Shanti Devi was born in Delhi on 11th December 1926. She was not very talkative as a child. At the age of three she began to speak of her home being in Mathura, a town between New Delhi and Agra. When she was four years old she began to speak more about her earlier life and about having been married. She had lived in a household with her sisters, her mother and her husband. Shanti told her mother that she came from a more well to do home and that this present house was not her home. She said, “You are not my real mother. You don’t even look like her.” Furthermore she told her that her husband used to have a fabric shop, and that her house in Mathura was painted yellow. Her parents did not want to believe any of it.

 

One day she refused to eat the food that was put on the table. When asked why she didn’t want to eat it she said, “I want Satva food.” “Satva food? No one here has ever used this expression.” Shanti replied, “We use that word in Mutra (Mathura), we don’t eat meat. It is not right to eat animals. It is a terrible crime. Still some people eat meat, but we don’t.” When her mother asked her whom she meant by we, four-year-old Shanti answered that she meant her husband’s family. “I personally see to it that my husband only eats Satva food. Even our servants are not permitted to prepare his food. When he returns home from his shop by the Dvarkad Temple, I serve him his dinner. He likes things to be that way.” After that incident, her father was very understanding and allowed his daughter to eat vegetarian dishes.

 

After dinner, when their daughter had left the room, Mrs. Bahadur said to her husband, “What on earth did we do in our previous life, to be experiencing such bad karma now, by being punished with a mentally ill daughter?” Her husband answered, “If it is true that she remembers her past life, then she has some bad luck awaiting her. Even the old scriptures speak of this. “With this comment he was referring to the Vedic Scriptures in which it is written that a child that remembers past lives would die young. To avoid this, Mr. Bahadur and his wife forbade their daughter to talk about her former life in Mathura, hoping she would soon lose her memories and so stop talking about them.

 

Shanti nonetheless went on speaking of her past life, even to visitors who came to their house, She hoped that at least one of them would believe her, and help her fulfil her wish to go to Mathura. At school she regularly referred to her past life by making comments to her friends and teachers. Her classmates teased her about being married and having a son. Her class teacher, who was related to the Bahadur family, showed an interest in her case and questioned her about it. He even asked her for the name of her previous husband. She just answered, “I will recognise him when I see him.” (It was not permitted for a Hindu woman to use her husband’s name.) When her teacher finally promised her that he would take her to Mathura if she told him his name, she said, “My husband’s name is Pandit Kedernath Chobey. “ After she had given him the complete address, he told his friend who was the head of the school, and together they wrote a letter to that address in the vain hope of receiving a reply. The letter said:

 

Dear Sir,

 

I have recently got to know a girl by the name of Shanti Devi. She is a resident in a part of the town called Chirakhana. She is the daughter of a businessman called Rang Bahadur Mathur. She is nearly nine years old. She is able to tell us amazing details about you. She claims the following to be true: “In my past life I belonged to the Chobey family from Mathura. I belonged to the Brahman caste and my husband’s name was Kedernath. He was the owner of a shop near the Dvarkad Temple. My house was painted completely yellow. My name was Lugdi Devi.”

 

May I bother you dear Pandit, and ask you kindly to inform me whether there is any truth in these claims.

 

Did Lugdi Devi exist? Please let me know whether there was really such a person.

 

May God bless you.

 

With the greatest respect,

 

Your,

 

Lala Kishan Chaud.

 

Director of the Ranija School, Daryganj, Delhi.

 

A few weeks later the two teachers held a reply from this person in their hands. They were truly amazed at what was written in the letter:

 

Lala Kishan Chaud, director of the Ranija School, Daryganj, Delhi,

 

I was very surprised and somewhat excited when I read your letter. The things you wrote about are absolutely correct. I had a wife called Lugdi Devi. She has since died. I really do have a shop near the Dvarkad Temple. Who is this girl who knows all this?

 

Mr. Chobey was extremely keen to find out whether this girl was really his deceased wife reborn. He asked his cousin to look up Shanti Devi’s parents in the city in order to find out more about their daughter, and to put Shantis’ memories of their previous life together to the test. When this cousin met Shanti face to face she immediately recognised him as one of her husband’s younger cousins and called him by name. Shanti then asked him about her son Nabanita Lall and inquired about his well-being. She described the layout of her house and its location, which was directly in front of the Dvarkad Temple. Her previous husband’s cousin was so convinced by her exact descriptions that he did not bother to write to Chobey about his impressions as previously arranged, but immediately travelled to him to tell him that Shanti Devi really was his wife from past life.

 

Mr. Chobey, whose curiosity had now been awakened by his cousin, decided to travel to Delhi with his present wife, his son from his first marriage and his cousin, in order to see this girl with his own eyes. When they arrived, Shanti was at school. They decided to pretend that Chobey was an older brother when meeting Shanti’s family. With this he wanted to put Shanti to the test once more, and to make sure that her family would not tell her before they met; after all they did not really know who was coming to visit. When the eight-year-old came home from school they told her that she has a visitor waiting for her in the other room.

