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Day 16th October, 2017....
A cool morning of October ( mornings are rarely cool in Mumbai and its suburbs especially during the month of October) where everything is pleasant. People are gearing up for Pre-Diwali preparations in full swing. Suddenly, me and my parents start to experience moistness along with the coolness of the morning. We feel it might have started raining (as it is the condition now-a-days). No!!!! no trace of rains, the sky is spot-clear. We suddenly realize that this is not a natural moistness but a resultant of Pre-Diwali preparations. Yes!!! the ceiling is leaking!!!!!!
Yikes!!!!! And every electronic appliances is at stake. How come the ceiling is leaking after so many recent renovations???
Dad, runs to the top floor apartment to understand what exactly is happening above. In-turn we are even more traumatized to learn that they are cleaning their entire house by pouring buckets and buckets of water!!!! Such high intensity cleaning with stocking of water is bound to challenge the toughest of plastering.....
Soon the house is seemed to be turning into a swimming pool.
What next?? Immediate actions are taken by informing the society secretary to stop all this mess and the people are made to realize that even if water is abundantly available to us here, it is our duty to use it with care and caution. Such a waste!!!!!!
When all this chaos subsides and things are back to normal we discuss about what actually the people might have been thinking while turning their house into a swimming pool. My mom suddenly exclaims they have been possessed by Jal Pisacha (A Water spirit/demon), because of which they are wasting water. I am like whattttt in the world is that!!!!
We had a hearty laugh together but her sudden exclamation raised a few questions in my mind. I asked her, what is a Jal Pisacha? She said "a water demon" which gets into the minds of some people who haven't seen enough water in their lifetime and are brought in contact with abundant water. Such people forget the conditions they used to live and waste the precious water and so I felt they have been possessed by something unknown which I termed as Jal Pisacha..." She said that her father (my grandfather) used to tell her stories about Pishachas which she used to listen keenly, but never in her lifetime she had known to experience such things.
So.... that did not settle things for me. Most of you will also agree that if you hear things like ghosts, spirits or demons, you are bound to be interested in it no matter what!!!! The stories that we have heard in our childhood are bound to incline us towards such kinds of information which drives our curiosity.
You might hate it, you might love it and I did bet on that you cannot ignore it!!!!!
Having a research virus embedded in my blood stream, eventually I screened through some of the literature and found very new things. I wont be discussing in greater details about what when and how of the pishachas but some interesting stories about their existence, some from the folklore, some from the surrounding around and some from within the family.....
After all the trivia surrounding the present topic let us get into its mainstream " The Pishachas".
Pishachas, as per the Hindu mythology, are blood sucking and meat eating demons that can possess a human body and control it. It can take any form and modify itself according to its needs. Pishachas are not humans but are a separate race from humanity. These are nocturnal and haunt the cremation grounds for blood and meat and are supposedly creation of lord Bramha Himself. So!! whatever they are, these are obviously creepy.....
Contrastly though, some people refer a Preta (evil/malevolent spirit of a dead person viz. ghoul) when possess the corpse of another person and animates it, is called a pishacha viz. A Vampire.
Howsoever they are defined, we can conclude Pishachas are even more dangerous than ghosts as they are blood suckers and meat eaters!!! Yuk!!!! Atleast Ghosts have some motives or unfulfilled desired to stay behind!!
People over times have described different types of Pishachas namely, Jala Pishacha (The water spirit), Kolli Pishacha (The fire Spirit), Bramha rakshasa (The priests soul) a few more unnamed though. Let me get you across some interesting stories which I had heard from near dear ones..
Story 1: The Tiala (oil) Pishacha ( A new type of Pishacha defined by me!!!)
This was the story as recited by my mother who heard it from my grandfather when she was a kid herself. The story goes this way...
Once upon a time in a small village in Karnataka there lived a family of highly respected priests of the temple.
