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Thursday, September 20, 2012

Brahma Rakshas - Real Indian Ghost story

Brahma Rakshas, The brahmins ghost - Real Indian Ghost story

This story is about a haunting that happened in my neighborhood 70 years ago to a family who stay near to my house and are also my relatives. I heard this incident from my grandfather who was not directly linked to any of it but heard it from people who were associated with it.

I had already mentioned in my previous post that people from my caste stay near to temples as livelihood is earned by doing work in temples. There was a priest who used to perform poojas (prayer) at the nearby temple who was a part of the above mentioned family. In Hindu religion only Brahmans can become priests and only they have the right to enter the srikovil (it is the main dome inside a temple where the god/goddess idol is situated) and perform poojas. Brahmans need to have good knowledge in Vedas, Upanishads and other pooja mantras (ancient Hindu literature and prayer rituals) as they perform prayer for the well being of the whole universe. Apart from that they follow a very strict and disciplined life by avoiding intoxicants and other unsocial activities. They are vegetarians and during those days it was a rule that people from other casts maintain a distance while the priests are in temple premises so that the priest's holiness is not lost. If lost the poojas offered
 to the god/goddess would have no or less effect. So in short the Brahmans are considered as scholars and holy people.

The mentioned priest was an old man of 70 something. He was a scholar and also had done college which was kind of super cool during those days. He had lived happily with his family making a living by performing pooja at the nearby temple of goddess Karthika devi. But one day his family noticed some that the priest was having some kind blisters all over his body and also fever. So they rushed him to the village doctor who said he is suffering from a deadly disease known as Smallpox.

Smallpox was an incurable disease during those days. Only 1 out of 10 used to survive this disease. Now it's eradicated by giving proper vaccinations to infants. Thank god. There has not been a case of smallpox diagnosed in the past 50 years or so in India. Whoever survived would have lifelong scars on their body and some would go blind. In the starting stages there would be high fever and blisters (kind of real huge pimples) all over the body, even in eyes and tongue. These blisters would later burst and the patient would bleed to death. Believe me its real bad, and the worst thing is that this disease can spread easily so during old days a person who had this disease would be kept isolated. They would be placed in a separate house and servants would provide them with food and water. Apart that practically there was no care or treatment given to the patients.

Sadly the same thing happened to the priest. He was kept isolated in a hut near to his house and was looked after by servants. His children never went near him. He had very bad blisters in his eyes which made him blind. There were blisters in his tongue and throat so he was not able to eat or drink easily. He suffered in that condition for more than 2 weeks and then he died. The servants found that he is dead after 2 days as no one had gone near him for many days. Since his body had decayed he did not get a proper funeral that a Brahman should get. His body was wrapped in clothes and later burnt. Nothing happened for a week's time but later there were some abnormal happenings.

The family had cattle which were healthy, started acting mad. They would start making noises during odd hours. And they started dying one after another without any reasonable disease. Apart from that the family members could hear growling noises all around their house at night. The eldest son had taken up the responsibility of performing poojas at the temple after the priest's death. He used to go to the pond before sunrise to take bath but he would see water marks on stones near the pond. As if someone had taken bath, which was a surprise as the pond was a private property and he was the first to wake in family after his father's death. Then slowly cattle of nearby houses started dying which really stirred up a talk that the priest s soul is not at rest and is very unhappy with the kind of funeral he got. This was confirmed by an incident when one of the family members found marks in the shape of human feet (larger than normal human feet) near to the house. The scary thing w
 as that the leaves lying near to these marks were half burnt.

The whole neighborhood was scared and they called an astrologer to find out the reason behind all these things. Astrologer noticed the marks and later he did some prayers and meditation and understood that this was done by the priest's soul which was not at rest. He said that the priest had become a Brahmarakshas. Usually when a Brahman dies an unnatural death, his soul becomes a Brahmarakshas. These entities are very powerful as they were priests when they were alive. They have a specific pattern of travel or path. It is said that if someone comes in the path of a Brahmarakshas and looks upon him in his eyes he would burn to death. Also they attack and kill cattle's. That explains the death of cattle and the footprint near to their house. The astrologer said that it's not easy to pacify a brahmarakshas but he would try his level best.

