. He postulated the apeiron or infinite as a substance that although not directly perceptible to us, it could have the characteristics of both cold and hot. Boundless substance should be infinite, originless and both cold and hot. Hence, water, air or fire could not be that substance.

His theory is: Everything has an origin or is an origin. The boundless has no origin. If it is not boundless, then it would have a limit. Moreover, it is both unborn or immortal. The aperiron or infinite is thus the quintesential premordial ground from which everything arises.
The infinite was a kind of primal chaos, a formless and limitless mass, from which solid matter forms and to which it returns.

In Anaximander’s own words: Whence things have their origin, thence also their destruction happens as is the order of things; for they execute the sentence upon one another – the condemnation of the crime – in conformity with the ordinance of time.
Anaximander maintained that all dying things are returning to the element from which they came from apeiron or infinite.

Hence, according to Anaximander, the soul is also boundless and formless mass.

Now, let us consider what Anaximenes had to say about the Soul.

Anaximenes

Anaximenes was the student of Anaximander. He is best known for his doctrine that air is the source of all things. That means that Air is the first principle. He therefore contradicted Thales who had stated that water was the source and also Anaximander who said that all things came from an unspecified boundless stuff. For Anaximenes, everything was air. The air was acted upon by natural forces, which transform other materials of the world. Air can be thought of as a kind of neutral stuff that is found everywhere, and is hence available to participate in physical processes.

The air is associated with the soul-sometimes portrayed as the breath of life and hence with life and intelligence. Anaximenes had thought of air as capable of directing its own development to some extent as soul controlled body. He ascribed to air divine attributes as well.
Anaximenes provided an interesting account of natural change: Air differs in essence in accordance with its rarity or density. When it is thinned it becomes fire, while when it is condensed it becomes wind, then cloud, when still more condensed it becomes water, then earth, then stones. Everything else comes from these. He has pronounced that as our souls, being air, hold us together, so breath and air embrace the entire universe.

Air becomes the basic element for Fire, wind, cloud, water, earth and stone. For soul also, air becomes the basic element.

Anaximenes said that infinite air was the principle, from which all things – even gods and things divine come into being, and the rest from its product. It is always in motion: for things that change does not change unless there is movement.

Movement is, therefore, a prerequisite for changes in things.

Air, which is always in motion, is the cause for the changes in the products so evolved.
For Anaximenes, all things come from air and ultimately are air. Air as the archê or the first principle is infinite, unlimited or unconditioned and therefore unoriginate, from which it follows that it is the source of the other three elements viz. fire, water and earth and the things composed of them. If it were from a source, air would be finite, being limited or conditioned by its source. Since air is infinite and perpetually in motion it can produce all things without being produced by anything. Even the gods and other divine things derive from air and ultimately are air.

Anaximenes said that the air is god and it is boundless and infinite and always in motion.
Soul is therefore air, which is boundless and infinite and is divine.
In our next article, we will know about the views held by Heraclitus and other Greek philosophers.
( To be continued.)

Chapter 3: Characteristics of Soul via Shanthi Devi’s Rebirth

In the previous issue, we had a detailed report of Shanthi Devi’s past life. Now, let us analyze the various aspects of the episode not so much as to the details of incidents, but to resurrect the characteristics of the soul in particular.

Background story: Soul of Lugdi left her body at the Government Hospital at Agra 9 days after the delivery of a son by a cesarean operation. She was 23 years at the time of death. After one year and 10 months and 7 days after Lugdi’s soul left her mortal body, the same soul had entered the body of a female baby at Delhi and the baby girl was named as Shanthi Devi. Shanthi Devi was quite normal till her age of 4 years, but, when she had started talking, she startled her parents. Because she was quite often telling about her ‘husband’ and her past life experiences.

Nature of Soul: There was a gap of more than a year for the soul of Lugdi to have a second life. Then, ‘where was the soul of Lugdi till that time?’ was a logical question. To answer this question, one should know the exact properties of the soul. The soul is supposed to be having a power of movement. But, it is not clear whether the soul’s mobility is inherent in it or is being powered by its mother-spirit. In scriptures, it is stated that the individual soul is part of expansive all-pervasive and all-powerful soul. It will be clear if we name the all powerful mother soul as Paramatma (Supreme Soul) and the body living soul as Jivatma (Individual Soul).

