Shanti Devi was born on December 11, 1926 in a little known town of Delhi. She did not speak much until she reached the age of 4 but otherwise she was just a normal girl like any other in the locality.
At the age of four, the little girl started claiming that the home where she lived was not her real home and that her parents were not her real parents and began to claim to remember details of her past life.
Discouraged by her parents, she ran away from home at age six, trying to reach Mathura. Back home, she stated in school that she was married and had a son with her husband. She said that her husband lived in Mathura (145 kilometers from Delhi) but never uttered his name.
Interviewed by her teacher and headmaster, she used words from the Mathura dialect and said that her husband was a cloth merchant. Shanti Devi told that not only was she married but that she died 10 days after child birth.
That little girl even mentioned three distinctive features of her husband. She said that her husband wore reading glasses, had a wart on left cheek and was a fair skinned man.
The headmaster located a merchant by that name in Mathura who had lost his wife, Lugdi Devi, nine years earlier, ten days after having given birth to a son.
Kedar Nath also said in the reply that Pandit Kanjimal – one of his relatives lived in Delhi and should be allowed to meet Shanti Devi.
Pandit Kanjimal personally met Shanti Devi and was surprised to find the amount of details she gave about Kedar Nath. Thus, he (Kanjimal) arranged for Shanti Devi’s and Kedar Nath’s meeting. Kedar Nath did come along with his and Ludgi’s son and his present wife.
Kedar Nath was however posed as elder brother of himself but Shanti Devi recognized him immediately and also his son Navneet Lal and even pointed out to her mother the fair color of Kedar Nath and the wart on his left cheek.
As she knew several details of Kedar Nath’s life with his wife, he was soon convinced that Shanti Devi was indeed the reincarnation of Lugdi Devi.
The Investigation
The case was brought to the attention of Mahatma Gandhi who set up a commission to investigate; a report was published in 1936.
The commission traveled with Shanti Devi to Mathura, arriving on 15 November 1935. The commission’s report concluded that Shanti Devi was indeed the reincarnation of Lugdi Devi.
In February 1936, Shri Bal Chand Nahata, a rationalist and staunch disbeliever, interrogated Shanti Devi and some related persons. He published his report in the form of a small booklet in Hindi entitled Punarjanma Ki Parayyalochana. He concludes his brief study by saying: “Whatever material that has come before us, does not warrant us to conclude that Shanti Devi has ‘former life recollections or that this cases proves reincarnation.”
Two further reports were written at the time, one critical of the reincarnation claims, and the other, a rebuttal. It’s “Sen, Indra. “Shantidevi Further Investigated”. Proceedings of the India Philosophical Congress. 1938”. Indra Sen MA, LL.B., PH.D was a devotee of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother [since 1934], psychologist, author, and educator, and the founder of Integral Psychology as an academic discipline. So he can’t be unprejudiced. Still here is what I found about his argument: Dr. Indra Sen had also made a close study of the case. He took Shanti Devi to Mathura and Brindaban and “tested her memories on new points.” In April 1939 he secured the cooperation of a hypnotist and, “attempted to get her recollection of her former life in a hypnotic state.” Dr. Sen wrote, “I am confident that Shanti has certain memories which are not of ‘here and now’.” Doesn’t sound like someone who is sure of it. This however can be explained by modern science [under hypnosis human brain can recall all sort of information, known from stories, books…]
In July 1939 Mr. Sushil Bose interrogated Shanti Devi and her father in Delhi and Kedarnath Choube at Mathura. He has reported the interviews in complete details, but has not expressed his own opinion or comments about the case. [If you discover person who is a proof of reincarnation, would you keep calm or would you share it with the world?! ] Bose also interrogated Shanti about her experiences between her death in her former life and her reincarnation into the present one.
In 1961 Dr. Ian Stevenson (1974a, 1974b, 1977, 1978, 1983, 1987) also studied the sources for this case. He writes that “the accounts available to me indicate that Shanti Devi made at least 24 statements of her memories which matched the verified facts.” —By this time the girl should be 25 years old, a women who can have benefits from the myth about her. However it is possible that she just was still deluded about here past.
Dr. K.S.Rawat, interviewed Shanti Devi on February 3, 1986, and October 30, 1987. He had recorded his first interview with Shanti Devi on an audio cassette and the second and third meeting was recorded on a videocassette. – These are just interviews of Shanti Devi cannot be considered as any proof at all.
More interesting points from investigation research highlighting Shanti Devi’s case was a real incarnation
Shanti Devi narrated everything that happened till her death after childbirth and that included the complicated surgical procedures she underwent.
The researchers were left absolutely stunned by the detailed narration unable to figure out how a little girl like her would even know about such complicated surgical procedures.
Kedar Nath asked Shanti Devi how she became pregnant even when she was unable to get up because of arthritis. To this Shanti Devi explained the entire process of intercourse to Kedar Nath.
