The history of the Indian woman Shanti Devi (1926-1987) still remains one of the most reliable and studied cases of reincarnation. Shanti Devi was born in Delhi and her parents were wealthy, although not wealthy. There was nothing unusual in her birth - nothing that could alert doctors or parents regarding the unborn child.
When Shanti was three years old, her parents began to notice that the girl insistently spoke about her husband and children. At first, the parents ignored all this, attributing the baby talk to the imagination of the child who was playing, but when the girl began to persist, they thought.
Who was this husband? Where did he live?
The child calmly explained to the mother that her husband's name was Kedarnath (Kader Nat), that she lived with him in the city of Muttra. She described in detail the house in which they lived and stated that she had a son who still lives there with his father.
The parents, very worried about the child's mental state, sought help from a doctor. The doctor had already heard this amazing version from her parents and hoped that when she met him, the girl would begin to deny, or at least refuse to repeat everything.
But he still did not know his patient: little Shanti sat down in a large chair in the doctor's office, folded her hands in her lap like an adult, and repeated everything that she had told her parents, and even more. Among other things, she said that she died in childbirth in 1925, that is, a year before her birth.
The stunned doctor began to ask her about pregnancy with passion, and the child answered exactly everything, which completely discouraged him. She clearly illuminated the mental and physical sensations of the excruciating state of pregnancy, which, of course, she could not experience.
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By the time she was seven years old, half a dozen doctors had interviewed her, and they were all utterly amazed. When Shanti was eight years old, her cousin Professor Kishen Chand decided that it was time to do something and not be limited to talking.
Does a certain Kedarnath actually live in Muttra? Did he have children and did his wife, named Luji, die in childbirth in 1925? The professor stated these and other questions in a letter and mailed it to the mysterious Kedarnath of Muttra at the address repeatedly mentioned by Shanti Devi.
Indeed, such a person lived in Muttra and he received a letter. At first, he decided that some kind of trap was being prepared for him and they wanted to dishonestly deprive him of his property, so he rejected the offer to meet with the girl, who claimed that she was his wife, until a number of circumstances became clear.
Kedarnath is hardly to be blamed for such caution. He wrote to his cousin in Delhi, who often visited Kedarnath while Luji was still alive. Of course, a cousin would recognize her if he saw her. Wouldn't your brother be kind enough to go to such and such an address so that he could find out on the spot what all this could mean?
Kedarnath's cousin, under the pretext of a business conversation with Shanti's father, arranged to meet him at his house.
Nine-year-old Shanti was helping her mother prepare dinner in the kitchen when there was a knock on the door. The girl ran to open the door and did not return for a long time. The worried mother herself went to see what had happened. Shanti stood on the threshold and looked at the young man standing in front of the door with obvious surprise, who, in turn, looked at her in amazement.
- Mom, this is my husband's cousin! He also lived in Muttra not far from us!
A minute later, the father came, and the guest told his story. Of course, he did not recognize the child, although the girl clearly recognized him. The guest told Shanti's parents that he was a cousin of Kedarnath of Muttra, whose wife, Luji, had actually died in childbirth a year before Shanti was born.
What to do next? They called the cousin who wrote the letter to Kedarnath. It was decided that Shanti Devi's parents would invite Kedarnath and one of his sons to visit them. Shanti was not privy to any plans.
A few days later Kedarnatus arrived with his son. Shanti screamed with joy and ran to the boy, who was clearly embarrassed by the attention given to him by the unfamiliar girl. Shanti tried to take him in her arms, although he was the same height as her. She hugged him and called him affectionate names. Kedarnatu Shanti was very happy and behaved like a worthy and faithful wife, like Luji in her time.
A strange test fell to the lot of everyone present.
Kedarnath refused to leave his son with this exalted girl who imagined herself to be the mother of the child; on the contrary, he hastily returned to Muttra to reflect on what a terrible story he had involuntarily fallen into.