Mobility of Soul: Soul can, therefore, move from place to place by itself or powered and controlled by some force till it takes a body. Space, walls, and structures of any natural materials cannot hinder soul’s movement. Soul can enter water, air, space and earth. Soul can be akin to a subtle immaterial substance. Soul is said to be air as per Anaximander, the Greek philosopher – but it should be more than air considering its vital power of mobility through space and time.
Lugdi soul had traveled from Agra to Delhi to have a body. It is a mute point to know whether Lugdi soul had the power of decision-making – i.e. 1. to choose the female body instead of animal, plant or insect 2. to decide the exact time of entry into the womb 3. the speed at which it should travel synchronizing with its entry into a body to have a life again.

Existence and Exit of Soul:The exit of any soul is again another mystery. It is usually presumed that the decay of the body is the main reason for its exit. But, then why some able-bodied persons’ souls leave their bodies? Breath and Brain are sometimes said to be the deciding factors for the exit of the soul. Even if we amputate the legs and the arms, the soul still lives in the body. Even if our eyes, ears, tongues and even noses are damaged or even removed, those damages or removals will not force the souls to leave the bodies. Even the breath is made to function by artificial mechanism, the soul still lingers in the body. But when the head is severed, then the soul is forced to leave the body.

This leads to an interesting poser: Where does the soul actually rest in the body? Is the heart or brain or both? Normally the damages of heart – difficulties in breathing can be first symptom of the first sign of soul readying itself for its departure, the final signal to come from the brain. As the soul seems to carry with it the memory, which is being controlled by brain, it is logical to presume the damages of heart and brain can be attributed to the reasons for the exit of soul. We are here only referring to natural deaths and not unnatural deaths by suicides and accidents.

In the case of Shanthi Devi, the past memory, which was embedded in the subtle element of the soul, could be activated only after her 4th year when she had attained the ability to speak. That means that the brain in the body needs to be grown along with the other connected organs like tongue and mouth. Then only the brain is activated with the power of memory of the past incidents the main fulcrum being the soul. Perhaps, the soul has no growth; but the soul makes other organs to grow, decay and finally to die with its exit. Existence or Exit of the Soul is the main aspect for the body to know whether it is alive or dead.

Incidentally, have you ever seen an insect bee coming out alive from the ripe mangoes? The insect was imprisoned inside the seed of the mango fruit without air to breathe and nothing to sustain its life. Yet, the soul inside the insect is alive and it makes the insect to come out of its prison like life for many days inside the mango. Who had provided the power to be alive in such a terrible conditions? The growth of the insect was stopped, after its imprisonment in the mango seed or its growth was slowed down due to the precarious atmosphere inside the mango seed – one cannot be sure. It is a real mystery for the sustenance of the soul and body of the insect. Normally, a body with a soul will perish in such conditions, but nature has a different story to tell us!

Can we know and prove Soul’s size, its shape and its weight?

Soul’s size: Soul is said to be a fine element – finer than the finest one. It is smaller than the smallest like atom. ‘Soul is of the size of one’s thumb and resides in the center of one’s body i.e.in the cave of heart’ declares Katha Upanishad. The Upanishad further says: The soul is like a flame without smoke, crystal clear. Let us reserve further probe from such scriptures for our later examinations and it is suffice to say that soul size is smallest of the smallest.

Can we say that the body has nothing to decide about the size of the soul? Are Soul of a big animal like elephant and soul of a tiny insect like ant the same size? Probably yes and theoretically no. It is to be probed whether the strength and size of the organs of particular specie has anything to do with the soul within the specie. If the size of all souls is similar, then what factors are responsible for giving different strengths to different organs of different species. If ant’s soul and elephant’s soul are similar in size and properties, then why there should be different strengths to the bodies of ant and elephant. If we presume that the growth and vitalities of the organs are not the functions of the souls, then one has to think that the body is responsible for these functions, which, on the face of it, are absurd. Let us probe further later and move on to the shape of the soul.

Soul’s shape: Soul has no specific shape, as it is presumed to be the smallest of the smallest. A dot is a smallest shape occupying minimum space. Air has no shape. Fire has no specific shape – it takes the shape of the element on which it was lit. Soul is said to be imperishable, eternal and it is never born or dies. If anything to be imperishable, it should be of immaterial factor. If at all, soul has a shape, then it should be thinnest and finest of subtle element.