 

When she entered the room she immediately recognised her husband from the past. Without saying a word she bowed her head in shy respect before him and stood by his side, as was the custom for Hindu wives in the presence of their husbands. Her eyes were gleaming with joy. They asked her why she behaved like this since the man at her side was Chobey’s older brother. Shanti replied calmly, “No he’s not, he is my husband. I have told you about him many times.” When she looked at the ten-year-old boy she immediately knew him to be her son. She hugged him and cried for a long time. Then she asked her mother to bring all her own toys so that she could give them to her son Nabanita. When her mother showed reluctance she ran off herself and returned minutes later with an armful of toys. Even though she was more than a year younger than Nabanita, everyone could detect a motherly love in the way she looked at him and behaved towards him. Shanti was so moved by everything that she often had to cry, and infected everyone present with her tears. It was not long before the news of this extraordinary family reunion had spread throughout the neighbourhood. In no time at all a large number of interested people had appeared.

 

Mr. Chobey suggested that they escape the bustle in an open horse drawn cart. During their walk Shanti and Nabanita walked hand in hand. Later when they returned, Shanti begged her mother to prepare a meal of all her husband’s favourite dishes. She also recognised her jewellery from her past life, which Mr. Chobey’s new wife was now wearing. After their meal she asked her husband why he had remarried, “Did we not agree that after the death of one of us neither would remarry?” Mr. Chobey had apparently gazed at the floor feeling uncomfortable, according to Shanti’s father who later confided this to the journalist Jeffrey Iverson. Shanti’s father encouraged Shanti to tell him more about her house. To this Shanti replied, “There is a courtyard in the centre of the house. That’s where the well is. I often used to sit on the edge of it to bathe.” Many other questions were put to her concerning her family in this past life. Mr. Chobey asked Shanti how she recognised her son immediately, since on the day she died he was only nine days old. Shanti’s spontaneous reply, like that of a wise woman, was, “He is my life, the life in me recognised the life in him.” Mr. Chobey excused himself, since he wished to discuss some private matters with Shanti. When they finally returned to the others, he announced, “No one other than my previous wife and myself could know all these things. This girl is my deceased wife Lugdi. I am no longer in any doubt about it.”

 

Finally a committee was formed to investigate this case scientifically, which consisted of fifteen people chosen honorary among them was a publisher of one of the most popular newspapers, a solicitor and a parliamentary backbencher. They decided to accompany Shanti Devi to Mathura in order to examine her claims there and then. She had never been there before and her father also reassured her emphatically that he himself has never been to Mathura either. On November 24th 1935, twelve days after Mr. Chobey had visited Shanti Devi, her parents and the entire committee boarded the train that was to take them on the three-hour journey to Mathura. While on the train someone mentioned the time, and the nine-year-old announced that precisely at this time the gates to the Dvarkad Temple were being closed. Instead of using the word gate in her Hindi language, she used an unusual word only commonly used in Mathura and it’s surrounding area.

 

When they arrived at their destination, thousands of onlookers informed about the imminent arrival of Shanti Devi by their newspapers had gathered at the station. A tall man wearing a turban and carrying a stick pushed his way through the crowd, stood in front of the girl and said, “Do you know me?” Shanti bowed down with respect and touched his feet. Then she rose and stood by his side. She turned to one of the committee members and said, “This is my husband’s oldest brother.” When they drove through the streets in an open horse-drawn carriage, she could tell which roads had not been surfaced in the past and could point out the houses that had not been there before. When they arrived at a crossing, she climbed down from the carriage and led the committee to her house that was surrounded by a huge crowd of people. An elderly man was waiting there dressed in Brahmin clothing. She bowed down before him and said, “This is my father-in-law.” Among the crowd she also discovered her twenty-five-year-old brother and her father in law’s brother from her past life.

 

To her amazement the house was not yellow as she remembered it. She was then told that after her death the house had changed hands, and that the new owners had painted it a different colour. When she was led through the house and was pointing out all the things that had changed one of the people present asked her whether she knew where the “Jajarie Khann” was. This word is only used in this area and so would be unfamiliar to the girl from Delhi. She immediately went downstairs and pointed to the toilet.

 

In the afternoon, one of the committee members took Shanti on his shoulders to avoid the crush of the crowds, for her job now was to find the other house in which she had also lived with her husband. Following her directions she was carried to a building. She pointed to it and said, “That is my house!” She led the committee into the house. First they came to a yard situated in the centre of the house. Once there, she was shocked not to find the well in which she used to bathe. She pointed to a particular place and said that the well used to be there. They lifted a stone slab off the ground and found under it the well she had spoken of. After that, she led the committee through the house and described all the rooms in great detail. When they reached the bedroom she pointed to the floor and said, “This is where I hid my money. If you check here under the floor you will find a box containing 150 Rupees.” They lifted the floorboards in the presence of Mr. Chobey, her previous husband, and found the box as described. But there was no money in it. Shanti was extremely surprised and said that someone must have taken it. Mr. Chobey now owned up to having taken the 150 Rupees out of the box after her death.

