Re: Descriptions of Pretas or Ghosts from Garuda Purana

Whatever you do, do not commit suicide. It won't help. You will just wake up on the other side and find that nothing has changed. You will still be there with the same unfulfilled urges, with the same frustrations and hang ups, except now you won't have a gross physical body by which to do something about it.

It is stated in the Vedas that those who commit suicide become ghosts. For a certain period of time they have to suffer in their subtle bodies - consisting of the mind, intelligence, and false ego - without any means to alleviate their pains.

You cannot escape your mind. You may escape your physical body, but your psychic body follows you to the other side. Unless you learn to control the mind you will always be haunted by it, a victim of uncontrollable desires, which burns like a fire, and which can never be satiated. Eventually you will get another gross body and again you can engage in the illusory and useless pursuit of trying to become satisfied by sensual pleasure. This whole material world is aimed at teaching you the futility of trying to satisfy your body.

Lord Krishna says in the Bhagavad-gita that the mind can either be our best friend or our worst enemy. An uncontrolled mind becomes our enemy, a controlled mind becomes our friend. In any case everyone is suffering or enjoying in this world according to his own activities.

But in fact you are eternal, and you are full of knowledge and bliss, but due to forgetfulness of your real nature, you are now instead identifying with your body and mind, and therefore identifying with the pains and pleasures of the body and mind. The solution is to purify the mind by the bhakti-yoga process and become reinstated in your original position as the eternal servant of God. Instead of being absorbed in how you can serve your senses you should become absorbed in how you can serve God.

Only this will bring you real lasting happiness. It is very simple to serve God in this age. Simply by chanting the Nityananda, Gauranga and Hare Krishna Mantras you will no doubt become yourself again and experience the nectar for which you are always hankering. Try it! What have you got to lose?

You simply repeat the following mantras every day for, say, 20 minutes, and you are guaranteed to become free from anxiety and angst.

Nityaananda, Gauraanga,
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

Just let the sweet names of God soothe your mind. You do not have to think, you do not have to reflect, all you have to do is listen to these names of Lord Gaura Krishna as you repeat them softly to yourself. Do that and your life will be sublime.

Garuda Purana, which has a lot of information on topics like death, life after death and funeral ceremonies related to it etc., says that ghosts are very sinful people. One becomes a ghost usually upon dying a violent death, e.g. by falling from great heights, by being burnt, by being beaten to death, by accident, by drowning, by poison, or by committing suicide. To become a ghost is the result of a sinful life, i.e. having broken the laws of nature without caring for the plights of other living beings.

Ghostly existence - existing in an subtle aerial body - is a very frustrating experience, as you are still afflicted by the urges of gross physical life like hunger, thirst, envy, greed, sex etc., but you have no means of satisfying or getting rid of these urges. Therefore they always try to make trouble for others who have gross bodies, especially the ones they were attached to in their previous life.

The only way to avoid ghosts is to perform pious activities, or even better to become reinstated in spiritual life. Especially Lord Nrsinghadeva protects us from all kinds of ghosts and subtle beings. There is a specific Nrsimha mantra which is guaranteed to drive away all ghosts:

om hrim kshraum
ugra viram mahavishnum jvalantam sarvato mukham
nrsimham bishanam bhadram mrityum mrityu namamy aham

You can also free a ghost from his ghostly existence by making an offering of food to Lord Gaura Krishna or Lord Vishnu on his behalf and feeding this prasadam to a bona fide brahmana.

There are different types of ghostly beings and some are harder to get rid of than others.

In many cases it's enough to simply tell the ghosts to go away, explaining their situation.

If you know the dead person and the reason for the haunting, try settling the unsettled issues. Then arrange for a puja or a Mass on their behalf. According to Gita Mahatmya of Padma Purana reading of 3rd, 7th and 8th chapter of Bhagavad Gita and mentally offering them the result helps them to get released from their situation.

Clean the house completely and line the sill of each window and door with a thin line of sea salt (available in most supermarkets.)

There should be chanting and singing of Nitaai's, Gaura's, Krsna's and Nrsingha's names (Nrsingha kavaca is especially efficient), reciting of Shrimad Bhagavatam (or playing a record of Srila Prabhupada), pictures of Sri Nrsinghadeva around the house, burning maha incense, blowing conches, etc.

(Jagannath Misra das:)
- put some carbon under the bed in a plate
- place some scissors or pointy stuff near the bed
- place a glass of water near the bed, discard it in the morning
- draw the name of Raama ('Shri Raama') with tilak paste on the windows of the room

(Abhiram:) I did the tilak thing on a friend's house and it worked! Before it was a discotheque of ghosts every night and now it is normal.

Astrologer Shyamasundara dasa recommends sincere prayers and worship of Lord Vamanadeva.

from veda.krishna.com

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