Soul’s Weight: There are some interesting incidents in respect of the weight of the soul. ‘When it is presumed that the soul is immaterial i.e. without any mass, then how can there be weight?’ is a good question. But Dr. Duncan Mac Dougall had said that the soul was material and measurable and your presumptions were all wrong.

Hence, Dr. Duncan MacDougall, in the early 1900s, sought to measure the weight purportedly lost by a human body when the soul departed the body upon death. He got the result of 21 grams which has become synonymous with the measure of a soul’s weight.

Experiments such as MacDougall's have not been repeated with current precision equipment and research tools, and snopes.com concludes of one researcher that:
"MacDougall's results were flawed because the methodology used to harvest them was suspect, the sample size far too small, and the ability to measure changes in weight imprecise. For this reason, credence should not be given to the idea his experiments proved something, let alone that they measured the weight of the soul as 21 grams. His postulations on this topic are a curiousity, but nothing more."

Whether the soul’s weight as measured being 21 grams is real or curious, no one has ever proved him wrong scientifically by further experiments by the latest measuring devises. Anyhow, decrease or increase in weight of the body immediately on the death of the person cannot be taken as the weight of the departed soul. Chemical reactions of the body starts immediately after the death and hence such weighments however sophisticated cannot be taken as correct. Above all, soul is said to carry with it the mind as well. Hence, the difference in weight so measured will, if at all, be the weights of both soul and mind and not soul alone. Anyhow, it is prudent to assume that the soul has no weight, as it is ‘immaterial’ with no mass.

There are many more mysteries about soul to unfold in the coming issues. Some famous theories about Soul by the Western Philosophers and Thinkers especially of Greek Origin will be dealt with in the next issue. (To be continued).

Chapter 2 - Shanthi Devi's Past Life Recollections

Re-birth of the same soul has been proved beyond doubts in the case of Shanthi Devi who was Lugdi in her previous birth. Shanti Devi is one of the best cases of children's past life memories. It is remarkable becasue it was investigated by a committee of prominent men appointed by Mahatma Gandhi, who took Shanti Devi to the village of her past-life recollections.
On January 18, 1902, Chaturbhuj, a resident of Mathura, was blessed with a daughter, who was named Lugdi. When Lugdi reached the age of 10, she was married to Kedarnath Chaube, a shopkeeper of the same locality. It was the second marriage for Kedarnath, as his earlier wife had died. Kedarnath Chaube owned a cloth shop in Mathura and also a branch shop at Hardwar. Lugdi was very religious and had been to several pilgrimage places at a very young age. While on one pilgrimage, she was injured in her leg for which she had to be treated, both at Mathura and later at Agra.

When Lugdi became pregnant for the first time, her child was stillborn following a Cesarean section. For her second pregnancy, the worried husband took her to the government hospital at Agra, where a son was born, again through a Cesarean on September 25, 1925. Nine days later, however, on October 4, Lugdi's condition deteriorated and she died.

One year ten months and seven days after Lugdi's death, on December 11, 1926, Babu Rang Bahadur Mathur of Chirawala Mohulla, a small locality of Delhi, was blessed with a daughter, whom they named Shanti Devi. She was just like any other girl except that until the age of four she did not speak much. But when she started talking, she was a different girl--she talked about her "husband" and her "children."

She said that her husband was in Mathura where he owned a cloth shop and they had a son. She called herself Chaubine (Chaube's wife). The parents considered it a child's fantasy and took no notice. They got worried, however, when she talked repeatedly about it and, over time, narrated a number of incidents connected with her life in Mathura with her husband. On occasions at meals, she would say, "In my house in Mathura, I ate different kinds of sweets." Sometimes when her mother was dressing her, she would tell what type of dresses she used to wear. She mentioned three distinctive features about her husband: he was fair, had a big wart on his left cheek, and wore reading glasses. She also mentioned that her husband's shop was located in front of Dwarkadhish temple.

By this time Shanti Devi was six years old, and her parents were perplexed and worried by such statements. The girl even gave a detailed account of her death following childbirth. They consulted their family physician, who was amazed how a little girl narrated so many details of the complicated surgical procedures. The mystery, thus, continued to deepen. The parents started thinking that these memories might have been of a past life.

