N
THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, MARCH 6, 1954.
Child Who Told Of Previous Life As
Wife And Mother
Kumari Shanti Dovi when sho
wea
hing
Ferry old.
and
the
It lay, that yellow house, not far from a temple, and not far too, from a river, a sacred river where she used to bathe.
the she had there discussing puzzling subject of house itself. A yellow reincarnation There is house with a shop in front one ever-present dif- of it and houses and other fleulty. It is that of being shops near it. able to cite, chapter and verse, what
be de may scribed as a fully authen- Licnted case of n How- Hiving person's rebirth.
When I use the word pui
All these things Shanti thenticated do not
Bevi spoke of. And then to cast the slightest doubt she began to talk of "my And after that the astonishing first husband."
The former, But I have of "my son." stories
she said, was a cloth mer- I am fully convinced that chant, selling his goods in front of the
hand been told.
the tellers of these
mean
stories
are completely sincere and satisßed that what they say happened to them really has happened.
What Proof?
the shop in yellow house.
on
In all familles in all races eläldren prattle
with their inaghings. Every mother ut some time or other has hear: her little girl talking to
neen "friend."
UNCEN
So in
Боте
family
Shanti Devi's ile attention was at first paid
her ramblings. Not when she persisted in them and
10
detall.
even
THEY know their own per they took on such a wealth of
sonal experiences to be actual. Demonstrating that actuality to a second person, any second person, is nn
other matter,
Sometimes, when she spoke of
her husband. someone would laughingly ask his name. The fact that she would never reply to this particular question was
For what proof can he not very strange. produced?
There is an
ald custom in India that for- bids modest wives to mention the names of husbanda to all and sundry.
the Dramatic Meeting
that will Proof, that is, satisfy the eyes and bring conviction to a great many
well people
outside family circle.
What is regarded ።። possibly the best-authentic- ated case of recent years is that of a Hindu girl named Kumari Shant! Devi, Hers is a truly strange story.
In the late '20's she Was living happily with her par- ents in Delhi. Her father
and was in business
the household was one of well- to-do people.
Up to the time she was four the chikd was no dif- ferent from any other little Hindu girl.
save for thing. Few of the custom- ary childish prattlings came from her lips. Her long silences were often remark ed upon, in and out of the family circle.
'My House' BUT
the day when But then came
Shumil Devi wanted to
Muttro. Nay, de Journey to manded to be taken there. And whole neighbourhood soon the
of the was beginning to talk child
Shanti Devi had grand uncle who was well-known lencher in Delhi. Hils namo was Bisham Chaund, and he Was interested in the family stories of his grand-niece.
So one day
She was
her.
went
le called to see now nine, und the most baffling member of the family. Bisham Chaund straight to the point. "Tell me," name of he counselled, "the your husband. I will then take you to Muttra."
Shanti Devi did not at once presently, she respond. But, shyly leaned towards hum. And his ear, so that others into would not hear, she whispered a narne. It was that of Kadar Nath Chaubey. She also whis- pered, modestly, an address. An address in Muttra.
Deciding to pursue the matter now, the teacher wrote to Mut- To Kadar Nath Chaubey. after that fourth tra, birthday she began to talk a lot more. And the things sho now talked were very odd indeed.
M
of
She Was offered Bome Bweets one day. She ac- cepted them, but pointed
out, with a gravity beyond TN her years: "These are dif-
That was the first time there had been any mon- tion of Muttra. That place lies some 100 miles to the south of Delhi.
the
IN
I
vered by Hindus as birthplace of Krishna, and was a centre of Buddhism
the
The letter found him all right. But, aurpecting a hoax. Kadar Nath asked a friend living in Delhi to call and see Shanti Devi friend's and her people. The report was that there was some- thing that required serious in- voetigation.
The result of all this was that one day Kadar Nath Chaubey, a widower was on the train to Deinl. With him he took his son, ten-year-old Nit Lai. The dale was November 13, 1935.
Their meeting with anti Devi was dramatic. The giri, only nine, be it remembered, re- cognised him at sight, She went the to him quite naturally, in manner of a dutiful wife of the East. More, her actions remind- ed him forcefully of his Inte wife the wife who had nearly ten years before.
died
Buried Money
BUT her greeting of Nit Lal
was perhaps more striking. She rushed to him, and folding him in her arms she murmured to him in the terms of endear- mother normally uses to ment a her
child. young
And the had
died mother of Nit Lat he when
was no more than nine days old.
Kadar stayed two or three days there in Deli, Walking hand in hand with him, Shant Devi recalled many quite inti- mate detaile of their life to- gether at Muttra. Among other things she mentioned several times that there was money she had buried under the floor one of the rooms in that yellow hous: back in Muttra.
of
And Kaciar Wenl back Mutira fully convinced that the body of the nine-year-old girl really held the soul of his dear Chaubam, whose death was re- corded in the books of the Lady Lyall Hospital at Agra, where it had taken place.
