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THE TWO WORLDS
Dr.Rathin Datta FRCS (England, Edinburgh & Glasgow).FFIMS (Athens)
THE TWO WORLDS
PHOTO : The two worlds. TIWN

Editing Help : Rajorshi Datta, MBA

The Registrar
The Registrar of Surgery in a large hospital in Lancashire was entitled to a large apartment. In late 1963, the incumbent Registrar was a bachelor, and the apartment was entirely too large for his needs. He lived alone and parties with drink & music were not his style. He was a serious young man exclusively focused on his work and studies. So the hospital campus residents had their curiosity piqued when on alternate early Sunday mornings a small crowd of 6-7 young men and women started to emerge from the Registrar’s apartment, mostly faces unfamiliar to the campus residents. These strangers were very well groomed, and drove away in expensive cars.   However it was the England of the 1960’s where everybody’s privacy was honored, so no one ever interfered or even questioned him as to what was going on.


Connie
The only exception to the usual non-campus crowd was Connie, a pretty member of nursing staff. A very talented girl, she was from Wales & spoke English in a singsong Welsh accent. She was a nursing graduate, and was simultaneously doing her masters in Applied Psychology in the University. She would go on to do her Ph.D. in Applied Psychology and become a University Professor. Those Sunday mornings, she usually emerged first among the little crowd, looking a little groggy, & drove off in her little red Mini Minor. The Planchette Project, or "Life after death" The project that the group was participating was Connie's thesis for her Masters degree entitled "Life after death". There were six different nationalities in the group.  Connie offered to act as the group’s “medium” for their planchette. The choice fell on her as trials with the other members of the group was inconsistent. The Romanian The member from Romania described how his great grandfather, certified dead and buried in their family grave yard many years ago, would occasionally arrive and join the rest of the family in the dinner table fully dressed for the dinner, and proceed to have his dinner quietly along with his descendants who were petrified with fright. He would then walk out of the house, towards the graveyard and disappear. This terrifying episode repeated many times, till one day the villagers decided to dig up the grave, and on finding a fresh body with a slow beating heart, as the ritual demanded, drove a sharp wooden stake through the heart, finally killing the corpse.


The American
He was from the Midwest, where there were little towns said to be infested with vampires and were avoided by normal humans. The inhabitants of those vampire-infested towns lived in normal looking houses, shopped in normal looking stores and lived it up in pubs. If a normal human strayed into one of the towns, his body would be found next day completely exsanguinated - bled to death - his blood sucked through a hole in the neck (i.e. from the carotid artery and jugular veins). The American narrator himself had been chased by two such vampires, a man and a woman, begging for a little blood, as they were hungry. Vampires survive on solely on fresh human blood. Beliefs in “After life” There was confusion around the methodology of the investigation, as several competing procedures existed. The group decided to try out all first and ended up thoroughly confused. Surprisingly all the nationalities practiced a very similar procedure of planchette study. While the knowledge of the Indian saints about life after death was very advanced, some of the west did not really believe in "after life" or had scanty information. Western religions in general do not believe in reincarnation, something that is the cornerstone of Hindu religion.

Where do souls go after death, where they live till the reincarnationin the next births the stay after death is in a single plane or multiple planes was the subject of spiritual research and needs some explanation:

Human body is comprised of four basic components:


1. Physical body, comprising of the five senses i.e. a. touch, b. taste, c. sound, d. smell, and e. sight. These senses are left behind on death. This body remains on Earth and is either cremated, buried or
eaten up by birds (e.g. in Zoroastrians), wild animals or cannibals.
2. The soul i.e. the God within each of us.
3. Other components area a. supracausal body or the subtle body i.e. the feeling that they are separate from God b. causal body i.e. the intellect. c. mental body i.e. the mind  d. the vital body. The vital body [Prana-sakti] is released back into the universe. Other bodies comprised of the Subtle body (in Sanskrit: called lingadeha) travel to subtle plane of existence depending on his karma i.e. Heaven [swargalok], Nether [Bhuvarlok] or Hell  [narak]. So where do souls go and live after death till the reincarnation in the next birth? There are Seven Positive Planes Of Existence, which
are occupied by subtle bodies after doing righteous deeds. There are seven positive planes of existence [Saptalok]. There are seven negative planes of existence occupied by subtle bodies who have done unrighteous deeds and move in the negative path towards Hell and the subtle bodies who go to one of the seven planes of existence  of Hell  and become the Ghosts. The lowest plane is occupied by negative bodies or Ghosts who are the demons, devils, and infested with negative energies.

The Seven positive planes are therefore

1.Earth [Bhulok]  2.Nether region [Bhubarlok] 3. Heaven [Swargalok] 4.Maharlok  5. Janalok  6. Tapolok 7. Satyalok The above describes the Hindu belief, the layers are separated by different dimensions around us in all directions.

