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APPENDIX ONE: HISTORICAL NOTES ON THE STORIES
Strange Experiences provides some rare first-hand glimpses of the author’s life in the period prior to the founding of Ánanda Márga Pracáraka Saḿgha in 1955. The first story is set in a certain field and hill. From the description we see that this location is on the outskirts of Jamalpur, the nondescript town in the state of Bihar where Shrii Sarkar was born and lived out most of his life until the end of 1966. Named after its temple to the goddess Kálii, the story’s hill is in fact the Kali Pahar frequented by Shrii Sarkar over a period of many years. The story also mentions other geographic landmarks in Jamalpur.
Story two concerns an incident from the author’s childhood. Reference is made to a certain Shiva temple; locals believe this to be identical to a certain temple still in use in Jamalpur. The author’s mother’s reminiscences about this event are quoted in The Life and Teachings of Shrii Shrii Ánandamúrti Vol. 1, by Ácárya Vijayánanda Avadhúta (p. 13). Story three refers to the narrator’s grandmother, described as a resident of Burdwan District, and a sister, “Kana”. The author’s real ancestral home is in fact located in the village Bamunpara (Brahmanpara) in Burdwan District, where his grandmother Binapani Sarkar lived. An elder sister of the author, Kanakprabha, died at the age of two and a half of smallpox, like the little girl in the story.(1)
The fourth story takes place in “a small town on the banks of the Gauṋgá” where the author’s younger brother worked. The town was actually Sahebganj, and the younger brother none other than Himangshu Ranjan Sarkar, who gives his own account of the story in Parama Shraddheya Agraja – Prabhát Raiṋjan Sarkár (“My Respected Elder Brother – Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar”, Hindi and Bengali). The events quite possibly occurred in 1953 or 1954. Interestingly, as long as Himangshu Sarkar lived in his Sahebganj home, his elder brother never narrated to him or published an account of the strange incident that took place there. When later asked about this, Shrii Sarkar said, “Yes, that incident took place in your Sahebganj bungalow. Thinking you’d get scared, I didn’t publish the book [Strange Experiences].”(2)
No information can be confirmed presently regarding the circumstances and location of the fifth story, which is told in the third person with no reference to the author or any of his relatives. Story six however brings us to the familiar tiger’s grave in Jamalpur. This is a site of great spiritual significance to Ananda Margis due to its close association with Shrii Sarkar, who for many years would hold spiritual discussions and demonstrations there with small groups of disciples.
The brief seventh story concerns a maternal uncle of the author’s in Rajashahi whose name is not mentioned. At present the identity of this individual has not been confirmed. Story eight is again a first-person account set apparently in Jamalpur. A certain valley is mentioned that is probably Jamalpur’s Death Valley, now a granite quarry; also mentioned is a tamarind tree in the valley frequented by the author for many years (recently encircled by Ananda Margis with a concrete platform for preservation).
Stories nine and ten take place in Kolkata, where the author attended Vidyasagar College from 1939 to 1941. In those days he lived with his unmarried uncle Sharat Chandra Bose and widowed aunt Durgarani.(3) Story nine mentions two friends, Dipten and Prashanta, who cannot presently be identified. Story ten takes place in his uncle Sharat Chandra’s north Kolkata residence, which is described in some detail. One finds an account of the events of this story retold and explained by the author in the discourse “Disembodied Souls and Microvita”, from Microvita in a Nutshell. There Shrii Sarkar says that the mysterious information he received about his examination was actually from vidyádhara microvita.
The eleventh story of Strange Experiences takes place in Bankura District, West Bengal, in 1940, as the author mentions. Ácárya Vijayánanda Avadhúta provides a somewhat different account of this story in The Life and Teachings of Shrii Shrii Ánandamúrti Vol. 1, p. 37-39, perhaps shedding some light on its spiritual mystery. The home of the author’s maternal grandparents in Vaidyavatii is the setting for the twelfth story, which he describes. His mother and an aunt are mentioned. Story thirteen concerns a presently unidentified family in Barhampur who, he says, were close to his maternal relatives. The final, fourteenth story narrates a trip by the author from Kolkata to visit his elder sister in Chuchura. Hiraprabha Sarkar, his elder sister, had indeed married and settled in Chuchura. Since he mentions that he was a college student at that time, this must have taken place between 1939 and 1941.
APPENDIX TWO: A SURVEY OF THE AUTHOR’S IDEAS ON THE PARANORMAL
Shrii Sarkar’s writing on the subject of ghosts and the so-called supernatural seems to have had the twin objectives of creating a scientific framework for the categorization of subtle psychological and paranormal phenomena, and on the other hand, encouraging people to overcome fear complexes and move bravely on the path of spiritual attainment. The following constitutes a synopsis of his writing on these subjects included for the convenience of the reader. Those wishing to delve more deeply into the subject are referred to the works cited.