It was at this point that really serious notice began to be taken of this odd story. Three To- sponsible citizens of Delhi de- cided to probe it thoroughly. One was Д prominent news- paper executive, another was a political leader of standing, and the third was a barrister.
Knew Family
THESE three, with two other 1 observers, decided to Ko with Shanti Devi to Muttro, and see what happened.
waa And what they did see startling. The drst surprise was when the little party left the train at Muttra
With smalle of recognition the girl warmly greeted a man standing on the platform. He was, she explained the elder brother "of my hus band."
By PARRY MILLER
the manner I have
ΟΙ
1 Page 71
the Gin
???
Have
This is
YOU Lived
Before
???
Beethoven
shown Intrigued mon and women far beyond the shores of India, They marvelled at her ability to remember all kinds of And at that end there was one
word in my mind, Jittle incidents in her 'pre- vious" life in just the same way "The memory of that music as she could recall the events remained
sharply with me. fofofofofoffaff at a year or Ave years back. I just had to And out what it
And her case has come to be was. considered a cinic modern example of re-birth.
time. But he had never up now seen Shanti Devl.
to
They put the girl in a gharry or one-horse trap. The driver was not given a destination but told to follow her directions and hers alone.
The idea, of course, was to see if, without any help, she
could lead the party place that had been In her previous life.
"And, searching among the works of Beethoven, 1 found it, It was one of his lesser-known
'Fingers Guided' atas,
"With the music in front of
planist
1 knew that the first
THE story of a woman I will me I played it again. And as a call Mary Brown-which is time I had played it I had been nothing like her real name--ls note perfect. of unusual interest as bring
of the solid her home typical
personal bellef in reincarnation held by
great many people,
to
tho
Off they went through a maze narrow of winding streets and roads, until at length they came to a while-painted house, Shanti Devi called a halt, and nodded at the house. "This" she said. "Is where I lived." Then she added musingly: "But it was painted yellow then,"
A discrepancy? Not a bit of
Mary Brown is now 35, # cultured woman living in com-
in fortable circumstances
Counties market Home
lown. She was the child of quite well- to-do parents and her private schooling was expensive,
her
"And in that same moment I knew something that may sound very odd indeed to the layman. I knew that somehow, by some mystery I could not bogin to fathom, the spirit, the soul of the great Beethoven had been responsible.
"In other words, that Bice- thoven had come back to earth and was making his exquisite
Right from
baby days Mary Brown's greatest interest music again, through me." was in music. It was soon plain that she had natural talent for above the average. Study came When she was easily to her.
1. It was soon established that, though this was not the present home of Kadar Nath, it was the house where he had pro- viously Ilved with his young still a young child her ability to wife. And that it had then been, play quite complicated classics us the present owner testified, impressed all who heard her. painted yellow.
"There were," she told me. And Kadar Nath wtio was "those who went so far as to there with the little crowd that call me an infant prodigy. My
naturally were now growing, agreed that
very proud of me,
WELS
that was DO.
In The House
HEN Shanti Devi entered the THEN State Devi start up
to a corner in one of the rooms and pointed to the ground wish "There." her foot.
she said, "s where my money les."
The money, she told them, she had saved and buried a foot deep in the ground when she knew she was going to have a child, a sum of 150 rupees the had planned to offer to one of the gods in the nearby temple to ensure tho infant's well- being.
parenta
"By the time I was 18 I was being talk about quite a lot, and please do not think I boasting when I say I knew my playing was good.
Ar
The pride of my parents in- creased with my growing reputa- tion. It was quite understand- able that they should thrill at the thought of having brought a daughter of such talent into the world.
'Note Perfect'
S for me--I was beginning!
"As
'Very Real'
may sound crazy. To
je
it was very real. So real that from that moment I gave up every iden of becoming a concert pianist.
"You see I realised that, how~ : ever well I might play, however wonderful my audiences might think me, the credit would never belong to me.
"It would be the renewed triumphs of Beethoven given again to the world through me.
"I do not play on the concert platform any more. But, In the still of the night, I play on the grand piano you see over there.
"Ad mostly It Is Beethoven. Without music. Without plan. Without thought. But always with the soul of the master him-
self--the soul that I believe
now within me."
Well, there is Mary Brown's
dug into the cathen ability I might possess stemmed story. She told it to me with-1
They floor of the house. No h наза Bul Kadar wath was found. now explained that it was truc
that 150 enough
rupees had been buried there, but that he had dug it up and removed it after his wife's death. To test the girl he had not disclosed this before,
After that Shanti Dovi met and Identified various member: of the Chaubey family, and her old Muttra parents, Chaturbhuj and his wife, Jagti
from either of them.
out emotion or emphasis. And she believes it.
"For there were occasions. when I was at the keyboard, when it seemed not I but some- one else was guiding my fingers, who can spurn it?
"It all seemed so easy. I found myself playing quite diff- cult classics without the alight- est mental or physical effort,
There can be no evidence for or against. And without evidence
"Then one day I had an ex- perience that made a profound impression. 1 was sitting at the plano with no plan and no music before me. And suddenly I felt impelled to play.