Gandhi appointed 15 prominent people including parliamentarians, media members and national leaders for investigating the case. These 15 people took Shanti Devi to Mathura. On the station, she was show a stranger from Mathura and was asked if she could recognize him. She immediately touched his feet and recognized him as her husband’s elder brother, who he actually was. On reaching home, Shanti Devi immediately recognized her father-in-law in the midst of a crowd.
Shanti Devi told that in her past life she had buried some money in a particular location in her house in Mathura. Shanti Devi took the party to the second floor and showed them a spot where they found a flower pot but no money. The girl, however, insisted that the money was there. Kedarnath later confessed that he had taken out the money after Lugdi’s death.
A Skeptic’s quest to find the truth
The problem with all these stories is verifying that things occurred exactly as described by credulous witnesses. Far as I can see there isn’t a shred of independently verifiable evidence here. And there is so much room for mistake and falsification in testimonial evidence, especially given the cultural context in which reincarnation was considered true (and in which someone like Gandhi could very much have desired to prove his native religion true), that it doesn’t rise to anywhere close to the ‘extraordinary evidence’ required to confirm an extraordinary claim.
Who were the members of investigation committee made by Gandhi
The commission which Gandhi formed said it was real reincarnation case in the report by L. D. Gupta, N. R. Sharma, T. C. Mathur, An Inquiry into the Case of Shanti Devi, International Aryan League, Delhi, 1936.
International Aryan League is The Arya samaj, a hindu sect, that strongly believed in reincarnation, rebirth and other Hindu believes and that was very strict in that. It was against the Musilms and had influence on the Indian National Congress . [Gandhi kind of liked them]
L. D. Gupta was the chairman of Daily Taj newspaper and Gandhi’s friend [Daily Taj was started by Arya Samaj and strongly believed in Hindu philosophy]
N. R. Sharma was leader in the Indian National Congress
T. C. Mathur was a Lawyer [a lot of lawyers happened to be part of the Arya Samaj, but could not get any information about him]
So this investigation was made and published under the influence of a Hindu nationalistic sect, which makes it even less reliable.
More over if we look at the political scenario of the time, India was “fighting” for its independence and on the other hand Hindus and Muslims were in conflict too. 1936 was the year of Bombay religious riots between Hindus and Muslims. According to B.R. Ambedkar, Hindu-Muslim riots in Mumbai took place very often in the period from 1929 to 1938. He wrote: “From February 1929 to April 1938—a period of nine years—there were no less than 10 communal riots.
Mahatma could have decided to use the Shanti Devi’s story to shift the attention and to find peaceful resolution of the conflicts. The Hindu religious group like Arya Samaj could get a mileage for their religious belief if they could prove that the reincarnation story of Shanti Devi was true. So this investigation commission had motive to certify that reincarnation claim of Shanti Devi was real.
So the investigation made and published under the influence of a these Hindu nationalistic sect, makes it even less reliable.
Who was Ian Stevenson
We have already discussed about the affiliation and beliefs of reincarnation and rebirth of Indra Sen and Sushil Bose and how their research cannot be unprejudiced. Let us find out who Ian Stevenson was.
Ian Pretyman Stevenson was a Canadian-born U.S. psychiatrist and was the author of around three hundred papers and fourteen books on reincarnation, including Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation (1966) and European Cases of the Reincarnation Type (2003).
However, scientists ignored Stevenson’s work and saw him as “earnest, dogged but ultimately misguided, led astray by gullibility, wishful thinking and a tendency to see science where others saw superstition.
Dr Stevenson’s goal was to find real proofs for the reincarnation, in which he strongly believed and his works are objective.
So we see the people who investigated the case of Shanti Devi either had motive or objective to certify that her case is a real incarnation. Even if we consider that the researchers had an honest intent to find out the truth, they often asked leading questions and their conclusions were undermined by confirmation bias, where cases not supportive of his hypothesis were not presented as counting against it.
Let’s put our ‘analytical thinking cap’on analyse these reports to get closest to the truth behind this so called the most thoroughly researched and proven case of reincarnation.
Meeting of Shanti Devi with Kedarnath’s cousin
After Shanti Devi made her claims, that she was married to a man who has a shop in mathura, [and some claims about the shops location and their house color, which weren’t true] her uncle/headmaster finds a person who fits the profile and writes to him, about the girl’s claims. The man was Kedarnath Chaubey and he answered that there are some true facts, but he will sent his cousin to talk with the girl. So the uncle/headmaster surely said that to the gilr’s parents and it is extremely possible that Shanti Devi got to know about it.
When the cousin met Shanti Devi, he asked her:
He- do you recognize me?
She- yes
he -Whats my name
she – I don’t know
Comment: Shanti Devi didn’t know.
He- then how you recognize me?
She- you’r my husband’s [younger] cousin
He- how to do you know that since you can’t tell my name?
She- i recognized your features!
He – Whats the name of your husband?