Dispelling common superstitions about ghosts, spirits and the afterlife, Shrii Sarkar clarifies that Videhiimánase na kartrtvaḿ na sukháni na duhkháni: “In a bodiless mind there is neither the capacity for ‘doership’, nor the experience of pleasure and pain” (Ánanda Sútram, 3-5). After death, a mind detached from its erstwhile physical structure is incapable of activity and feeling as it lacks the requisite nervous system.
However, he does not discount that under certain conditions people see what appear to be, in common parlance, ghosts. He describes this in Ánanda Sútram, 3-6:
When in a frightened or indignant or hypnotic state a person attains temporary concentration of the mind, his or her mind-stuff(4) takes the form of the object imagined. In such a state one sees the vision of one’s thought without [i.e. externally] as well. Thinking about ghosts and spirits in solitude, he or she sees them also in the open. The external vision of the internal thought may be termed as positive hallucination… Those that say that they have seen a ghost do not lie. Only the delusion of the mind appears to them as visual perception.
Hence, in the case of positive hallucination, the external projection of one’s own mind-stuff or ectoplasm takes on the form of the mind’s imagined object, and is perceived as a ghost. Ghosts hence have appearances consistent with the person’s preconceived notions of what they should look like.(5)
However, elsewhere he clarifies that under special conditions it is in fact possible to perceive a disembodied mind. This is a special case of positive hallucination occurring due to temporary mental concentration, which the author says may occur in five circumstances – kśipta, mud́ha, vikśipta, ekágra and nirodha:
Kśipta is when the mind is very perturbed, full of worries and anxieties. At that time, due to short, sudden concentration, such a thing may happen. Mud́ha is when your brain fails to decide what to do or what not to do – you are at a loss, not knowing what to do… Vikśipta – you are not concentrating on a particular point, but finally your mind becomes tired and, in that state, you see these things… Ekágra is when your mind gets pointed. And the fifth is nirodha, which is when you suspend all the expressions of your propensities. In these five conditions you may see those things and you may, knowingly or unknowingly, transfer certain portions of your ectoplasmic body to a detached mind and create a positive hallucination of this kind.(6)
He terms the temporary ectoplasmic structure or mental body created in the manner just described preśita mánas, “recreated mind”.(7) And regarding its tangibility, he says, “when that ectoplasmic structure is a bit solidified it becomes visible, and due to its vibrational frequency it may also become audible, but only for a short span of time”.(8)
While hallucinations usually take place unconsciously in extreme mental states, they may also, as the author has suggested, be induced intentionally. An individual with developed psychic power may cause others to see positive hallucinations composed of his or her own ectoplasm, or even suspend others’ power of vision and cause them to see what one likes. These processes are termed rákśasii vidyá and rákśasii máyá respectively.(9) Similarly, a person may also consciously associate his or her ectoplasmic structure with a disembodied mind, activating it temporarily as a preśita mánas. In such circumstances,
[A person] can get that particular disembodied mind or soul to do many things. If people such as this happen to be wicked by nature, they can cause the disembodied entity to hurl pieces of bone, brick, etc., into someone else’s house. Sometimes the cots on which people recline are also found to be tilting. All these actions are done by the ectoplasmic structure of a powerful person, not by that of the dead person.(10)
These practices are all part of avidyá tantra – the branch of intuitional science (Tantra) in which the goals are mundane rather than spiritual. People who engage in this are called avidyá tántrikas, regarding whom the author says:
The purpose of their spiritual practice is to make the mind increasingly subtle, in order to be able to exercise further control, not only over the physical world, but over the crude minds of other microcosms as well. Their goal is not noble, and will result in their ultimately being converted into inert matter. So the final result of Avidyá Tantra is extreme crudity. I have attempted to explain this in some of my ghost stories. Try to find time to read them.(11)
Because of the date of publication of the article quoted above, it can be safely assumed that the “ghost stories” referred to are those of Strange Experiences, and not those from Shabda Cayaniká, which the author wrote later.
Besides hallucinations and recreated minds, Shrii Sarkar makes reference to various other phenomena and classes of beings that might be construed as ghosts. Amongst these, he perhaps devoted the most attention to devayonis – “luminous beings”. Devayoni means “an entity which has a number of divine qualities”. They are mainly of seven types, classified according to their natures: yakśa, gandharva, kinnara, vidyádhara, prakrtiliina, videhaliina, and siddha.(12) A devayoni is actually a human spiritual aspirant who after death, due to his or her saḿskáras, undergoes a transformation in which “… he gives up his physical structure, that is, the solid body, and gives up his aquatic structure, that is, apatattva, also, but the other three factors – tejas (luminous), marut (aerial) and vyoma (ethereal) remain with him, with his detached mind.”(13) At the same time, devayonis are also the “singular or collective structures” of subtle positive microvita – beings forming the boundary between the physical and psychic worlds, and between the animate and inanimate creation.(14) They exert a profound influence upon the mind, and under certain circumstances, may become visible or otherwise perceivable. For a proper understanding of the subject of microvita, please consult the author’s Microvita in a Nutshell.
