'Friendly Ghosts'

   We have strange stories about ghosts. Some are really friendly and of great help! Once a young man returned to his village for a vacation. The train arrived late at night and it was a small station and hardly anybody came by that train at that odd hour. There was nobody when this person got down from the train and the last horse-driven carriage also had left. When he was thinking about his next move, he noticed a person coming near him and enquiring about! Soon he recognized his school master who was very fond of him. After pleasantries, both walked along and finally the teacher dropped him at his home and went away. Next morning, when his mother asked him how could he  reach home at that odd hour, he narrated how his teacher escorted him. His mother was shocked to hear that and said, "Oh, my poor boy, that teacher expired a year ago!   

  In another incident, some college boys used to go back to the village during vacation and spend time wandering together late night gossiping and sharing memories. Once, it so happened that one of their old friends walked passed briskly and sat in the usual place. All the friends were surprised that he did not talk to them and walked briskly away! Later on, they were all taking photographs and noticed a hazy face in the camera in the background! Then they found that the person who walked past them and seen in the camera was none other than an old friend who had died a few months ago!

  Is it an imagination, hallucination, or trick of our mind that we see the dead? In fact, the ghosts do exist. These are subtler aspects of the jiva. Actually, our attachment, the memory, the emotional attachment plays the trick. There was a cubicle on the side walk in Sunnyvale, CA, USA where i found an advertisement which said we can talk to our dead folks for US $ 20. I peeped in and found a Gipsy operating. There was a dimly lit Globe of glass. The modus operandi was simple. Once we enter, we are asked to sit with a black gown covering ourselves and the globe, think of the departed persons and remember incidents, talks, or events. Lo, there appear the figures and the events on the globe! It is in fact, our own impressions that come alive! Our memories are projected with a bit of psychological help from these Gypsies, who are known for such things? 

 Now, the question is about the fate of the soul after death. Do the ghosts exist? Why some ghosts help and some other torture? The answer is simple. The gross physical body is no doubt buried or burnt. But, before the death of the person it is common that the mind and its memory chest is intact and gets back to its source in the soul. The soul is thus, heavy and unable to rise higher! Hence it gets stuck. Some souls remain in the place place where the person died, and some take shelter in the neighborhood waiting for its chance to enter some host. In case of unnatural deaths, the soul waits for opportunity to take revenge. Some are friendly and help while some are simply wandering here and there. However, one thing is certain that they do not come near people who are pious, strong-minded and kind-hearted. The scriptures clearly state how the physical body is gross (sthula) at the outer, and very subtle (sukshma) in its interior. The subtler state of the body that remains after the gross body of the dead person is burnt or buried is what appears to us as the ghosts. Even otherwise, a yogi can always separate his subtle body, leave the gross body and go around and return to normal state! This is called clairvoyance.  

  If a person is of strong mind and know these subtler aspects, there is no need to worry about all these!