She took the unvestigators and the wondering observers to the nearby temple, pointing out places of interest she remem- "Without any conscious voli- bered on the way; and she took tion on my part my lingers them to the Vishrent Ghet, on began to move ever the keys. the bank of the sacred River And I found myself playing Jumna, and showed them the something I had never played. steps from which she used to seen, or heard before.
As
bathe
And that was, in fact, who he was-Babu Ram Chaubey, her brother-in-law he had, of course, known Chaubam well enough during her abort ite
Shanti Devi is now
a young woman of 27. Her story, verl-
to
"It was, as my ear could not beautiful recognise, fall
musle. I played it to the end.
PITY THE POOR PUBLICAN
London.
our secret heart we have always rather
By YORKE HENDERSON
elsowhere, for that matter. And
That after 576 half-pints have been pumped out of a 36 gallon beer barrel, the pub Ilean has made, a cool profit of 32 shillings? And that's before he's paid the who pumps the handle.
17101
That the 2d per los profit of Scotch doem't go far if hamn-flated customers of bar- men drop a couple of 1s. 6d. glasses in the course of the day?
That barmen have to get overtime for working On
bank holidayət
And this is where you meet ferent from the sweets fancied ourselves in the role how grey the prospect is. the real moneybags of the pub used to eat in my house at of "mine host." A little
game.
Well-heeled gents who Muttra."
greyer; possibly u little Everything, it seems, conspires refuse one another's expansive portlier: and
infinitely to make life tough for the man brandy on account of the ulcers
who wiser.
everything they've acquired making money runs a pub; from the BBC to the Catering from beer. Always the picture is the Hours and Wages Act, The BBC,
To be "put in" involves a sort same, Low ceilings, age because television koeps pros-
landlord-tenant relationship blackened beams, a roaring pective customers at their own of
Hours between Aresides; the Catering
yourself and the It is log fire reflected in the and Wages Act, because it has Brewers. They own
the pub. turned yesteryear's You rent it from them: With gleaming brass and pewter. apparently
And there we are behind Jolly Dotman into an expensive one big condition. You have to
clock-watching automaton.
sell their beer only, the bar. In gentlemanly
in Laci, pub - owning tweeds, a Tattersall weskit,
But oven this involves having Desures tta that
a fair spot of capital. Enough, and a silk tie with a gold acquaintance
the number of "little-pub-in- in fact,
furniture. to buy the
Then there had horseshoe pin. The child's family
are the myriad, the-country" owners who have attings, stock and goodwill of fiddling ite overheads you no special personal link
tenant, plus # never take into account before- With the bitter in the "public" been turning in their hands of the previous
handsome deposit to with it, if any link at áll.
and splach in late is "something chronle."
the hand. Things like electric bulbe, Browers-returnable, of course, renewing lino behind the, bar, To hear it mentioned now, and the Scotch
the "saloon," We dispense out of
if you pay for your beer. the blue
the mops, the cleaning material, it në
Not that. homely philosophy,
the odd bits of decoration: absolutely certainly very we're
Buro what were, was
"homely philosophy" implies. But, strange.
at any event, that's what we'd be dispensing.
in
L
era,
early Christian
queer
But it was only the be- ginning of many things centred on that an- clent city to the south..
While her mother was
Start Of Trouble
own
barrel. This mer whole affair froehold.
Myriad Overheads
Now all you have to do is The trouble storie when you make the pub pay. And here's But the hardest blow of all Det about acquiring the pub where you really hit the rocks, and. this brought my dream pub Naturally you want it to be your
down, about my cars-is that | Once. Upon a time, all the publicans spend only about a place, lock, stock and In brief, it's overy British
buying the publicam had to do was look third of their day chatting with male's secret dream...."a little
And.. hearty, chaff the customers and the customers and graciously pub somewhere in the country.”
unless you have so much money watch the till mal up
accepting the "one on me old But that was yesterday. To that you wouldn't want to own
man For most of the time, Joging money
on a pub, and they are writing with • #C+ old typewriter, much out of the question. punching the
[you're really Claver describe with the prospect of the weekly the child would
counts, cellar-work and minnilar The alternative is to be "put you're likely to meet them did thIDEN quite graphically how she cheque a fale certakity.
in' by the Brewers. (We use all...and maybe even had dressed herself" "In my For have learned the the ospital: “BA MOVIE For the thouminata. house at Muttrn.". She dream-shattering facia about timt in how pubiosos, falic of the
describe the meals Ittis pube in the countrymwor· these tycoons of tie.
dressing her, for instance, day we're only too glad to be a pub, anyway, that's fairly Today 'there are 990 ways of between 8am and midnight,
wou
we
1
So if anyone wants a slightly
[WORLD COPYRIGHT]
NEXT
WEEK: THE AB. TONISHING STORY OF "MRB W."
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