Shanti Devi - The World Famous Case Of Reincarnation

Reincarnation is a generally accepted concept amongst Hindus who believe that Karma and rebirth and death go together. Karma is the primary cause for rebirth and death and once a person's karma is nullified due to his punya or merits, he will not be born as a human being; instead, he will attain liberation. We get into numerous bodies and die a hundred deaths and born a hundred times due to the handiwork of Karma operating on your life. It is impossible to remember your past life usually but when you read the case of Shanti Devi, you not only realise reincarnation theories are true as her case has convinced even die-hard sceptics the world over.

On January 18, 1902, Chaturbhuj, a resident of Mathura, was blessed with a daughter, who was named Lugdi. When Lugdi reached the age of 10, she was married to Kedarnath Chaube, a shopkeeper of the same locality. It was the second marriage for Kedarnath, as his earlier wife had died. Kedarnath Chaube owned a cloth shop in Mathura and also a branch shop at Hardwar. Lugdi was very religious and had been to several pilgrimage places at a very young age.

When Lugdi became pregnant for the first time, her child was stillborn following a Cesarean section. For her second pregnancy, she had to be taken to a Government Hospital at Agra where she delivered a baby boy through Cesarean on September 25, 1925. Nine days later, she succumbed to the post surgery complications and she died on October 4, 1925. .

Shanti Devi Remembers Her Past Life

One year ten months and seven days after Lugdi's death, on December 11, 1926, Babu Rang Bahadur Mathur of Chirawala Mohulla, a small locality of Delhi, was blessed with a daughter, whom they named Shanti Devi.

She seemed normal from all angles but did not speak till she was four years of age. Around this age, she started to talk about a place in Mathura a place nearly 75 miles away, where she lived her previous lifetime. She recalled all the shops and streets of Mathura in detail and spoke about her husband, who appeared fair with a wart on his left cheek and wore reading glasses.

Firstly, they thought it was all an imaginative prattle by a precocious kid. But when she revealed her husband's name, a family friend decided to help Devi and sent a letter to Kedar Nath Chaube, a merchant in Mathura, writing about Devi and her past life memories. Kedar Nath confirmed all this to be true and set out with a relative to Devi's home to test the authenticity of her words. To test her, he brought the relative before Devi and said he was Kedarnath to which Devi violently disapproved and pointed at Kedarnath and said he was her husband. Her child Navneet from her previous incarnation was brought to her upon seeing whom she burst into copious tears.

Nath requested to speak with Devi privately and then later confessed that the information she had provided were true and exact and felt as though his dead wife spoke to him from of the body of Shanti Devi. Shanti spent several days with Kedar Nath and his son before they had to return to Mathura. Saddened by their departure, she pleaded with her parents to let her take a trip to her former home.

As Sceptics Investigate Her Case......

At this juncture, Mahatma Gandhi set up a committee to explore this case in depth, a dozen researcher also joined Devi and her parents in their train journey to Mathura on November 24, 1935. "As the train approached Mathura, she remarked that by the time they reach Mathura the doors of the temple of Dwarkadhish would be closed in the exact Mathura language 'Mandir ke pat band ho jayenge.'

Upon reaching the Mathura platform, they saw a stranger who just passed them by. But Shanti immediately got down from her uncle's lap and ran to this stranger and prostrated before him and stood aside reverently. When asked, she replied that it was her husband's brother. When the committee members took her in a Tonga, she showed all those placed and landmarks that were correctly described by her.

Now they uttered two words that only a Chaube from Mathura and no other outsider could understand. When asked where the Jajroo (toilet) was, she promptly pointed at the toilet found in that house. She was then asked the meaning of Katora to which she correctly replied as "Paratha."

She also wanted to see the other house in which she and Kedarnath had lived together. When she spoke about a well that existed on her way to her home, the committee checked and found out that there was no well. Then Kedar nath removed a slab on that spot and beneath it was the well which she had told about.
She also recognized her parents and it was a heart wrenching tearful reunion for all the three. She later visited the Dwarkadhish temple and other places which were found exactly the way she described them, in her current birth.

Published report about her from the Committee garnered worldwide interest and from psychologists to saints, everyone arrived, interviewed and studied her case. It was difficult for even the critics to disprove her case as mere hogwash. She was unanimously accepted as the most authentic case of reincarnation that they ever knew of.

"I Have Lived Before: The True Story of the Reincarnation of Shanti Devi". This is a very famous book written about her by Sture Lonnerstrand whose book has been translated by Leslie Kippen. In this book, you can find what Shanti Devi says about her experiences after she left the body, the period between her past life and present life, and her return to her present body.

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