Pelting of stones by ghosts.
Mahatma Sisir Kumar describes the following sensational incident in the ‘Hindu Spiritual Magazine’ of March, 1906:
“Popular notion in India is that ghosts pelt stones and I had an ocular demonstration of the fact. It was in the month of December, 1897, that I witnessed a scene which proved that there are many things in heaven and earth that are not dreamt of in our philosophy.
I was in the town of Deoghur in my own house situated in an open place. Close to my house was that of one Gonori Mahato which also was situated in an open place. It came to my notice that ghosts had appeared in his house. Shortly after I had heard this I saw Gonori himself. I asked him about the ghost and he said, “Yes sir, it is a pichash (which means a ghost of very low degree). I was a little surprised to hear this from him. For Gonori had become a Christian, and was not likely to put faith in the existence of ghosts, lower or higher. I asked him what the ghost was doing in his house, but he was not communicative and went on his way. I forgot all about it, when a strange incident brought the pranks of this ghost again to my notice.
Gonori, being a milk-man, supplied me with milk, and an Ooria servant of mine went to fetch it. He was brought back almost in an unconscious state by a friend of Gonori just before evening. I asked Shiva, the servant, to explain the reason of his sorrowful plight. He said after great effort, – for he could scarcely utter a word, – that hearing that ghosts were playing mad pranks in the house of Gonori, he had gone to fetch milk a little before the sun had gone down. Evening was just setting in and he was coming with the milk, when, no sooner had he left Gonori’s house than a black and hideous thing pounced upon him and inflicted a blow upon his breast, so that he fell senseless with a groan. Gonori had invited a few friends to his house to pass the night with him to protect him from the pichash, and thus, when they heard his groan, they came to his rescue and brought him home.
On the following morning, I went to Gonori’s house, which was about two minutes’ walk from mine, accompanied by two friends, both of them highly educated and intensely intellectual. His house, as I said before, was situated in an open space where the ghost might conceal himself, but even this would be impossible in daytime if he was a fraud. On entering the house we found a girl of about twelve sweeping the yard with a broom stick, the yard being surrounded with huts and walls. The other inmates of the house, – Gonori himself, his mother aged seventy and his wife about forty five, – were all absent. Seeing that the girl was the only inmate of the house doing household work, we went outside chatting at random, nearly forgetting all about the ghost. My friends were a few yards from me talking together, and I took this opportunity of addressing the ghost in these words: “Sir ghost, if you are here, please shew yourself to us, for we are highly respectable gentlemen and you should behave properly with us.”
No sooner had I said this than a clod of earth came rolling down the slope of the hut near which I was standing. This amused me greatly, for I could not believe that it was actually a ghost that had responded to my call. So I asked my friends to note the politeness of the ghost which had actually listened to my request. They had heard the sound of the fall of the clod, but had not seen it coming down. So they came close to me to examine the clod. I again addressed the ghost. I said: “Sir ghost, this is highly improper, you should be impartial in the treatement of your guests. You have satisfied me but not my friends. Please shew yourself to them also.” No sooner had I said this than there rolled another clod, and this time we were all surprised. But was that girl doing it? No, we could see from our position that she was busy doing her work of sweeping.
I again addressed the ghost, “Sir ghost, remove all our doubts and do favour us again.” No sooner said than done. Another clod of earth came down rolling, following the other two. We were petrified with astonishment. It was about 9 in the morning, the sun was up in the skies, and there was not a speck of cloud. And we three saw this before our eyes in an open field where there were none besides the girl who was sweeping the yard. But no time was allowed us by the good ghost to speculate upon what we had witnessed, for the merry thing now began to roll down stones of its own accord, one after another, in rapid succession. Then clods and stones began to fall in the yard which the girl was sweeping. We ran there and then commenced as it were a perfect rain of stones, pieces of burnt brick and clods of earth. Where did they come from? From the skies? Perhaps. Perhaps not; for some of them struck the mud-walls of the huts horizontally. Of course, we were afraid of being struck by these missiles but luckily we escaped unhurt, but some were hurt subsequently though slightly. For, the fact of this strange occurrence had gone abroad, and people were running to the house from all sides, even from the place. The house was thus filled by hundreds of men in a short time.
As I said, it was broad daylight and though there were hundreds presennt, none could tell whence the stones came. The inmates of the house had come back and they were kept in one place huddled together so that they might play no tricks. But the scene that presented itself (it was literally hailing stones) convinced every one that there could be no trick at the bottom. The yard was soon filled with these clods, stones, etc., and they became almost knee-deep in a short time.
But the most wonderful feats, performed by the ghost, yet remain to be told. A big piece of stone, weighing over a hundred pounds (more than a maund) – which it would be difficult for one strong man to carry, was brought out from the bottom of the well which stood on one side of the yard and thrown in the yard. A little before this we had heard a splashing of water in the well, and the big stone was brought out and made to fall in the yard with a thud. This so terrified the onlookers, that while some fled others took shelter in the huts.
I had a notion that the girl was a medium and it was through her that the ghost was playing his pranks. This notion I gathered by observing one fact. It was: The clods fell most where the girl stood. So, I led her and Gonori’s wife to the eastern side of the house in a field where mustard had been grown, but gathered. It was an open field filled with clods of earth among which, no doubt, the ghost had found some of his missiles. I made the girl and the women sit in the field. There they sat, and wonder of wonders, the clods round them began, as it were, to dance. Thus a clod would rise, say, four or five feet from the earth and fall down. At times more than one clod would thus rise up and fall down. Here then we had the scene of clods of earth in the midst of the field dancing, as if they were imbued with life, and this at about eleven in the day and in the presence of hundreds. It seemed to me that in the field the ghost had not power enough to be able to throw the clods to any distance.