As the girl grew older, she persisted in asking her parents to be taken to Mathura. She, however, never mentioned her husband's name up to the age of eight or nine. It is customary in India that wives do not utter the name of their husbands. Even when specifically asked, she would blush and say that she would recognize him, if taken there, but would not say his name.

One day a distant relation, Babu Bishanchand, a teacher in Ramjas High School Daryaganj in Delhi, told Shanti Devi that if she told him her husband's name, he would take her to Mathura. Lured by this offer, she whispered into his ear the name Pandit Kedarnath Chaube. Bishanchand then told her that he would arrange for the trip to Mathura after due inquiries. He wrote a letter to Pandit Kedarnath Chaube, detailing all the statements made by Shanti Devi, and asked him to visit Delhi. Kedarnath replied confirming most of her statements and suggested that one of his relatives, Pandit Kanjimal, who lived in Delhi, be allowed to meet this girl.

A meeting with Kanjimal was arranged, during which Shanti Devi recognized him as her husband's cousin. She gave some details about her house in Mathura and informed him of the location where she had buried some money. When asked whether she could go by herself from the railway station to her house in Mathura, she replied in the affirmative, if they would take her there.

Kanjimal was so impressed that he went to Mathura to persuade Kedarnath to visit Delhi. Kedarnath came to Delhi on November 12, 1935, with Lugdi's son Navneet Lal and his present wife. They went to Rang Bahadur's house the next day. To mislead Shanti Devi, Kanjimal introduced Kedarnath, as the latter's elder brother. Shanti Devi blushed and stood on one side. Someone asked why she was blushing in front of her husband's elder brother. Shanti said in a low firm voice, "No, he is not my husband's brother. He is my husband himself." Then she addressed her mother, "Didn't I tell you that he is fair and he has a wart on the left side cheek near his ear?"

She then asked her mother to prepare meals for the guests. When the mother asked what should she prepare, she said that he was fond of stuffed potato parathas and pumpkin squash. Kedarnath was dumbfounded, as these were his favorite dishes. Then Kedarnath asked whether she could tell them anything unusual to establish full faith in her. Shanti replied, "Yes, there is a well in the courtyard of our house, where I used to take my bath."

Shanti was emotionally overwhelmed on seeing Navneet, the son in her previous life. Tears welled in her eyes when she hugged him. She asked her mother to bring all her toys and give them to Navneet. But she was too excited to wait for her mother to act and ran to bring them. Kedarnath asked her how she had recognized Navneet as her son, when she had seen him only once as an infant before she died. Shanti explained that her son was a part of her soul and the soul is able to easily recognize this fact.

After dinner, Shanti asked Kedarnath, "Why did you marry her?" referring to his present wife. "Had we not decided that you would not remarry?" Kedarnath had no reply.
During his stay at Delhi, Kedarnath found Shanti Devi's behavior similar to that of Lugdi in many ways. Before retiring for the night, he asked to be allowed to talk with her alone and later said that he was fully convinced that Shanti Devi was his wife Lugdi Bai because there were many things she had mentioned which no one except Lugdi could have known. Shanti Devi became upset before Kedarnath's return to Mathura on November 15. She begged to be allowed to go to Mathura with him but her parents refused.

Her story spread all over the country through the media and many intellectuals got interested in it. When Mahatma Gandhi heard about it, he called Shanti Devi, talked to her, and then requested her to stay in his ashram. Gandhi appointed a committee of 15 prominent people, including parliamentarians, national leaders, and members from the media, to study the case. The committee persuaded her parents to allow her to accompany them to Mathura. They left by rail with Shanti Devi on November 24, 1935.

The committee's report describes some of what happened: "As the train approached Mathura, she became flushed with joy and remarked that by the time they reach Mathura the doors of the temple of Dwarkadhish would be closed. Her exact language was,'Mandir ke pat band ho jayenge,' so typically used in Mathura.

"The first incident which attracted our attention on reaching Mathura happened on the platform itself. The girl was in L. Deshbandhu's arms. He had hardly gone 15 paces when an older man, wearing a typical Mathura dress, whom she had never met before, came in front of her, mixed in the small crowd, and paused for a while. She was asked whether she could recognize him. His presence reacted so quickly on her that she at once came down from Mr. Gupta's lap and touched the stranger's feet with deep veneration and stood aside. On inquiring, she whispered in L. Deshbandhu's ear that the person was her 'Jeth' (older brother of her husband). All this was so spontaneous and natural that it left everybody stunned with surprise. The man was Babu Ram Chaubey, who was really the elder brother of Kedarnath Chaubey."

