By Narayan Prasad Mishra
The Gita, a Hindu epic and most popular religious scripture of the Indian subcontinent and beyond, teaches about the art of life and living through Lord Krishna (the incarnation of God Narayan, Vishnu) that our soul never dies. According to the Gita, when a person dies, a soul leaves the dead body and moves to another newborn person’s body, which we call rebirth. That is just like discarding old torn cloth and replacing it with a new one. Lord Krishna says in Sanskrit, the ancient holy language, in his preachings to his beloved Arjuna in the 22 verses in Chapter 2 of the Gita as follows-
Lord Krishna also says more about the nature of the soul in 23 verses in Chapter 2:
Weapons cannot shred the soul, nor can fire burn it. Water cannot wet it, nor can the wind dry it. (Swamy Mukundananada Commentary).
Even after reading and rereading about the nature of our soul, most of us struggle to believe in it because we cannot see or experience it — especially considering the enigmatic concept of death. Death remains a mystery beyond our comprehension and knowledge. In my eighties, I experienced the loss of nearly all my loved ones — my parents, in-laws, siblings, their spouses, childhood friends, and my beloved wife, Shanti Mishra. I remember them almost every day, particularly missing my wife from the moment I wake up until I sleep. I often wonder where they have gone. Reflecting on their departures often dampens my spirits, leaving me sad and unmotivated. Sometimes, the idea of joining them in eternal slumber crosses my mind as a means to escape the pain of their absence.
I imagine many others think the same way about death as I do. We see a dead body, a dead person, but we do not see how or where the dead one is gone. We cannot see or meet the dead despite our utmost will, desire, or wish. We do not see the so-called soul coming out from the dead body, either moving, walking, or flying. We hear about Death and God but do not see them, as we do not see air but feel. The genius among us – Hermits, Saints, Great Sages, Scientists, and Researchers- have tried their best to know the mystery about them. But the mystery remains a mystery, though sometimes some of them have boasted of discovering it.
However, the mystery is we sometimes hear about the rebirth of a person after death and remember everything about the past life – address, relatives, friends, life and living, likes and unlikes, work and profession, friends and foes, incidents, language, and culture much different from the ones of the present birth. It would be difficult to say that the case is untrue when we hear, study, and do research with unbiased fact checks of these things scientifically. To a great extent, it proves that rebirth occurs. We cannot say that it is not valid.
I sometimes read or watch this type of story when I notice it while going through newspapers and scrolling through Google searches and YouTube for something else. I had watched many, but I had difficulty believing them. On Jan 3, 2024, I noticed a title in Hindi on YouTube – हैरान कर देने वाली पुनर्जन्म की वो इकलौती कहानी, जिसे Scientists ने भी सच माना (The most mysterious rebirth story, which scientist also considered authentic). I watched it with great attention and also studied the research paper related to this case titled “A Case of the Possession Type in India With Evidence of Paranormal Knowledge.” It is available in a Google search.
According to it –
Sumitra was born in 1968 in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, to Chhotte Singh, a native of Angad ka Nagla, a village of the Etawah District. She was married to Jagadish Singh (Thakurs) in 1981, at the age of 13, and lived in the village of Sharifpura in the Farrukhabad District of the State of Uttar Pradesh, India. She gave birth to a baby boy in December 1984. In the early months of 1985, just one or two months after the baby was born, she began to suffer, losing her normal behavior with eye-roll movements and teeth clenching. In April 1985, Sumitra stood like a statue in the middle of the road, losing her normal behavior with eye-roll movements and teeth clenching while returning home with a jar of water from a village well. Her baby was with her. The jar dropped from her hand unconsciously, but she still carried the baby. Her appearance was terrifying. People watched her from a distance, as this was quite unusual. She returned to normal after a few minutes and saw that her water jar had dropped to the ground. People were watching her. She was astonished to see it. When people asked her what had happened to her, she told them she could not recall anything. She then acted normal and went home.
Since then, with some intervals, her unusual behavior in the same way and style appeared in her life, and her family was very worried about it. So they cared for her with much love and attention. On Jul 16, 1985, about three months after her first unusual behavior, she again appeared in the same terrified condition, losing her normal behavior with eye-roll movements and teeth clenching. It occurred when she was at home with her husband and parents-in-law. On that day, being different from other days of incidents, she said she would die, and her life would end after three days. Hearing it, her husband and all the family worried about whether what she said would come true. When she came to her normal state, they asked her if she remembered what she had said. She was entirely unaware of it. After this, her family became more conscious of looking after her. On July 17 and 18, her time passed without any problem. The whole day of Jul 19, 1985, she was perfectly OK till the evening. But suddenly, in the evening, she again became in the same state while talking with a friend in front of her house. Her husband, family, and neighbors brought her inside and laid her on the bed in the room. To their great surprise, on this day, she collapsed at the age of 17, and a village physician declared her dead. Her family, friends, and neighbors began grieving. But she revived when they were preparing for her funeral.