Later he performed some poojas and gave a proper funeral to the deceased. They made a Samadhi, a Hindu tomb stone placed after performing proper funeral for the priest and the astrologer asked the family to light a lamp in the Samadhi in the evening before sunset on a daily basis. After that there were no troubles but the astrologer said even though the soul is at peace and would never harm anyone or cause any trouble to cattle unless someone crosses its path. It's said that still now the brahmarakshas walks in a particular area near to its Samadhi. So after a particular time at night no one goes near to that place. Even after so many years his great grand children light a lamp on the priests Samadhi.

Hope you guys liked my story, comments would be awesome. Cheers and take care.

Saturday, September 1, 2012

JALA PISHACH - WATER SPIRIT


The Water Spirit or Jala Pishach

Today I am going to narrate about an incident which happened to my grandfather when he was 16. Most of the people in our caste make a living by jobs related to temple activities.  So my grandfather also used to work in the temple.  During festival season he used to go to temples in distant places to earn some extra money.  

Once he went for such a festival, came back after a week and started his normal chores. It is mandatory to be clean before entering the temple premises. So my grandfather used to take bath in a pond near to the temple before sunrise. My great grandfather, my grandfathers father also used to work in the same temple so they used to go to the pond together. My granddad being young used to dive into water and have a great time. His father used to finish his bath and go to temple early and let his son play in the water for a while. But that day he got worried as my granddad did not come to temple even after 2 hours. 

Tensed my great grandfather asked one of his friends to go and fetch my granddad, when the friend went near to the pond he saw my grandfather floating in the water but his eyes were open and was enjoying what he was doing. The friend tried his level best to convince my grandfather to get out of the water but he would deny all the time. In the end the friend got frustrated and called couple more of guys and plunged into the water. But to their surprise my grandfather dived in and did not come out for almost 5 min. everybody thought he had drowned but after a while he came out of water.  Then they struggled very hard to pull him out. Once out of water my grandfather started talking in a different voice and started abusing everybody.  Later his father came, pacified him and took him home.

Once at home he kept on insisting that he is not clean and wants to go to the pond and take a bath. But his father convonced him and made him sleep. Even though he was worried by the sudden change in his boy’s attitude but ignored it at that point of time. My granddad slept the whole day and woke up in the evening when his father came home from work. At that time he looked normal and had supper with the rest of the family. Everybody slept after supper but my great grandfather, and when he was about to sleep he heard a noise from the nearby room. What he saw baffled him, my grandfather had got out from his bed and was walking towards the front door as if in trance. His eyes were closed and he walked straight towards the well near to our house. And climbed on to the fence and was about to jump, seeing this father came running and caught him at the last minute, took him back to home.

These things continued for a week’s time the whole family was worried as my grandfathers health was also deteriorating. After learning about these happenings,  priest of the temple called upon an astrologer to find out what was wrong with my grandfather. The person came and saw my grandfather and in an instant understood that he was possessed by a Jala pishach or water spirit.  Jala pishach are spirits of people who die accidentally in water.  That’s why people who are possessed by water spirit have high tendency to be near water all the time and that’s what had happened to my grandfather. Then he did some calculations and said that he was possessed by the spirit when he went for that festival. Later my grandfather also confirmed that he had felt some one tried to drown him when he took bath in the pond where he had gone but had luckily escaped.

 The Astrologer gave him a very powerful prayer ( a shloka ) of god Vishnu known as “”sudarshana mantram ““ and asked him to recite twice every day for 30 days. Which he did promptly and was freed from the evil effects of the entity. He lived a very happy life after that and had 5 kids, one of them my mother.  After narrating this story to me he wrote down the powerful hymn and gave it to me, saying I should have it as I am the eldest of his grand children. Thank you for taking time and reading my story and I hope you liked it. I would love to hear your comments and feedback. Cheers.