Sleep Paralysis (ghosts 1)

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On attaining ghosthood (from Garuda Purana)

 

Garuda said: How do these ghosts come into being? How are they redeemed from

pretahood? What are their features? What is their diet, o Lord? How are the

ghosts propitiated? O Lord of deities, where do they stay? Please favour me,

o Lord, with an answer to these queries.

 

The Lord said: It is the men of sinful actions actuated by their previous

misdeeds who become ghosts after death. Please listen to me, I shall tell

you in detail. He who desecrates well, tanks, lakes, parks, temples, water

sheds, groves of trees, almshouses etc. and misdirects anyone in religious

rites for monetary gain is a sinner. After death he becomes a ghost and

remains as such till the final deluge. Out of greed if people upset the

boundaries of villages and destroy pasture lands, tanks, parks, underground

drainage, etc. they become ghosts. Sinful persons meet with death at the

hands of candalas, infuriated brahmins, serpents, animals with curved teeth

or in watery graves or struck by lightning.

 

Those who meet with foul death such as committing suicide by hanging from a

tree, by poison or weapon, those who die of cholera, those who are burnt to

death alive, those who die of foul and loathsome diseases or at the hands

of robbers, those who are not cremated duly after death, those who do not

follow sacred rites and conduct, those who do not perform Vrsotsarga and

monthly pinda rites, those who allow sudras to bring sacrificial grass,

twigs and other articles of homa, those who fall from mountains and die,

those who die when walls collapse, those who are defiled by women in their

menses, those who die in the firmament and those who are

forgetful of Visnu, those who continue to associate with persons defiled due

to births or death, those who die of dog-bitting or meet with death in a

foul manner, become ghosts and roam over the earth.

 

One who discards one's mother, sister, wife, daughter or daughter-in-law

without seeing any fault in them, obtains ghosthood surely. One who deceives

his own brother, kills a brahmana or a cow, drinks liquor, defiles the

preceptor's bed, steals gold and silk garment, becomes ghosts, o bird. One

who usurps a deposit, deceives a friend, enjoys other man's wife, kills

other's faith, is cruel, definitely becomes a ghost. One who discards the

family customs, takes to other customs, is without knowledge and good

character, definitely becomes a ghost. To illustrate this there is an

anecdote narrated by Bhisma to Yudhisthira. O you of good rites, I shall

narrate the same to you, on hearing which you may feel pleasure.

 

Yudhisthira said: O grandfather, please tell me what those evil deeds are as

a result of which one becomes a ghost and what are the means of redemption

from the same on hearing which I shall not be deluded thus further.

 

Bhisma said: I shall tell you entirely what those causes are whereby one

turns a ghost and how he is set free after falling into dismal hell

impassable even to gods. I shall tell all those things on hearing which a

person is set free from ghosthood. O dear, there was a brahmin of rigorous

sacred rites named Santaptaka. For practising penance, he went to a forest.

He was a man of kind, compassionate nature. He used to perform homas and

yogic practices as well as great sacrifices. He used to spent time usefully

engaged. He strictly followed the instructions of his preceptor. He was

soft-hearted, truthful and pure. He was afraid of the other world.

 

He strictly followed the instruction of his preceptor. He was delighted in

serving guests. He observed yogic practices. He was free from dvandvas (like

happiness and misery, heat and cold and such opposite pairs.) Practising

yoga incessantly to conquer mundane existence, he subjugated the sense

organs. Following the path of good conduct he eagerly desired salvation. He

spent years in the secluded forest. Then the idea of visiting holy centres

entered his mind. He thought within himself "I shall keep immersed my body

in the waters of a holy river till I die." Accordingly he hastened to a holy

centre where he took bath at sunrise. He performed the rites of japa and

namaskara (obeisance) and started on journey.

 

One day, this brahmin of great penance lost his way and reached a forest

full of thorny shrubs, secluded and devoid of big trees. While he was

hurrying up, he saw five terrible ghosts. On seeing these five awful ghosts

of deformed features he was terrified and he closed his eyes in sheer

fright. Then, he cast off his fear and became bold enough to ask in sweet

words: "O sires, how is it that you are so deformed? What was the sin

committed by you? Wherefore have you attained this deformity? Where are you

proceeding in company? "

 

The lord of the ghosts said: O excellent brahmin, our ghosthood is the

outcome of our own misdeeds. We had been engaged in harassing others. Hence,

we became victims of foul death. In this state of our ghosthood we are

oppressed with hunger and thirst. We are unable to speak. We have lost our

mental equilibrium. We have lost consciousness too. We are Pisacas born of

our own misdeeds. We do not know the difference between one quarter and

another. We are extremely distressed. We do not know where to go.

 

We have neither fathers nor mothers. This ghosthood is due to our own

misdeeds. We are extremely dejected and sorrowful because the attack is all

too sudden. O brahmin, we are delighted on seeing you. We feel refreshed.

Please wait a little. I shall narrate everything from the very beginning. My

name is Paryusita. This ghost is known as Sucimukha. The other one is

Sighraga and the others are Rohaka and Lekhaka. These are our names and we

are ghosts.

 

The brahmin said: How can ghosts, the outcome of evil actions, have names?

You may have some purpose in view in having these names. Please tell me.