Corresponding to the devayonis are the seven main types of pretayoni, the singular or collective structures of negative microvita. Note for example the description of kabandha pretayoni:
People who commit suicide due to humiliation, psychic distortion, frustration or the overpowering influence of excessive attachment, anger, greed, vanity, jealousy, etc.[,] get the status of kabandha after death. Wherever these entities happen to see other human beings under the spell of psychic derangement, they incite them to commit suicide.(15)
Both devayoni and pretayoni are temporary conditions experienced after death. After the saḿskáras (mental reactive momenta) that precipitated attaining that condition are exhausted, the individual is again reborn in a physical body.
Other phenomena are also relevant to Strange Experiences, amongst which supramental vision, telepathy, and telepathic clairvoyance are notable. As the author describes:
Even when a person is in deep slumber, a premonition of a major calamity or some good or bad news may arise in the subconscious mind through a dream. The all-knowing causal or unconscious mind cannot give expression to its omniscience due to the fickleness of the conscious and subconscious minds, and due to its own expressional inability. But it can awaken in the calm conscious and subconscious minds of a person in deep slumber those visions and premonitions of past, present or future events which may deeply involve or overwhelm the person… This may be called “supramental vision”.(16)
The “cognitive waves” creating supramental visions manifest in the mind in accordance with the samskáras (mental reactive momenta) of the concerned individual, and may hence take symbolic form. The frequency of such dreams and one’s ability to comprehend them depend upon the degree of control one has achieved over the conscious and subconscious minds through intuitional practices.(17)
Even in the waking state “the cognitive flow of the unconscious mind” may manifest to one who has control over his or her conscious and subconscious minds. When this occurs, “one can grasp and comprehend the events concerning one’s near and dear ones who are far away.” This is termed “telepathic vision”. Concentrated telepathic vision results in increased clarity of perception, and is termed “telepathic clairvoyance”. In this case “… one can visualize the external events concerning one’s distant loved ones enacted before one’s very eyes, or one can feel as if one is seeing them”.(18) These phenomena all occur purely within the kośas [layers] of the mind, and bear no relation to so-called ghosts or spirits.
In addition to hallucination, preśita mánas, devayoni and pretayoni, supramental vision, telepathic vision and telepathic clairvoyance, Shrii Sarkar discusses many more phenomena which are to some degree relevant, but impossible to include in this discussion. These include possession, hypnotism, clairvoyance, telepathy, conversion, planchette, exorcism, shadow images (cháyámúrti), yakśiniis and so forth. For information on these the reader is directed mainly to Yoga Psychology and Microvita in a Nutshell.
Many terms the author uses at the end of each story to explain this book’s events are rather technical; some are even virtually unique to Strange Experiences. Except three and seven, no two stories have identical explanations. This fact, the technical nature of the explanations themselves, and their logical sequence reveal that Strange Experiences is the result of systematic psychological investigation.
The mysterious events in five of the stories are explained as occurring due to different types of ávesha. Elsewhere, in the course of distinguishing between this term and samádhi, the author has defined ávesha as “self-hypnotism”:
There is a belief that samádhi is self-hypnotism. This is not correct. Self-hypnotism is called ávesha. In self-hypnotism all the indriyas [sensory and motor organs] come under the control of the mind and act according to the dictates of mind. But samádhi cannot be attained without mind being dissolved.(19)
Self-hypnotism is induced by what the author terms “auto-suggestion” and is not the same as mesmerism, which is induced by “outer-suggestion”, that is, by external factors.(20)
Tathya-anubhúti is another term the author uses repeatedly to explain the events of Strange Experiences. This means literally “the perception of accurate information”, and here refers to a sort of remote or telepathic perception. Stories three and seven illustrate tathya-anubhúti as occurring in dream, while nine and twelve offer examples of tathyánubhúti in the waking state.
Story twelve is explained as dhanátmaka abhibhávaná – pratisáḿvedanika tathya-anubhúti, literally, “Positive cellular suggestion and psycho-reactive perception of real events”. The term abibhávaná (cellular suggestion) occurs in Ánanda Sútram, Su’tra 3-6: Abhibhávanát cittáńusrśt́apretadarshanam – “Ectoplasmic formation produced by cellular suggestion is what is called a ‘ghost’.” Cellular suggestion is “… that which affects not only the mind but also the nerve cells, so that due to the defective functioning of the nerve cells one sees something which is not present, or does not see something which is actually present.”(21) The cellular suggestion is in this case positive (dhanátmaka), that is, it involves seeing something which is not actually present (as is the case with positive hallucination).
