I had met Narayan when he was old — almost seventy years. Bijli, less than half his age, was his faithful day time companion. And while a large number of eunuchs prefer to adopt female identities, roles and names, he’d opted to be a male. “Narayan is my name”, he declared proudly, “and I am a natural eunuch”. Natural? “I wasn’t castrated, I was born a eunuch “, he said, thumping his chest.
Conscious of what he described as his “unique status”, Narayan lived alone in a jhuggi, unlike most eunuchs who live as a baradari i.e. together almost like a clan, ranging from four or five to twenty-five to thirty, each band headed by a guru , in a dera. “I am different, that’s partly why I possess supernatural powers, I possess the power of seeing into the future and forecasting whether a particular event will or will not take place”, asserted Narayan.
To do so, Narayan needed to be high on liquor. Sometimes, he seemed to be conversing with an invisible entity and obtaining information from an unseen source. Most people who had known him confirmed that he was usually right, but only after he’s consumed at least half a bottle of desi liquor. And indeed in the three years or so that I had known him, he was never wrong.
Sadly and ironically, Narayan died apparently from a cardiac arrest while he was predicting the future for somebody. But — and this is one of the most amazing cases I have heard about and later observed, Narayan refused to allow death to cut short his predictions. Within minutes of collapsing, his soul entered Bijli, his voice spoke through her and he completed the prediction for his shocked “client”. That happened years ago, but Narayan continues to possess Bijli on an almost daily basis for an hour or so and she doesn’t mind or want him to leave either. “We were together in life. We are together after his death. I know we’ll travel on to the other world together.”
In the case of normal men and women, if the death has happened due to somebody else, the spirit is possessed by a strong desire for justice. If the spirit was a strong personality while alive, it takes very little time for the spirit to begin carrying out its plans. It is not easy for a spirit to enter a living person’s body and take total control of it immediately. But strong willed spirits have the power to do so even soon after dying. The living person’s voice changes, behavior changes, facial expressions and gestures change and the possessed person becomes a totally different personality.
When a person gets “possessed” by a spirit, it is essential to persuade the spirit to leave the living person’s body voluntarily. But this doesn’t usually happen and the spirit has to be forced or driven out or compelled to leave the living person’s body. This can be done through a priest, guru, aghori, a person familiar with supernatural phenomena, rituals and chants, etc. It can also happen through intense prayer to the gods, but this is rare. Great care has to be taken when the spirit that has taken possession of a living person is being driven out or is leaving on its own accord. If care is not taken the spirit can enter another living being and once again cause problems. Or it can become a “bhatakta hua” spirit that haunts places or people.
Within minutes of collapsing, his soul entered Bijli, his voice spoke through her and he completed the prediction for his shocked “client”.
Ensuring mukti or release for such spirits through prescribed rituals, shaanti prayers and mantras is always desirable. For this, it is important to find out the causes troubling the spirit and remove them in the best possible manner acceptable to the spirit. Force should be applied only when the spirit is unrepentant and refuses to cooperate or leave. Sometimes, a combination of several methods is required to evict a spirit, especially in cases of partial possession.
I know of a somewhat funny partial possession case where Gautam, a very shy, seedha saada person is sometimes possessed by the spirit of his friend who loved being with girls. During the possession time, seedha saada Gautam begins to “eye” pretty girls, tries to talk to girls he doesn’t even know and generally behaves like a maudlin “deewana”. Once the possession is over, Gautam has no recollection whatsoever of what transpires during the possessed period. Such cases of partial possession are very common. Partial possession means where the spirit keeps entering and leaving a living person’s body or enters only for a fixed period of time every day.
Some time ago, a father and his six year old son were walking when a relative came and stabbed the father. Death was instantaneous, and so was the possession. The dead father’s spirit entered the relative who had stabbed him and spoke to his shocked son, attended his own funeral and was driving everyone crazy when the case was brought to me. The father’s spirit’s logic was simple: “This relative killed me and cut short my life. What I have done after that is fair and just. Now I have taken over his body and am living in it so that I can complete all the things I wanted to do in my life. I know my relative is suffering but he has to pay for my death, because to protect the family honour, no one will report to the police that he murdered me”. With the help of my spirit guide, the father’s soul ultimately let go of possessing his relative, but that relative has lost his mental balance and neuro doctor’s are not sure when and whether he will become normal again.