Information about this case got into the newspapers and aroused general interest. Isn't this a deception? How could a child from Delhi know the intimate details of a family living in Muttra and unknown even to her parents?
Desh Bandu Gupta, President of the All India Newspaper Publishers Association and Member of the Indian Parliament, held a meeting with his colleagues in government and publishing. They came to the conclusion that the case deserves all the attention and study. It is necessary to bring the girl to Muttra and see if she can show the way to the house in which, according to her own words, she lived until death.
Accompanied by Shanti's parents, Mr. Gupta, attorney Tara K. Mathur and other prominent scholars and citizens boarded the train to Muttra.
The surprises began immediately upon the arrival of the train at Muttra station. Shanti immediately recognized her supposed husband's mother and brother; moreover, she spoke to them in the local dialect and not in the Hindi that she had spoken in Delhi.
When asked if she could show the way to the house where she allegedly lived, Shanti replied that she would try, although the girl, of course, had never been to Muttra before. The arrivals and the greeters settled in two carriages and drove off. Shanti Devi showed them the way. Once or twice she seemed to get lost, but after thinking a little, in the end she chose the right path and took the company straight to the house she recognized.
“Here it is, this house,” she said to her companions. “But now it is painted white, and then it was yellow.
Since 1925, there have been some other changes. Kedarnath moved to another house, and the inhabitants of this house did not want to let Shanti and all her many companions in.
Shanti asked to be taken to where her husband now lives. When everyone arrived at their new place of residence, Shanti immediately recognized Kedarnath's two eldest children, but did not recognize the last, ten-year-old. It was the birth of this child that cost Luja his life.
Arriving at Luja's mother's house, Shanti immediately rushed to the elderly woman with joyful shouts: "Mom, Mom!" The old woman was completely at a loss: yes, the girl spoke and acted like a real Luji, but her mother knows that her own daughter Luji is dead.
At Luja's mother's house, Mr. Gupta asked Shanti if she had noticed any changes during this time. Shanti immediately pointed out the place where the well had once been. Now he was covered with boards.
Kedarnath asked Shanti if she remembered what Luji did with her rings shortly before her death. Shanti replied that the rings were in an earthen pot buried in the garden under the canopy of the old house. Kedarnath dug up a pot, which actually contained Luja's rings and a few coins.
Adult Shanti Devi
The high profile of this incident turned out to be a big nuisance for Shanti and the Kedarnath family. The children did not know her and did not want to know. Kedarnath's attitude towards her could be called embarrassingly tolerant. Shanti began to avoid people in order to avoid unhealthy interest, and gradually closed in on herself.
Little by little, she managed to suppress the desire to be with Kedarnath and his children. After a long and painful struggle, she convinced herself that she needed to leave them, no matter how painful it was.
Professor Indra Sen of the school founded by Sri Aurobindo in Pondicherry keeps all the documents fully covering the amazing story of Shanti Devi. Scientists who took part in the experiment and witnessed what they saw were careful in their conclusions.
They agreed that the child, born in 1926 in Delhi, somehow remembers life in Muttra with all the clarity and detail. Scientists noted that they did not find any evidence of deception or trickery, but they also did not find an explanation for what they saw.
Shanti and Dr. Rawat
And what about Shanti Devi? In 1958, the Washington Post and newspapers from other countries published an interview with this woman. She lived quietly and unnoticed, working in a government office in New Delhi. Quite a timid, reserved person.
She learned to live in the present tense, as Shanti Devi told reporters and representatives of medicine: her old desires to return the past are suppressed by a stubborn internal struggle, and she no longer does anything to revive them.
She was never married or had children. In 1986, Shanti gave another interview to Ian Stevenson and Dr. Rawat. The latter decided to carefully study her phenomenon and communicated with Shanti several more times before she died in 1987.
In 2005, Rawat published an article on Shanti Devi in The Journal of Religion and Psychical Research.