The souls of people who die such deaths are unable and often unwilling to free themselves from earthly bonds till revenge or justice is attained, so they continue to haunt either just living people or both people and places. However, not all buildings are haunted by spirits on a “revenge mission”. Strong attachments too are a compelling reason behind many “haunting”. In cases where love or attachment to a particular person or object or place is very strong, the powerful love or attachment links are virtually immune to being shattered by death. The march of time doesn’t seem to weaken them.
It is interesting that people living in a haunted building may or may not have had a past connection to a ghost or “dukhi atma” haunting it, but the place that spirits haunt is almost always the same place where their unfortunate deaths took place or the place to which they were very attached when they were alive. This is because the effects of the tragedy or attachment are so powerful that they cannot be wiped away even after the passage of time and the souls too cannot move away.
And so the past lives on, often for centuries, in homes where tragedies or strong attachments have taken place and they become known as haunted buildings. Our old home in Dehra Dun, where my parents lived as part of a joint family was a huge sprawling bungalow called Dilkusha, and the elders in the family were very attached to the side where the bungalow’s largest lawn and garden with exotic flowers was located. They died natural deaths but they were so attached to Dilkusha that their spirits continued to walk in the gardens. Today, the gardens exist only in photographs in our family album but the spirits of family members still stroll where flowers once bloomed. Parts of the bungalow were sold and parts of it were rebuilt into a row of shops, but none of the shops ever prospered and to this day the shops too are lying in ruins and nobody wants to buy them because everyone knows they are haunted.
Here in Delhi, close to my own home are several buildings which have been re-designed and rebuilt, but are still haunted. Curiously, in one case, a husband and wife both died from natural causes within a few weeks of each other. But it is only the husband’s ghost who has stayed behind. He was very attached to his house, and initially when it was decided to rope in a builder to rebuild it, used supernatural means to make it almost impossible to do so. It was only after a bargain was struck — to give his spirit a small room in return for non-interference — that the house could be rebuilt.
Obviously, rebuilding a house doesn’t necessarily dislodge ghosts or spirits. Time and again it has been seen that even after a house has burnt down accidentally or pulled down according to plan, the hauntings continued. In such cases, the first option is to seek help from someone well versed with the supernatural but overall, it is usually better to leave such a place.
Gangajal from Gaumukh, the source of the Ganga river, is often used to counter and defeat the negative forces centralised in a spirit or spirits intent on harming residents of a haunted building. Why Gangajal? Use of Gangajal is common place as part of almost every important puja / ritual performed by a Hindu. Many Hindus crave for a few drops of Gangajal at the time of death as it is believed that it will help achieve “Moksha”. These are matters of faith, of “aastha” and many who believe in modern science would like to discard these as mere rubbish and blind-faith. But actually, there is a scientific basis for the unique qualities of Gangajal.
And so the past lives on, often for centuries, in homes where tragedies or strong attachments have taken place and they become known as haunted buildings.
Gangajal has bactericidal, disease-curing, health-promoting, non-putrefying and purifying properties at levels much beyond any other known waters. This has been brought out in several studies. For example, the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) in its study on “Self-Cleaning” properties of the Ganges carried out in relation to the Tehri Dam, found the Ganga water properties to be unique. Similarly, an Environment Impact Assessment (EIA ) study conducted by WAPCOS Ltd, a “Mini Ratna” and “ISO 9001:2008” accredited Public Sector Enterprise under the aegis of the Union Ministry of Water Resource, Government of India, also found very special features in Ganga water.
However, while sprinkling Gangajal on a person, object or in a home does have a very powerful purifying effect, it does not always rid a person or place of spirits. In cases where Gangajal sprinkling doesn’t work, it is best to seek advice from a guru or person experienced in paranormal phenomena.
Whether just visiting an old building or moving into a new or old one, you should always be very careful. Sometimes, the past that lives on in them is not harmful. For instance, in both the Gwalior fort, where the women of the royal household committed juahar by jumping into a well to escape being captured by the invaders, and in the graveyard at its foot which has the graves of British soldiers and their family members who died unnatural or sad deaths much later, the haunted past still lives on. The same is the case in parts of Ranthambore fort in Rajasthan and elsewhere. But though haunted, none of these places have so far been known to be harmful. But there are many other places, both old and rebuilt buildings, where harmful spirits and energies exist, so you must be alert in your own interests.