The Haunted Echoes of a Past Life

It was the year 1944, in Naikot, Uttar Pradesh, during the evening. A 23-year-old man stood outside a small house in the hills, holding a bottle of liquor. This house belonged to a former addict who had abandoned his habits many years ago. The man, intoxicated, gazed at the house, and one name lingered on his lips—Padma. This name unsettled him, bringing back all the old memories. As the man stepped forward to enter the house, an elderly woman emerged, her face etched with fear. She blocked his way and snatched the liquor bottle from his hand, smashing it on the ground. The man stared at her without blinking, and then, words escaped her lips that would change his world. "I am like your mother. You should leave. In your past life, you lost everything. Do you want to lose everything again?"

A past life? Who was this man? And who was this woman? Could she have been Padma?

On February 7, 1921, Bishen Chand Kapoor was born in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh. While most children learn to speak a few words by the age of ten months, Bishen started speaking of Pilibhit. How could such a young child talk about such a distant place? No one had an answer.

When Bishen was four years old, he attended a wedding with his father. On their return, their train stopped at a station called Pilibhit. As soon as the station's announcement was made, Bishen insisted on getting off the train. When his father tried to stop him, he began crying and claimed that he used to live there. His father was speechless. Could this really have been a memory from his past life? Or was it just an illusion?

Years passed by in this manner. Then one day, an article appeared in a newspaper. This article was written by a lawyer named K.K. Nandan Sahai, who recounted his son's memories of a past life and how he had been bringing such cases to light. Eventually, Sahai learned of Bishen's story. A few days later, the lawyer visited Bishen's home to meet him. Sahai asked Bishen many questions and began documenting his memories. Bishen told him that in his past life, his name was Laxmi Narayan, and he used to live in Pilibhit. Bishen identified many places and people related to his previous life. Afterward, Bishen and Sahai traveled to Pilibhit to confirm all these details. They met the mother of Laxmi Narayan, who asked Bishen many questions, to which only Laxmi Narayan could have known the answers. Yet, Bishen answered them without hesitation, as if he had known all along. Sahai noted all these things and created a document before returning home with his research.

But the investigation stopped there.

Many years later, reincarnation specialist Ian Stevenson reopened this case and began his own investigation. He first wanted to find out if there was any way Bishen could have learned about Laxmi Narayan. But he found no such clues. With the help of Sahai's writings, Ian Stevenson began to delve deeper into the case.

Laxmi Narayan was the only son of a wealthy farmer, Har Narayan. After his father's death, Laxmi abandoned his studies and began indulging in luxuries—good food, fine clothes, beautiful women, and various intoxicants. Laxmi Narayan never married, but he was deeply involved with a prostitute in his village named Padma. Laxmi Narayan was so obsessed with Padma that, in a fit of rage, he once killed a man in broad daylight.

One day, Laxmi Narayan saw a man leaving Padma's house. His anger flared, and without thinking twice, he grabbed his servant's gun and shot the man dead. Despite being pursued by the police for a long time, he managed to escape justice due to his wealth. After this incident, Laxmi Narayan left Pilibhit and moved to Shahjahanpur. But soon after, his health began to deteriorate. He suffered from multiple illnesses and died on December 15, 1918, at the age of 35.

Padma held a special place in Laxmi Narayan's life. He never married, choosing to keep her as his mistress, and she lived with him. Similar patterns were seen in Bishen's life. At the age of five, Bishen once told his father to keep a mistress, claiming that he would find great enjoyment in spending time with her. Just like Laxmi Narayan, Bishen was also attached to Padma. She would visit him during his childhood, and he would instantly recognize her, sitting on her lap and talking for hours. He even remembered the details of the murder he committed in his past life for Padma and would proudly recount how he had killed a man to win her.

When Bishen was 23 years old, he summoned Padma to his office to meet him. He was so overwhelmed that he fainted upon seeing her. But the story didn't end there. That evening, Bishen went to Padma's house to relive his old memories. Padma told him that she was old enough to be his mother and that it was best for him to leave. Although Bishen was deeply hurt, he left without saying a word. After this incident, Bishen and Padma never met again. Two years later, Bishen got married, and the chapter of Padma in his life came to an end.

According to Stevenson, 46 statements were recorded from Bishen Chand. In the end, Stevenson found two connections between Bishen Chand's memories and Laxmi Narayan's life. One particularly significant detail was the hidden treasure in Laxmi Narayan's house. A few years before his death, Har Narayan had hidden some gold coins in a room of their house. Aside from Har Narayan, only Laxmi Narayan knew about this. Although Bishen could not pinpoint the exact location of the treasure, he knew about the room. It is said that after digging, a pile of gold coins was indeed found in that room.

The influence of Laxmi Narayan's life was evident in many of Bishen's actions, which were entirely opposite to his current circumstances. Bishen often blamed his father for their poverty. He would cry, tear his clothes, and once even said that their servants wouldn't eat the cooked food there. Moreover, many of Laxmi Narayan's bad habits also crept into Bishen's life—drinking alcohol, secretly eating non-vegetarian food, shouting, and anger. Although his past memories were slowly fading, their influence was not yet gone. The bad habits and memories related to Laxmi Narayan had such a profound effect on Bishen that they caused him to feel strange restlessness. He believed that all his problems and struggles were the result of his past life's actions, especially the murder of that man.

As he grew older, Bishen managed to control the traits that led to Laxmi Narayan's downfall and lived his life without any major disturbances. Today, the story of Bishen Chand Kapoor is widely discussed, but it is not limited to any one person or community. Many Hindu scriptures, like the Bhagavad Gita, speak of reincarnation. In Chapter 4 of the Garuda Purana, Lord Vishnu tells Garuda that just as we change our clothes, the soul changes its body and takes many births in this world, carrying with it the impressions of past lives. Not only that, but some research on reincarnation has also proven it. According to quantum theory, our consciousness and our body are two separate entities, which is why even after death, our consciousness survives and can be connected to a new brain, bringing back memories of our past lives.

Even today, many people do not believe in the concept of reincarnation, but there are numerous incidents that prove it to be true.