The committee members took her in a Tonga, instructing the driver to follow her directions. On the way she described the changes that had taken place since her time, which were all correct. She recognized some of the important landmarks, which she had mentioned earlier without having been there.

As they neared the house, she got down from the Tonga and noticed an elderly person in the crowd. She immediately bowed to him and told others that he was her father-in-law, and truly it was so. When she reached the front of her house, she went in without any hesitation and was able to locate her bedroom. She also recognized many items of hers. She was tested by being asked where the "jajroo" (lavatory) was, and she told where it was. She was asked what was meant by "katora." She correctly said that it meant paratha (a type of fried pancake). Both words are prevalent only in the Chaubes of Mathura and no outsider would normally know of them.

Shanti then asked to be taken to her other house where she had lived with Kedarnath for several years. She guided the driver there without any difficulty. One of the committee members, Pandit Neki Ram Sharma, asked her about the well of which she had talked in Delhi. She ran in one direction; but, not finding a well there, she was confused. Even then she said with some conviction that there was a well there. Kedarnath removed a stone at that spot and, sure enough, they found a well. As for the buried money, Shanti Devi took the party to the second floor and showed them a spot where they found a flowerpot but no money. The girl, however, insisted that the money was there. Kedarnath later confessed that he had taken out the money after Lugdi's death.

When she was taken to her parents' home, where at first she identified her aunt as her mother, but soon corrected her mistake, she went to sit in her lap. She also recognized her father. The mother and daughter wept openly at their meeting. It was a scene, which moved everybody there.

Shanti Devi was then taken to Dwarkadhish temple and to other places she had talked of earlier and almost all her statements were verified to be correct. The publication of the committee's report attracted worldwide attention. Many learned personalities, including saints, parapsychologists, and philosophers came to study the case, some in support and some as critics trying to prove it a hoax.

Lugdi's brother told me that Shanti Devi, after seeing some women there, remembered her old friends and inquired about them. Similarly, Lugdi's sister informed that Shanti Devi told a number of womenfolk about Lugdi having lent them some money, which they accepted as true. Shanti's emotional reactions on meeting relatives from her previous life were very significant. The manner in which she burst into tears on meeting the parents of her past life moved everyone present there

The committee mentioned in their report that it was a blessing that the past lives are forgotten. They felt that by bringing Shanti Devi to Mathura they had taken a big responsibility, and we had to forcibly separate her from the parents she had in the previous life. During the investigations, a friend of Kedarnath, 72-year-old Pandit Ramnath Chaube, told of a very significant event, which was confirmed from other sources. When Kedarnath was in Delhi to meet Shanti Devi, he stayed at Pandit Ramnath Chaube's place for one night.

Everyone had gone to retire, and only Kedarnath, his wife, his son Navneet, and Shanti were in the room; Navneet was fast asleep. Kedarnath asked Shanti that when she was suffering from arthritis and could not get up, how did she become pregnant. She described the whole process of intercourse with him, which left Kedarnath in no doubt that Shanti was his wife Lugdi in her previous life. When this incident was mentioned to Shanti Devi, she said, "Yes, that is what fully convinced him."

Shanti Devi's case is also significant for the fact that it is one of the most thoroughly investigated cases, studied by hundreds of researchers, critics, scholars, saints, and eminent public figures from all parts of India and abroad from the mid-1930s on.

One critic, Sture Lonnerstrand, when he heard of this case, came all the way from Sweden to expose the "fake," as he thought it to be, but after investigation wrote, "This is the only fully explained and proven case of reincarnation there has been."

The remarks of Dr. Ian Stevenson, leading authority on reincarnation are as follows:"I also interviewed Shanti Devi, her father, and other pertinent witnesses, including Kedarnath, the husband claimed in her previous life. My research indicates that she made at least 24 statements of her memories that matched the verified facts."

It is certainly strongly suggestive of reincarnation.