Seeing it, her family and friends became joyous, knowing no bounds. But after some confusion, she began to question where she was and who everyone around her was. She appeared and behaved like an unknown person. She did not recognize her husband, parents-in-law, baby, friends, neighbors, etc. That was a great shock to all of them. She behaved like a newcomer.
She said her name was Shiva (Diwedi), not Sumitra, and she lived in Dibiayapur, U.P., about 100 km away, with her husband Chhedi Lal, two children – Tinku (18 months), Rinku (6 months), and other family members. She told them she was killed at Dibiyapur on the night of May 18-19, 1985, two months before Sumitra’s apparent death and revival. She said Rama Kanti, her sister-in-law, hit her with a brick on her head. Her parents were Ram Siya Tripath, a lecturer, and Ram Rani Tripathi (Brahmins), who lived in Sevpur, Etawah, 65 km north of Sharifpura, where she was now. Her speaking language was Hindi. She obtained a B.A. The degree that surprised all that was around her.
Sumitra was uneducated and could hardly write. She spoke some village language, not Hindi. Hearing about all this, they became puzzled. Sumitra, who became Shiva after revival from death, showed Brahmin habits and culture, not Thakur’s habits and culture. The rumor about it traveled through the village Murra – Dibiapur – Etawah, where Ram Siya Tripathy, Shiva’s father, lived. After hearing through a well-wisher that his dead daughter had taken possession of a girl in a distant village called Sharifpura, on Oct 20, 1985, Ram Siya Tripathi went to visit that place and met the person who called herself Shiva, his daughter, who was born on Oct 24, 1962, and died on May 19, 1985.
Ram Siya recalled that according to the message he received from a well-wisher who lived near her daughter’s husband, his daughter was beaten by her mother-in-law and one of her sisters-in-law on May 18, 1985, and the next day, May 19, 1985, they was told that she died in an accident. So, he even complained to the police against the in-laws with the suspicion of murdering his daughter, but the case was dropped due to lack of evidence. Even the news about his complaint was published in the newspaper then.
He was astonished when he met Sumitra, who behaved like Shiva, his already dead daughter, calling him Papa (father). She showed immense love and respect and told him more about the murder and rebirth story in detail. Neither could he think of it nor imagine it. He showed her a group photo of 8 people of family members – her parents, brother, sisters, etc., he carried in his bag. Without any hesitation or problem, Shiva identified all of them. Her telling about her life related to him and her recognition of all family members, including the names of dogs and her two sons, proved that she was undoubtedly his daughter, Shiva. When Shiva (Sumitra)visited Ram Siya Tripathy in Sevpur, Etawah, she identified all close and far relatives who had gathered there and recognized everything. They, without a doubt, considered her their daughter, who had come to the world with a mysterious rebirth. That was a rebirth, not as a child, which we usually hear. That was an unusual case of rebirth, entered into the dead body of a grown-up person of 17 years old. That was the most unique case of rebirth I had ever heard.
So, when this case came to be known through the media, it became a topic of research interest for the scientific world. Consequently, the Department of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22908, and the Department of Clinical Psychology, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, India, did comprehensive research on the topic by visiting the concerned families and interviewing dozens of people involved with the case in 1985 and 1986. They visited and interviewed Sumitra’s parents and family in Angad ka Nagla, a village in the Etawah District, and her cousin’s family in the village of Birpur, in the neighboring district of Mainpurii and her husband’s family in Sharifpura. They also visited Shiva’s parents’ family in Sevper, Etawah and her husband’s family in Dibiapur, U.P. Ian Stevenson and Nicholas McClean-Rice from the University of Virginia and Satwant Pasricha from the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, India, were involved in the research work. They found the story accurate. The research paper acquaints us with the story of the case in detail with their account of the field trips, investigation, and much more unbelievable evidence than I described above. Research results showed that much evidence made it the most plausible case. Many people related to this case are still living.
I think this case and the research paper will interest spiritual people, researchers, and general people. It will also help us understand more about the nature of our soul, which never dies, as Lord Krishna preaches. This case stands out as being exemplary of the immortal soul. After reading and knowing about this case, I am bound to believe that the soul never dies. I bow to Lord Krishna with love, devotion, and respect, the supreme Guru who knows the past, present, and future. According to the epic, he is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent.
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