The intellectual critic, after he has read so far, might explain, cui bono? “What do you prove by the incident?” Well, we have not done yet, we have yet to record more wonderful doings of this ghost. Indeed, I succeeded eventually in making it talk to me in its ghostly way. Yet does not the incident, so far as described above, prove anything? Does it not prove that there are more things in heaven and earth than are ever dreamt of in our philosophy, and that the scientists have yet much to learn? It proves that a thing which has no material body can pelt stones and can also possess gleams of reason. Did not the thing, by listening to our request in the beginning, shew that it could hear and understand us? Does not the incident of bringing the big stone from the bottom of the well prove that it had method in its mad pranks? So the incident, so far as has been described, proves that there is no impossibility in a man losing his body yet retaining his physical powers and reasoning faculties. But wait till you have heard the end.
In the midst of this scene, the thought troubled me that it was my duty to make the most of the occasion, for such experiences do not fall to the lot of every man. But I was bewildered, I could not think of a plan how to utilise the occasion, or how to experiment with the ghost who was playing the mad pranks. He was no doubt, we thought, one of a low degree, that is, an earth-bound and gross soul. Was he dense enough to be visible to the naked eye? I tried and tried again to see him but I could see nothing. I then came to the conclusion that I must take time to think over the matter and should commence my experiments on the next day. Yet I could not leave the spot, – I was so enthralled that I had to wait to see the end.
Suddenly a thought struck me that I might as well take the girl to a closed room, and see what the result would be. So I took her and Gonori’s wife to a room, which had walls on all sides, but no windows whatever and only a small door to enter by. We sat all three together and kept the door open. Those who remained, – it was then about 2 p.m. and most having left the place, – stood outside, bewildered. For five hours the ghost had been pelting stones, and when I took the woman and the girl, I saw that its power had got a little weakened. Well, we three sat facing one another. There was almost as clear light in the room as there was outside. I then addressed the ghost, and requested him that now was the time for him to shew wonders. Saying this we remained quiet.
Of course, our people know what a shika is. It is a contrivance made of jute like a sling to hang pots and cups on. A shika was hanging behind me, on which was placed a cup made of sal leaves, containing a small quantity of a sort of coarse pulse grown in those parts, called kurthi. I heard a rustling sound behind me, and on turning my eyes I saw that the leaf-cup was trying, as it were, to leave its place. After some slight efforts it succeeded in raising itself and pouring its contents (the kurthi) upon my ‘devoted’ head. Of course, I was amused a little at this prank though I was also frightened a bit. So the ghost was a wit. I told him, “You have soiled my head.” But the ghost, of course, could not speak, and so I got no answer. A minutes or so later, I heard a noise proceeding again from the same spot. This time I saw it was a wooden bowl which produced it. The bowl, which had also been put on the shika, shewed signs of life, and it seemed that it was also trying to come out of its place of confinement. After some efforts it succeeded in releasing itself and coming towards me. And the bowl now poured its contents upon my head.
All this while the girl and the woman were sitting before me in broad daylight. And what did this bowl contain? It was salt. So Mr Ghost poured all the salt that the bowl contained upon my head.
This was joke number two. And we all three laughed. “Can you speak, even in whispers?” I asked the ghost. No answer. There was a bamboo stick – a lathi, in short, a bamboo club about 5 ft. in length – in the room, leaning against a corner. This was the third object which was seen to shew signs of life. It trembled a little, as if some one was shaking it; then it stood erect. Next it began to move and approach me by short hops, as some birds would do, when walking. And then it seemed to me as if somebody had grasped it with both hands and was, in that manner, carrying it towards me; then it struck the earth with great force. My head escaped by a few inches only. If the club had fallen upon my head, it would have received a serious hurt. It seemed to me that the ghost was giving me a hint to depart and thus escape worse treatment. I had, indeed, to put an end to my experiment immediately and came out. It was then about half past two, the ghost had begun its manifestations a little before 9 a.m. I came home exhausted in body and mind, though with a deep determination to continue the experiments the following day.
On the following morning, I went to the place and found that the girl had fled with her husband. They were Gonori’s relations, and were staying with him as guests. They were told by some mischievous people, that the police would punish them; and this frightened them so much that they fled. I searched for them and at last found their whereabouts, but could not induce them – rather the husband – to come back. We thus witnessed what may be called an occult phenomenon. We saw it along with many hundred others in broad daylight. Any tricks, under the circumstances, would be impossible. Now the reader is left to draw his own conclusions.
We saw an invisible thing giving proofs that it possessed enormous physical powers; that it had consciousness, nay, that it understood a joke. Was it the soul of a dead man that was acting in that way? Of course, the evidence is not conclusive that it was a dead man who was doing it. For to prove this conclusively the “thing” ought to have declared that it had been a man before and then proved his identity by other unimpeachable evidence. But yet the incident carries with it a moral conviction which is irresistable, that it was done by a man who had lived on this earth before.”
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This incident of pelting of stones in the town of Deoghur, was witnessed by the Editor and many hundreds of men in broad daylight, and in an open field, where there was no possibility even for a hare or a fox to conceal itself.
Now it is simply impossible to disbelieve a manifestation like this. The man who does so is either a knave or a fool; no amount of testimony will convince such a block-head of any fact whatsoever.
From ‘Life Beyond Death’ by M.K. Ghosh (1934).