(For the sake of the story let us name them as Adiga family). So the Adigas were well known and well respected family who had immense faith in God and had generations dedicated to the service of the temples. Their house was well protected from evil spirits as Shri. Sumantha Adiga,chief priest of the village and the head of the Adiga household, was also a well known occultist. One day Sumanth Adiga brought home a weird looking lady with long hairs into their house to help the family with their household chores. The lady, Aaditamma, was not supposed to enter the house but would do all the chores required out of the house. There was one condition the priest had set upon all the family members, no one will give her any type of oil even if Aaditamma begs for it. It was a clear-cut instruction and all the family members had to abide by the statement of the head of the family without any damn question.
Aaditamma used to do all the work assigned to her, right from bringing wood from the trees to cleaning the cattle and maintaining the cattle-shed. She would eat what was given and would never complain or say anything. The only thing she asked was to give her some oil so that she can massage her long hairs which were dry and she couldn't bear that. She used to talk with the members of the family only when the priest wasnt around and would beg for oil everytime.
The ladies developed a soft corner for her and did not understand why the head priest denied oil for her. Afterall, it was such a small thing Aaditamma asked for!!! The ladies dared and asked the priest whether they can give some oil to Aaditamma. The priest turned furious and asked them what he once said should be abided.
After a few day, the priest had to go out of the village for some work. So, he again strictly instructed all the family members about his rules for Aaditamma. When Aaditamma realised the priest won't be back for quite sometime, she started her tantrums, begging for oil, crying and doing all sort of things she could, to convince the ladies of the house. Finally, the Head Priest's wife gave in to her demands and provided her some oil to apply on her hair...
The moment the oil touched her hair, her body flamed into ashes and an undefined, formless black figure with a creepy laughter rose above the ground and merged with a tallest ashoka tree in the surroundings and the laughter could be heard continuously.
When the priest entered the village he came to know about the creepy things he feared about the most. When he entered the house he was fuming with rage and demanded who had violated his instructions. His wife agreed to her mistake but it was too late to condemn her of anything because the loss was already done.
He immediately left the house with some of his enchanted books and by the time he returned home, he had a relieved look on his face.By this time the creepy laughter had also disappeared.
Still many questions were unanswered.... The priest could sense curiosity amongst his family members and he decided they should know everything..
He smiled and sat on the porch . Looking at everybody's curious face he said " I know you have many questions in your mind as to who was this Aaditamma and why did I bring her here?"
Everyone knew the suspense will now be unveiled and they sat around Sumantha as though listening to some kind of a lecture.
Sumantha started " Three months back, when I was in the neighbouring village to perform some yadnya, I came to know that the villagers were traumatised by a pishacha since a long time and many of the priests tried hard to get that evil spirit entrapped but failed to do so. I had to do something for the villagers as I knew how to trap the mightiest of the evil spirits and send them to their world. "
" The problem was these evil spirits could not be directly sent to their world and had to repent to their mistakes in this world and only when they are free of their evil verses they can be sent back to where they came from. Because of this reason I had to entrap this pishacha into a recently dead corpse of a old women and the only way out of the body was to apply oil on the hair and the pishacha could again come out in the world to cause trouble. That is why I instructed all of you not to give her any oil. But anyways the trouble has been sorted out as the pishacha is now a part of the Ashoka tree near our house which has the power to defend the evilness of the spirit. " This was the end of it as the spirit was now harmless and could not cause any more trouble. The priest had used all his knowledge and had nullified the Ill effects of the Pishacha..
Phew!!! I was actually loving the way Mom recited it to me.... She doesn't know how true it is... but she says you can always enjoy a story.....
I have many more in the list..... but things should not be extended so much that one will lose the grip on it....
I will be back with a few more stories in continuation with this topic.... Till then let me know your experiences or stories you have heard about ghosts, evil spirits or demons...
Thank you very much for your patience to be with me till the end....
Till then Happy and a Prosperous Diwali!!!!!!!