She- Chaubey Kedarnath
Comment: Correct. But this is the first time the girl said the name of her husband. She claimed that she did not say the name before as Hindu women does not utter the name of their husbands. It is extremely possible that she got to know that someone by the name of Kedarnath Chaubey replied to her uncle’s/headmaster’s letter. That is why she could say the name now.
He – How many brothers your husband have? [but it might be „does he have one or two brothers; it can be „does he have brother“]
She- one
Comment: Correct. But we never know the exact question what the cousin had asked. It could be, “Does your husband have a brother?”, or, “Does he have one or two brothers?”
He- had your husband an older or younger brother
she- an elder
Comment: Correct
he- was Kedarnath’s father then living?
She- yes
he- can you recognize him?
She-yes
Comment: Correct. She did recognised Kedarnath’s father when she was taken to Mathura
He- Where is you house situated in Mathura?
She- It was situated in chaubey St.
Comment: Already a letter was sent. So probably that’s how she got to know where the house was situated.
He- can you give me other particulars regarding the situation of your house
She- There was a grocery shop in front of my house
Comment: Wrong
He- did you ever lend money to anybody in your previous life?
She- I don’t remember. But I hid some money underneath the ground in my house.
Comment: Lungdi Devi did lend some money. But Shanti Devi could not say.
He- how much money did you treasure and in what place of the house?
She- about Rs. 150 – in a room in the upper-story of the house
He- can you point out that place?
She- yes
Comment: she couldn’t find any money in the man’s house, however she found a place where she claimed that she hid the money. But it was a Hindu tradition that time for wives to hid money. So it would be really easy for Shanti Devi to guess.
He- how many children were born to you in your previous life?
She- 2. A son and one doughter
Comment: Correct. But her first child was a stillborn, and no info about its gender. So it might as well be wrong.
He- where and how did your death take place?
She- I don’t remember.
Comment: She doesn’t know- Wrong
He- were your parents present at the time of your death?
She- yes, they were all present
Comment: If it means if they were alive, then it is correct. but if he asked if they were at the hospital when she died, probably they were not, because the hospital was in some other city. So this might well be incorrect.
He- If you were left alone at the Mathura Railway station, could you go and find your house without anyone’s help?
She- it is far from the station, but yes I can reach it all alone
He- what ornaments did you wear then?
She- Heavy , “Chureys“ (bangles) on my legs
He- What other ornaments did you wear?
She- An ornament on the forehead, bangles on the arms and a necklace
Comment: Looks like the real wife had some special ornaments, and this guy was trying to see if she could remember. But Shanti Devi spoke of only generic ornaments of that time, nothing special did she mentioned. For example what kind of ornaments a married Bengali lady used to wear may be during 70s or 80s. A white bangle (Sankha), a red bangle (pala), gold bangles, chain around the neck or necklace, a nose pic. This was the generic ornament which a middle class married Bengali lady used to wear for several decades. (This might not be true today because there had been drastic changes in Indian culture post 1990)
Kedarnath visits Delhi to meet Shanti Devi
Kedarnath came to Delhi on November 12, 1935, with Lugdi’s son Navneet Lal and his present wife. They went to Rang Bahadur’s house the next day. To mislead Shanti Devi, Kanjimal introduced Kedarnath as the latter’s elder brother. Shanti Devi blushed and stood on one side. Someone asked why she was blushing in front of her husband’s elder brother. Shanti said in a low firm voice, “No, he is not my husband’s brother. He is my husband himself.” Then she addressed her mother, “Didn’t I tell you that he is fair and he has a wart on the left side cheek near his ear?”
Comment: If she did tell them that her past life husband has fair skin and wart on his cheek, and they found one who fits that description, it is not a miracle that she would be able to identify him.
Kedarnath asked her how she had recognized Navneet as her son, when she had seen him only once as an infant before she died. Shanti explained that her son was a part of her soul and the soul is able to easily recognize this fact.
Comment: Now this is strange, because then she must be born with the part of the souls of her biological parents, right? Every time a person is born he should then have a soul-part of his parents souls, not his own? (Also she could not recognize the mother of her past life. Was she not a part of her mother’s soul?)
Later Kedarnath said that during his stay in Delhi, he found Shanti Devi’s behavior similar to that of Lugdi in many ways. Before retiring for the night, he asked to be allowed to talk with her alone and later said that he was fully convinced that Shanti Devi was his wife Lugdi Bai because there were many things she had mentioned which no one except Lugdi could have known.
Comment: Could be that Kedarnath decided to pretend that she told him true facts and that way he could become a “super star”, after all being “husband” of a “a real incarnation” should be fun.
So the man, his wife and child went to Delhi and met the girl. Then they talked and the man might gave her a lot of info about his life with or without purpose. Then the family goes back to their home town, without the girl.
So the interview with Kedarnath’s cousin or after that Kedarnath’s visit, was nothing special. But then Mahatma Gandhi kicks in. During the first 2-3 years, when the scientist talked to her, she told nothing much about her past life. But she started to show more knowledge after Mahatma’s intervention. That is fishy.
RATIONALIST DEBASHIS 