Are all graveyards and cemeteries haunted? Are cremation grounds haunted? And if so, why are they haunted? Not all graveyards, cemeteries and cremation grounds are haunted, but many graveyards and cemeteries and some cremation grounds are certainly haunted. There are innumerable fascinating accounts from all over the world to substantiate such “haunting”. The reasons for the haunting are varied and invariably intriguing. According to Jacob Rice, ghost hunter and a founding member of “Ghostly Activities”, it’s the living who create a haunted cemetery. Most graveyards and cemeteries don’t start out as haunted. Ghosts and spirits usually haunt their favorite places when they were alive.
Troy Taylor, author of Beyond The Grave, questions: “It is a common belief among experts of the occult that cemeteries are not usually the best places to find ghosts… A cemetery is meant to be the final stop in our journey from this world to the next, but is it always that way?” He points out that ghosts who haunt cemeteries seem to be a different sort than those you might find lingering in a haunted house. Most of these ghosts seem to be connected to the cemetery in some way that excludes events that occurred during their lifetime, they seem to be connected to the burial ground because of events that occurred after their deaths rather than before. “Cemeteries gain a reputation for being haunted for reasons that include the desecration of the dead and grave robbery, unmarked or forgotten burials, natural disasters that disturb resting places, or sometimes even because the deceased was not properly buried.”
There are several types of ghosts who haunt graveyards, cemeteries and cremation grounds. In graveyards and cemeteries, they can be broadly divided into short term, long term, permanent and stray ghosts. The short term ghosts include spirits who linger on to comfort loved ones grieving for them at their graves, and those who cannot come to terms with the fact that they have died. But once the visits of loved ones become less frequent and the ones who are in denial of death realise they have indeed died, they leave for the other world. The spirits who help them cross over to the other world are either long term ghosts or permanent ghosts.
The long term ghosts include those who had departed for the other world but were pulled back to earth because their place of burial was disturbed or desecrated in some way. Sometimes, after wreaking vengeance on the culprits who vandalised their last resting place, they return to the other world. But at other times, they stay on to protect the entire graveyard or cemetery. Permanent ghosts include guardians who have opted to stay back on earth for altruistic reasons. Stray ghost include lesser evolved spirits or those who prey on human remains.
It’s obvious that in a way, it is us, the living, who are often responsible for a place being haunted. In most cases, those who have died have already moved on. But in many cases we pull them back from the other world with our strong emotional attachments which refuse to die or let the dead person be at peace.
Apart from being highly emotionally charged because of those still alive, graveyards and cemeteries are also the last resting places for the dead—a powerful combination which accounts for so many graveyards and cemeteries being haunted. In the case of cremation grounds, the emotional charge is of a different kind, which is why the spirits of those who have been cremated tend to haunt the place where they have died rather than the cremation grounds. This is also the reason why the spirits who haunt some cremation grounds are seldom those of the dead who have been cremated there.
At times, they are stray wandering spirits and sometimes they are spirits who were already residing in the vicinity before the cremation ground came into existence. In the Qutab Institutional Area in New Delhi, for example, there is a relatively new cremation ground adjoining a forested tract which hums with supernatural activity most nights. Only two of the spirits at this cremation ground are those of persons who were cremated there and the reason for their presence is that they died in the adjoining forest which they had frequented for years.
I know of some other cremation grounds where ghouls, desperate to re-charge themselves, attempt to carry away or feed on bones that may not have turned fully into ash. But almost always, they are resisted and driven away by guardian spirits. Who are these guardian spirits? They are the spirits of those who died but chose to stay on earth to help both living people and earth bound spirits.
Next to Nehru Place in New Delhi, just metres away from the ancient venerated Shakti Peeth Kalka Mandir, there is a cremation ground. Curiously, one of the guardian spirits at this cremation ground was in his lifetime a Muslim sepoy from Meerut who admired Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal Emperor known for his Sufi leanings and poetry. The sepoy died from injuries sustained in the 1857 Mutiny against the British. Today, his spirit whizzes every night from a little beyond Film City in Noida where he died, across the Yamuna, through Maharani Bagh, through Friends Colony East and West, past the Kalka Mandir to the cremation ground which he guards till a little before dawn.
Such guardian spirits are found at almost all graveyards, cemeteries and cremation grounds. Jacob Rice has explained that guardian spirits may or may not be human. “In some cultures, the first person buried in a cemetery becomes a protector. Their job is to prevent vandalism or desecration of the site.” In the pathos filled, centuries old graveyard below Gwalior Fort, I have encountered both a phantom dog and a phantom bat, both with a reddish glow, guarding the graves.
Next time you happen to pass by a graveyard, cemetery or cremation ground, do keep in mind that they may be haunted but they are not always hotbeds of macabre stories, dark tales, supernatural events embellished over the years, strange activity, weird, terrifying tales. Do remember the long term and permanent ghosts who have opted to stay back on earth to help both the living and the dead. Leave them an offering if you can. Even a small prayer for them can be a powerful, highly charged offering.