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Wednesday, December 24, 2008

DOES SOUL EXIST---I CAN NOT SAY---BUT??????

On 29 November 2008, I was attending a marriage at Ferozepur. I got a call on my mobile from my youngest sister from Himachal Pardesh asking me if everything was Ok at ancestral home where my father had been living with my two younger brothers and their families. I asked her the reason for this funny question. She blurted out that she had got our DEAD MOTHER in her dreams. Our mother had told her that she had come to take away our father with her. I just dismissed it and carried on enjoying the drinks. I returned to Chandigarh in the morning of 30th November 2008. In the evening, I got a call from my youngest brother, around 1733 hours, about the sad demise of our father. I had been with my father just three days before i.e. 27th November 2008. He was OK--there were no signs of any problem, though he was unable to walk due to knee problem since long.
My father expired almost one year after my mother had left for her heavenly abode. She had bid us all good-bye on 22 October last year. On 01 December 2008, we carried out the last rites of our father. On 02 December 2008, I carried his mortal remains to Haridwar to immerse them in the GANGES and returned to my village in the early hours of 03 December 2008. A function is carried out on the 10th day after death---it is called DASNAHAN (10th DAY BATH). As it was TUESDAY on the 10th day, i.e. December 9, 2008, it was decided to pre-pone it by one day. It was organised on the morning of 8th December 2008. Same day, in the evening, around 1915 hours,I was sitting with my brothers and cousins in the drawing room of our ancestral house. We were all seated on the floor. We were discussing HINDUISM. My cousin, HARSH VARDHAN, who is a school teacher, had read my article on HINDUISM on Sulekha. He chided me that I had reproduced the words of my father in verbatim. We started discussing. Suddenly, then, I get a call on my mobile. It was a 'missed call' from an unknown number. I dialed out the number. I got the reply,"THIS NUMBER DOES NOT EXIST".
Precisely then, a thought came to my mind to record our discussion. I had this MOTOROLA mobile---touch phone---which can take video clips. I started taking the clip. As soon as I started, I saw two lights flickering in front of my cousin HARSH VARDHAN. They were something like the tips of a burning candle. I started following the flickering lights---without knowing what were they--not suspecting anything. I moved the camera focus towards the cemented Almirah in the wall. At this precise moment, a white shadow light comes out of the embedded CEMENTED ALMIRAH and moves towards the mantle on the wall where my father and mother's portraits were kept. The white shadow stops in front of my father's photo and it is almost joining hands to pay respect to it. I was recording all this unconsciously. I took a second video clip. At this point of time, I asked HARSH, my cousin, "OYE, BILOO, TERE SAAMNE YEH DO LIGHT KYA JAL RAHI HAI. (Hey Biloo, what are these two light in front of you.)". He responded quickly, " KONSI LIGHTS? KUCHH NAHI HAI. "What lights? There is nothing here.)". I immediately stopped taking the clip and looked at Harsh with naked eyes. There was nothing. We were surprised.
I, thereupon, called HARSH to see it through the camera. He saw it and was stunned. My youngest brother, who is a science lecturer, thought I was playing a prank on them and he rubbished it. I called him out to see it. When he came to see there was nothing being seen now other than the two photos and the cupboard. We took this video clip too. We compared the three video clips and got surprised. The first video clip clearly shows a WHITE SHADOW EMERGING FROM BEHIND THE CEMENTED ALMIRAH EMBEDDED IN THE WALL--going towards my PARENTS PORTRAITS and POSTURING AS IF PAYING RESPECT TO MY LATE FATHER. It also lights up my father's photo. I do not know what is it. But it has been recorded on my MOTOROLA MOBILE. The second clip has also recorded the same things but there is nothing of the white shadows in the third clip. It only shows blank cupboard and the clear two portraits of my parents. Whoever I have shown these clips, they agree that it were my father's and mother's souls who had visited us. It seems to me too. You are welcome to see these clips on my mobile.I am embedding two relevant clips at the end. One contains a WHITE shadowy figure the other is absolutely clear:-
The first clip (1208_191312.3gp) gives out;-

My brotherASHOK and another cousin sitting on my LEFT---next to the bed, followed
by BILOO(Harsh Vardhan--my Cousin) in front and my youngest brother KRISHAN on RIGHT of BILOO. All of us are seated on the ground. kindly note:-

TWO flickering lights in front my cousin HARSH VARDHAN (BILOO)

A white SHADOWY figure coming from the cemented CUPBOARD and bowing in front of the portrait of my father.