A number of adjectives are used to describe the types of self-hypnotism, dreams, hallucination and telepathic perception, etc., occurring in Strange Experiences. Two terms particularly warrant discussion here – saḿskáraja, “arising from reactive momenta”, and pratisáḿvedanika, “psycho-reactive”. Story number two gives an example of saḿskáraja svapna (a dream arising from reactive momenta), while five and eight contain examples of saḿskáraja ávesha (self-hypnosis arising from reactive momenta). Pratisaḿvedanika or “psycho-reactive” is used to qualify both ávesha and tathya-anubhúti. This technical term is an adjective from the noun pratisaḿvedana, “psychic reaction”, the counterpart of saḿvedana, “psychic action”. Saḿskáras or reactive momenta are the root cause (múla kárańa) of saḿvedana or psychic action, which in turn manifests as physical action or kriyá. And,
It is said that every action or kriyá has a reaction or pratikriyá. This reaction is physico-psychic and gives rise to a prati-saḿvedana, or psychic reaction. That is psychic reaction to every psychic action. These psychic reactions or prati-saḿvedana give rise to the saḿskáras of a person.(22)
That is to say: saḿskára (reactive momenta) → saḿvedana (psychic action) → kriyá (action) → pratikriyá (reaction) → pratisaḿvedana (psychic reaction) → saḿskára →…
Turning to the explanations of the stories, we hence see that self-hypnosis (ávesha) may either be psycho-reactive (pratisaḿvedanika), that is, a product of psycho-physical reactions capable of producing new saḿskáras, or it may be saḿskáraja, arising from existing saḿskáras. In another case it is instead jiṋánaja, arising from deep knowledge or intuition.
The events of Strange Experiences and their explanations constitute a subject for further research, and it is hoped that this article makes this process possible for interested English-language readers.
Footnotes
(1) See Ác. Vijayánanda Avt., Life and Teachings Vol. 1, p. 7-8, 10, and H. Sarkar, Prabhát Raiṋjan Sarkár, p. 10 (Bengali edition).
(2) H. Sarkar, Prabhát Raiṋjan Sarkár, p. 13.
(3) See H. Sarkar, Prabhát Raiṋjan Sarkár, p. 45-6, and Ác. Vijayánanda Avt., Life and Teachings, p. 31.
(4) Cittáńu, or ectoplasm, sometimes referred to as “mind-stuff”, denotes the objective portion of the mind, or done “I” – that which takes on the form of thoughts and perception. When one “sees” a book, light waves reflected off the book strike the eyes, and the optical nerves convey this signal to the brain; it is the ectoplasm then that takes on the form of a book, resulting in visual perception.
(5) See “Select Your Object Very Carefully”, from Ánanda Vacanámrtam Part 12.
(6) “Ghosts and Evil Spirits”, Yoga Psychology, p. 19-20.
(7) “Are Ghosts Hallucinations?”, Yoga Psychology, p. 63.
(8) “Ghosts and Evil Spirits”, Yoga Psychology, p. 15.
(9) See “Avidyá”, from Discourses on Tantra Vol. 2.
(10) “The Real Culprit”, in Discourses on Tantra, vol. 2.
(11) “Vashiikára – 2”, in Ananda Marga Philosophy in a Nutshell, Part 6.
(12) The quote is from “Disembodied Souls and Microvita,” in Microvita in a Nutshell, 3rd edition, p. 109. For more information, see the discourses “Microvitum: the Mysterious Emanation of the Cosmic Factor”, “Crude and Subtle Microvita”, “Microvita and Spiritual Attainment”, and “Disembodied Souls and Microvita”, in Microvita in a Nutshell. See also “Ghosts and Evil Spirits” in Yoga Psychology.
(13) “Ghosts and Evil Spirits”, in Yoga Psychology, p. 15-6.
(14) “Microvitum: the Mysterious Emanation of the Cosmic Factor”, in Microvita in a Nutshell, p. 5. See also p. 105.
(15) See “Disembodied Souls and Microvita”, Microvita in a Nutshell, p. 100-105.
(16) “Dream, Telepathic Vision and Clairvoyance”, in Yoga Psychology, p. 10-11.
(17) Ibid., 12.
(18) Ibid., p. 11.
(19) “Miscellaneous”, from Táttvika Praveshiká.
(20) See “Under the Shelter of the Guru”, in Yoga Psychology.
(21) The English translation of the shloka here is Shrii Sarkar’s own from “Are Ghosts Hallucinations?”, in Yoga Psychology, p. 60, from where the subsequent quote is also taken.
(22) “Some Questions and Answers on Ananda Marga Philosophy”, from Táttvika Praveshiká.