Technique of Planchette
As was explained by a member of the group, Dr. Phillips, the technique of Planchette, was a mix of various schools of thought on the subject of afterlife. The medium [Connie] would sit at the top of a small table, well protected by several cushions. On the table would be a thick square of cork, decorated by five thick candles capable to last 12 hours or more. They would sit around, three or five at a time, holding one end of the cork sheet. A photo if available would be on the end of the table, and if the photo was not available his /her life history in big letters would be on the table. The person to be called would be
introduced and the performers would invite him /her to come, meditate. Arrival of the soul could take few minutes to several hours or no arrival if their incarnation had taken place. There were quite a few blank nights. Connie being the medium, different languages flew from her lips, while she was in deep trance. Her mother tongue was Welsh, but during trance several languages flew smoothly including Bengali, English, French, Romanian, Russian etc. The group was of different nationalities and religions and came with different ideas and thoughts. A Pakistani man from Pindi quit after the first week as he thought the concept was against the Shariat.

From “Grassy Knoll, Dallas” to Planchette
The first guest was President Kennedy, assassinated in Dallas on Nov 22nd of that year. His arrival however, was not smooth as noisy and disruptive ghosts and demons from lower strata tried to come in. After about half an hour of noisy disturbance President Kennedy came. He was extremely irate, demanding to know why he had been summoned, and how the ghosts and demons that accompanied him could be controlled. He was yet to grasp that he was no longer the President of USA after the tragic event in Dallas. He was uncooperative, refusing to answer any questions, so reluctantly the group let him go, which was not easy either. After several members had their turn over the next couple of months, the Registrar’s turn came. He decided to call his Grandfather Narendra Nath Bal, his late father Dr.Upendra Datta, followed by Dr. B C Roy & Rabindranath Tagore. Dadamoshai Naren Bal was a brilliant lawyer in the 19th century and had passed away in 1940 when the Registrar was 8 years old. He was the foremost lawyer of East Bengal and Assam and was based in Comilla, then the cultural centre of Bengal, famous for music and banking institutions. He met his Guru when he was in Calcutta for his PG exam in Law, at the banks of River Ganga, and received his Diksha (giving of a mantra or an initiation by the guru). He never again met his Guru. He gained immense spiritual power, could foretell a person’s future after a look of his/her fore head. He foretold the date and place of departure of his soul, was the spiritual guide of a large number of educated families of pre partitioned Bengal and Assam. When the Registrar was 8 years old, Dadamoshai came to Shillong, give Diksha to him and his Chordi, then 9 years old, but declined Diksha to Nontadidi, then 12 years old. Asked why, he replied mysteriously, "Nona will stay with me, she does not need Diksha". Dadamoshai left this world on the stipulated date and place. Nontadidi left this world 18 months later, and it became clear what Dadamoshai had meant by his mysterious refusal to give Diksha to Nontadidi. Nontadidi was the most beautiful amongst the sisters, most talented among the siblings, in sports, in knitting and crochet and in academics. Her heart was the purest. In late 1963 as the group sat in Planchette for calling Dadamoshai, he came after an hour, and addressed his grandson, "Ami anek durer sthare thaki, aste kosto hoi, Upen ashbe. Ami jachchi" i.e. “I live in a distant (high) level, it hurts to come. Upen will come [Upen being the Registrar’s father's name]. I have to leave now”

That is when something strange and magical happened: A sweet voice in Bengali emerged from Connie's lips: “Chualal amake daklina keno, amake bhule geli." [Chalal, have you forgotten me? Why didn’t you call me?] A forgotten name Chualal flooded into the Registrar’s mind - it was his nickname as an youngster, and only two persons called him by that name - his father and Nontadidi. He knew instantly who it was, and screamed aloud "Nontadidi tui"? [Nontadidi, is that you?]. She said she lived with Dadamoshai and Baba [father] came to visit occasionally and then she had to go. Connie woke up soon and told she had the finest dream ever. The group tried very hard on the behalf of their host, but could never successfully planchette her again. They were able to summon the Registrar’s father, who told them that she lived in a much higher 'sthor' i.e. level, and could not come to Bhulok easily.

(Their story continues in the next article - in the next year they summoned Dr.B C Roy and the poet Rabindranath Tagore)

Dr. Rathin Datta, FRCS (England, Edinburgh & Glasgow).FFIMS (Athens) 

Surgeon & Sports Medicine Specialist

Padmashree Awardee, winner of the Bangladesh Liberation war honour 

This article also published in Facebook www.facebook.com/tripurainfoway simultaneously

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