Also note the DOUBLE FACE on the PHOTO FRAME of my father.

The second clip(1208_192441.3gp) 30 seconds later gives out a clear
picture of my FATHER and Mother's portrait and also the CUPBOARD in the
WALL. The flame initially in this clip is on my right. It is of the POOJA performed in the evening. It was on my right when I took the of first clip. It does figure in the first clip also---when I am surveying the room.
My father was a very spiritual and a well-informed person on Hindu way of life. He was a self taught man and he could enchant you with his deep knowledge of VEDAS, PURANAS and other religious SCRIPTURES of HINDUS-yet he was NOT an orthodox Hindu. He would examine everything critically and, if convinced, he minced no words in advocating it.
While people flocked to him to seek knowledge, I always debated with him on certain rigidities of Hinduism. He would always dismiss them as aberrations of time. It was he who convinced me that HINDUISM was not a RELIGION---it was a way of life. It was he who explained to me the difference between the ENGLISH word "RELIGION" and the SANSKRIT word "DHARMA". According to him, the word RELIGION was a mere PYGMY before Sanskrit word DHARMA. I will like to explain his mind briefly .
Religion was RITUALISATION of TEMPORAL PRACTICES and PROCEDURES. It was a WESTERN thought. This is why PROGRESSIVE WESTERN thinkers evolved and coined the term "SECULARISM"------------the separation of RITUALS and GOVERNANCE-------which encapsulated RESPONSIBILITIES and DUTIES along with social DOs and DONTs. Oriental thinkers, according to him, developed an INTEGRATED view of HUMAN EXISTENCE. Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Sufism---they all take an integrated view of HUMAN EXISTENCE. They never define it in a structured and a layered manner. RELIGION IS A PART OF THE WHOLE AND NOT "THE WHOLE" ITSELF.
The ORIENTAL THINKERS subordinated the TEMPORAL PRACTICES to overall existence. They never separated RITUALS and GOVERNANCE. They CODIFIED it as a way of life. They allowed these codes to develop, modify, grow and alter as the time passed by. This is the meaning of DHARMA, he would insist. He did not see any rigidity in these codes as part of DHARMA. He described DHARMA as a "GROWING CONCEPT" and a "philosophy on- the- move". There was no "ABSOLUTISM" about DHARMA as it was not RIGID. The biggest trait of DHARMA, he reckoned, was its FLEXIBILITY and ADAPTABILITY with the changing TIMES. He used to emphasise that customs and traditions; ethos and norms;values and moralities of DHARMA must alter and modify to suit the diktats of changing times.
To him, to change with the changing times was also a DHARMA. All this is not acceptable within the confines of RELIGION--which is founded on the philosophy of "DOGMATISED TRUTH" and ABSOLUTISM--no scope for debate and discussion. According to him only three things were absolute---i.e. BIRTH, DEATH and "GOD INSIDE YOU". It is this "GOD INSIDE YOU" which exists in a FORMLESS MANNER after your DEATH. "THIS", he said, "WAS ALSO CALLED SOUL".
He would explain as we were all created by god out of his own divine-self---we ought to have his elements within us. And the element of god never dies. This was our soul. All other things about BIRTH, DEATH and GOD were just man made myths. HIS OFT-REPEATED REFRAIN TO US WAS LISTEN TO THE "GOD INSIDE YOU" and NOT TO THE "GODMEN".
He often stated that RELIGION, in isolation, was akin to HERD-PSYCHOLOGY of ANIMALS--no better, no less. According to him, if religion was to be useful and purposeful HUMAN ACTIVITY, it must be loaded with responsibilities, duties and social codes defining collective living in a harmonious manner. In other words, "religion" must become "Dharma". In our parlance, DHARMA is our way of life as per our physical, social, geographical and climatic environments. He would often say, " When you add 'language and living-style' to Dharma---it becomes CULTURE" . By living-style he meant, food habits,dresses, customs, traditions and physical characteristics.
Many years ago, we had a lengthy debate on the EXISTENCE OF SOUL AFTER DEATH. Despite my beliefs on REBIRTH and KARMIC THEORY, I had always reluctantly accepted their existence. I always wanted some scientific evidence. My father would always chide me by saying that I had to first remove the clutter in my mind created by my WESTERN EDUCATION. We had a heated argument on this. The year was 1974. He had then said, if GOD ALLOWS HIM A CHANCE HE WOULD RISE FROM HIS ASHES TO GIVE ME MY PROOF, ONE DAY. IS THIS THE PROOF, he is giving?

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