This lenghthy report is the proof of the soul being reborn in this world. It is also proved that the soul carries the mind with it so that the past memories are being remembered.
Hence while the soul leaves the body, the mind does not die, but it is being embedded with the soul.
(To be continued)

Soul, Mind and Body - Chapter 1: Basic Characterisics

Preface:
While body is perceptible, soul and mind are non-perceptible. The mystery of soul and mind and to some extent even body is manifold. Many in the past have written volumes on this subject; still, the mystery persists and even is deepened. Many questions were raised in this regard and many answers were furnished – some complementary and some contradictory.

Sages, philosophers, scientists, religious pundits and even atheists had contributed their theories and to draw a common view or theory is very nigh impossible. Ancient Vedas, Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita and host of many hindu philosophic and religious texts are there to give us a vivid picture on this subject and still, one will have a feeling that the final word is not yet said!
The thesis of Plato, Aristotle, Buddhists and Chinese Ancient Philosophers, Western Philosophers and Christian Religious Texts had also enriched the already loaded literatures on this subject.

The subject was in my mind for quite some time – say a few years. Now, I felt that the time had come to pen down my own experiences and thoughts on the various treatises, theories and philosophies.

Chapter 1: Basic Characteristics

The letters in the three words – viz. soul, mind and body are four letters each. Each letter in these words has some sort of meaning to convey their characteristics.
Let us examine this aspect first.
Soul:
S = Source less
O = Oneness
U = Uniqueness
L = Limitless
Mind:
M = Memory
I = Intellect/Information
N = Notion/Negative Feeling
D = Devotion
Body:
B = Birth
O = Oven (Fire of Digestion)
D = Death
Y = Years (Age)

Soul is variously called as atma, being, that, living force, jivan etc. When we say soul, we often refer mostly to human soul. Then, one can reasonably ask ‘is there any difference between human soul vis-à-vis animal or insect or plant soul?’ Though we can say ‘no’ to this question, we cannot be sure and we cannot emphatically say ‘no’.

What is the reason?
Every Human body contains only one soul and when the human body decays with ailments, then the soul leaves the body which becomes a lifeless one which we call death of the human. Take the case of an insect. Some insect, when cut, becomes a separate entity having its own soul in the separated cut body. Though there are some doubts whether this entity cut out from the parent body has all the characteristics of its parent insect, the fact of a new soul in this new entity cannot be disputed.

In the case of plant also, you can cut a branch and plant it separately in the earth and it grows as a separate entity with its own soul encased. Then, you may wonder even the cut out branch has a soul in it, even after its separation from the main tree. Planting it in the earth is an evidence of the soul within it. But, the soul cannot be there for ever in the cut out branch, as a dried out branch due to its delayed planting in the earth cannot sprout.

There are some animals also having similar properties.

‘Soul cannot be cut’ declares Bhagavad Gita. But, if the body is cut, a different soul enters into the piece separated from the parent body. The soul in the piece is definitely a separate one. Perhaps soul referred in the Gita could be only human soul.

Mind is an important ‘organ’ in the human body like soul. Without soul, there is no mind. In the body, mind is being controlled by brain. Memory vouchsafes mind’s existence.

How does one understand clearly the relationship between Brain and Mind?

The existence of the stomach can be felt, when you feel appetite. In the same way, when the brain starts functioning, the mind is being activated. If the Brain is like stomach, then Appetite is like Mind.

Mind co-exists with soul as far as human soul is concerned. The same cannot be said about all souls, as there are many animal, insect and plant souls, which have no mind or memory.

Body has organs for various functions such as seeing, tasting, hearing, touching, smelling, remembering, reproduction, movement etc. These organs are being controlled normally by brain. If there is no brain in the body of some species, then they have to depend upon other sense organs.

Body is not soul, but, soul needs a body. Body needs a soul for its growth and decay. Mind, which is being identified by memory, accompany its soul. This can be revealed, when cases of some persons revealing their past birth were proved correct. Famous Shanthi Devi’s story has been well documented to prove the rebirth of the same soul later on the demise of the earlier one. A 15 Member Experts Committee investigated this episode under the orders of Mahatma Gandhi, which goes to prove its authenticity. The full details will be dealt with in the next chapter.

(To be continued.)

Soul, Mind and Body

I will be posting my own thoughts on Soul, Mind and Body in series of articles shortly.