 

The pretaraja (king of ghosts) said: O excellent brahmin, while I myself

took all sweet things I left stale things for brahmins to eat. While I was

on earth as a man, I showed the hungry brahmins the exit door. Hence, my

name is Paryusita. O excellent brahmin, whenever a brahmin begged him for

food, out of hunger, this ghost used to run away, hence his name is

Sighraga. This other one irritated many brahmins with sharp tongue when they

came to him for food, hence he is called Sucimukha. In his life on earth,

this ghost ate sumptuously in isolation the foodstuffs offered to gods and

manes in the absence of brahmins. Hence, he is known as Rohaka. Whenever a

needy person requested him for something, this ghost pretended to be silent

and went on scratching on the ground. As a result of this he is known as

Lekhaka.

 

Thus acquiring our ghosthood and names from our misdeeds we have got

ourselves deformed too. This Lekhaka is goat-mouthed; Rohaka is

mountain-faced; Sighraga is cow-faced; Sucimukha is needle-mouthed; I,

Paryusita, am crane-necked. Taking this illusory form, we wander over this

wide region. We suffer from terrible distress. O brahmin, you can judge from

our deformed faces with protruding lips and twisted shape. Our teeth are

long, our bodies huge, our faces crooked, due to our misdeeds. Thus I have

told you how we turned ghosts. We have become somewhat wise on seeing you.

If you wish to hear more, you can ask us further whatever you like to know.

 

The brahmin said: The creatures on this earth subsist on food. I wish to

know precisely what you all eat for your subsistence.

The ghost said: If you are inclined to hear what we eat, o noble sir, listen

attentively.

The brahmin said: O king of ghosts, please tell me what you eat.

Thus requested the ghosts began to explain their diet respectively.

 

The ghosts said: O brahmin, our diet is extremely loathsome, despised by all

living beings. On hearing it from us you are sure to hate us. It is so

despicable. Mucous secretions, faeces and urine together with other

exudations, filth as well as leavings of food constitute our diet. We eat,

drink and revel in the house where people do not pay attention to

cleanliness and where they scatter litter carelessly. We haunt unclean

beings as well.

 

We reside and enjoy in the house where there is no purity, where people do

not observe truthfulness and restraint and where outcastes, robbers, etc.

join together and take meals. We take delight in haunting the house where no

mantras are recited, where no oblation is offered, where no homa is

performed and where people do not read the Vedas regularly nor perform

religious rites. We hover round the house where gods are not honoured, where

the householder is a vile wretch without shame and decency and where the

poor husband is controlled by his sturdy wife.

 

We enjoy gaiety in the house where covetousness, fury, somnolence, sorrow,

fear, haughtiness, lethargy, quarrels and deception reign supreme. We lick

up the urine mixed with semen from the vaginal passage of the widow having

illicit intercourse with her paramour. Dear friend, I am ashamed to tell you

about the food we take. O pious brahmin, we lick up the menstrual blood from

the generative organ of a woman. O noble brahmin, preferring penance to

riches and engaged in performing the sacred rites, I ask you out of

frustration. Please tell me the means of warding off ghosthood. It is better

to die a hundred times than turn a ghost.

 

The brahmin said: A person who is assiduously engaged in fasts such as

Krcchra and Candrayana [Ms .-] is never born as a ghost. He who observes

fast, keeps awake at night and is purified by meritorious deeds is never

born as a ghost. He who performs Asvamedha and other sacrifices, makes

liberal gifts and builds monasteries, parks, drinking water-sheds and

cowpens is never born as a ghost. He who helps brahmins to give their virgin

daughters in marriage, according to his capacity, he who enables students to

study, and he who accords shelter and refuge to the needy is never born as

a ghost.

 

If man takes food offered by a fallen man and dies with that food undigested

in his stomach, he is supposed to have courted a foul death and hence, he

becomes a ghost. If a priest officiates at the sacrifice of an unworthy

person and neglects that of worthy sacrificer, if a man lives in the company

of despicable people he becomes a ghost. He who associates with drunkards or

indulges in intercourse with a woman addicted to wine or eats meat

unconsciously becomes a ghost. He who misappropriates a brahmin's wealth, or

he property of a temple or that of his preceptor and he who takes money from

his son-in-law before giving his daughter in marriage becomes a ghost. He

who forsakes his innocent and guiltless mother, sister, wife, daughter or

daughter-in-law becomes a ghost.

 

All these are sure to be born as ghosts - a man misappropriating a trust

property, a man treacherous to his friend, a man fond of another man's wife,

a faithless man and a deceptive wretch. A man hating his brother, a murderer

of a brahmin, a slayer of the cow, a wine addict, a defiler of the

preceptor's bed, one who casts off customary rites, or one who is fond of

telling lies, a stealer of gold or one who takes possession of plots of land

illegally - all these are born as ghosts.

 

Bhisma said: When the brahmin spoke thus, the beating of drums was heard in

the sky. The gods showered flowers over the brahmin. Five celestial chariots

arrived there and took the ghosts away, the ghosts having taken leave of the

saintly brahmin. The ghosts were relieved of their sins after the pious

speech of that brahmin. They all achieved the highest region (Vaikuntha). On

hearing this anecdote, the lord of birds quaked like the asvattha tree. He

asked the Lord again, for the benefit of human beings.