 

After this incident Shanti led the committee to the river Jumna to show them where she used to bathe. She pointed to a house and said, “My parents used to live in that house.” Then she suddenly ran off in the direction of the house and the committee had to be quick to catch up with her. In the house there were forty-five people. Among them she recognised her mother from the past and immediately went to sit on her lap. The older woman asked the girl whether she could tell her about something that they both knew about from their past. Shanti reminded her that she had promised her on her deathbed that she would bring flowers and sweets to her for Lord Krishna. When the nine-year-old asked her whether she had kept this promise, her mother from the past had to admit to having forgotten about it. Then Shanti said with regret, “Why has no one kept their promises? Why do people always lie to the dying?” The woman now totally convinced by having publicly discussed the experiences she had shared with the girl in their past hugged her more intimately than ever. She was certain that this girl really was her daughter Lugdi. Suddenly the tears flowed and Shanti now greeted her father from the past, he too was touched and began to cry. The remaining people present were also moved to tears.

 

Shanti’s present day parents had also accompanied their daughter to Mathura and were witness to this moving scene. Mrs. Bahadur was in turmoil, since she was certain that her daughter would no longer wish to return to Delhi with her. She had found her previous mother and they were now hugging each other as though they would never again wish to be separated. Mrs. Bahadur turned to her husband in despair and said, “They want to rob us of our daughter. They are all part of this conspiracy.” Shanti’s previous mother sensed their fear and despair and said, “Let Shanti decide. Only she has the right to decide which family she wishes to live with.” Mr. Bahadur, who had innately let go of his daughter, tried to comfort his wife by saying, “It is fate my dear, it is Karma. We are all subject to this law.”

 

Everyone now gathered in the room and looked at Shanti with great anticipation, wondering what her decision would be. Meantime she had gathered her thoughts and wiped her tears. She freed herself from the arms of her previous mother and whispered to her and her father, “Forgive me mother Jagti and father Chaturbhuj,” and then walked out through the door. Meanwhile the news of these events had spread far and wide. Everyone who heard about it wanted to see this girl. This made getting back to the station rather difficult.

 

Five years later, an inquisitive scientist decided to reopen the case of Shanti Devi, who by now had become famous in India. He wished to research her case in more depth. Dr. Bose looked up Shanti’s previous husband to find out what he discussed with the girl on his first visit after retiring to another room with her. Dr. Bose had reassured him that as a scientist he was curious to find out the truth about everything, including things like the intimate discussions with Shanti. Was it not Mr. Chobey who announced that he no longer doubted the validity of Shanti’s statements? Mr. Chobey told him that to this day he has not wanted to talk to anyone else about these private discussions. Mr. Bose was to be the first person with whom he would be pleased to discuss the matter. He told him that he had asked Shanti to tell him about things that only she and he himself knew about. Shanti then suggested his present wife leave the room. He replied saying that she may speak freely in her presence. She then answered, “Ask me what you wish to know and I will answer everything.” He reminded her about an accident that had caused her a lot of pain at the time. Shanti described the events in detail and could show him the exact place on her body where she had injured herself during a fall. These exact descriptions had completely convinced him of the truth of her claims.

 

Dr. Bose himself went to visit Shanti, who by now was quite older. He wanted to hear about the whole sequence of events surrounding her accident in her own words. As always she could remember everything clearly. Dr. Bose asked her, “Can you remember how you died and what you experienced after that?” Shanti described to Dr. Bose what she experienced during and after her death.

 

Shortly before her death she found herself surrounded by darkness. In the darkness she discovered a shining light above her. In a state, which could only be described as cloudlike, she had floated towards the light. She was no longer aware of her earthly body on the bed and therefore did not turn around to look at it. She no longer felt any pain. She found herself standing in the bright light. She could see four figures in yellow robes approaching her. They led her into a beautiful garden the likes of which she had never seen on earth. Her own comment about this was, “It was more beautiful than I could describe with words.” The beings there appeared to be holy. They were of both sexes. She was told many things; for example the place where she now was there was no darkness and therefore no night exists, only light. She was told that we are all the same beings, so it makes no difference whether someone was Hindu, Muslim or Christian. After having spent a long time in this other world, she was told that she was to return to earth, and was to be born again as a girl in Delhi. She was also told the name of the father whose daughter she would be. She experienced the descent to earth as a path leading back into the darkness. When the somewhat sceptical Dr. Bose asked the thirteen-year-old how she imagined it possible to see things without her five ordinary bodily senses after death, she answered that it was very difficult for her to explain to him exactly what she had experienced. She did tell him that without her physical body it was possible for her to see through walls, in other words, she could perceive things, which normally she was unable to see with her physical eyes. Apparently this experience was similar with all the senses.

 

Shanti Devi died in 1988. Because of her vows she made to her husband during her life as Lugdi, she never remarried. She was convinced that with this incarnation as Shanti Devi she had completed her earthly lives and would no longer have to return to earth. Professor Stephenson sees this particular case as a classic example in favour of reincarnation. The statements that Shanti Devi had made before her visit to Mathura have been documented by witnesses and proven to be correct. It was only afterwards that the details were double-checked at the place itself. It had not been possible for Shanti Devi to find out anything about what sort of person her previous husband had been, nor about the place where he had lived. Her father had also never been to Mathura before. This has to be a very convincing case in favour of reincarnation.