In Hindu religion, its believed that, when we die Yamraj or his assistants will come down on earth to take us to the ‘yamlok’, before he decides where we go, heaven or hell. Lets not focus here, what is my personal believe in this subject matter, at least for the moment. This is what I heard and this how, I grew up hearing and listening all the time in our mythology stories; as all the story spinning around it, including in comedies shows, he came to take dead people with him.
What the above story says and what the next true story says, which I read recently has very vast difference in its nature. No wonder, I am also trying to understand what is the meaning, we can derive after reading this story. Who come down on earth to fetch away people after their death ? This particular story, really hammered my conscience, and preconceived notion about it, when I the story from a granddaughter about her own grandfather. This story is indeed told, from the real life experience of the dead mans maid named White, which she later on shared it with her granddaughter [ the writer of the story].
John Chester Craven was a railway Engineer of L. B & S. C Railways, who lived his life in Yorkshire, England. The writer of the story describes her grandfather, as the one who was devoid of sentiments, whose god was money and railroads, he had no interest at all outside of that. She also described him as someone, who had cyclonic rage; who possessed uncontrollable temper and he was a tyrant too. She was very much emotionally detached from her fathers family, as he died when she was very young. No wonder, if she finds her grandmother too very cold and she described her; the one who was as unemotional and unsmiling woman, she had ever seen in her life. After the death of her father, she was raised by her mother.
M. C. Maude’s grandfather took an unbelievably long time in dying. White, the maid who attend Mr. Craven, when he was on deathbed; narrated the whole story to young girl [ she was seventeen then], “listen, miss Maude, your grandpapa was fetched away by that poor boy [Alfred] he mishandled so shamefully years ago. Its a gospel truth and Mr. william came along to be company for his brother, why he should mix himself up it beats me.” White, continues further three months before the death every day, at around eight o’clock at night, Mr. Craven felt, his sons were waiting outside his door to fetch him away.
The day he died around one in the morning, the three ladies and a maid who were there to look after him, heard ‘Hallo !’ from outside. At first, they tried to dismiss it, saying its a cat or a drunkard, but then again same sound came and then one more lauder and clear call to make it valid, that its not just the buzz in the ear but its more that that.
At that point Mrs. Craven sent White, her personal maid, as she related the story to the granddaughter, who was taking care of Mr craven; to see what's there under the dressing room window, which is making that kind of disturbing sound. When she looked out of the window, to her horror and surprise; she finds that the small boy with a skipping rope accompanied by his brother William [ father of the writer of ‘To fetch him away’ ghost story] who died when she was very young. It seems that the maid had seen William before he died but she was not working for this family when the young boy was beaten mercilessly by his own father.
Its necessary for me to mention here at this moment that, the young boy Alex had died on the sixth day after he ran away from his home, because he was brutally and mercilessly beaten by his father [ Mr. Craven] with a rope, and it seems that a skipping rope at the tender age of ten, when he by mistake; tore one of the most valuable drawing of his father. His second son William died at the age of 35.
The maid concludes her narration to the writer, “miss Maude Mr. Alfred and Mr. William fetched their father away, I saw them as clearly as I see you. I don't know, why they were allowed to come back and fetch Master, when he found such comfort in the twenty third psalm and have regretted enough for being the slave driver with the railwaymen.”
The above story narration by the maid to the granddaughter of the man, she took care for so many years, tells us the different side of the story, about our age old believe or lets say the way we are conditioned to believe, what we normally believe, about the life after death.
I personally would not have believed this story, If its was not the story of her own family member; which can be seen in a book by M. L Chauhan under the title ‘to fetch him away’. I found Maude M. C. ffoulkes, uninteresting and in her own words ‘dreamer of the dreams’ or at times in other of her story, ‘her mom wondering looking up in the sky and murmuring, why she have such child. In her other ghost story, she forgot that it, is a true story, she let her imagination fly high and she is very much interested in ghost and supernatural subject. Let me tell you here clearly, ghost may be invisible but its invisibility does not make it fall on the ‘supernatural’ subject.
Existence of hell is something, all the religion belief and its mention in Hindu books or many other religious book with such explanation that no one can argue, unless one choose not to open the true eyes, to understand; what all had been written in this subject matter. See What is in the Ved by Dr. Swami Prapannacharya [p. 256].
I could not help notice in this story, one more thing, the young boy’s soul was troubled even after his death and his father’s soul was troubled for long time before his death for what he did to his young boy, which caused his death. The writer was troubled by her fathers family's side and what to say about the maid, who had to look after the most dominating man with cyclonic rage, who was eluded by death, long before the death actually came to take him.
-------------------
Note : Maude M. C. ffoulkes is an English writer and a novelist, her ghost stories can be seen in ‘true ghost story my M. L. Chauhan.
This post has already been published in nepaliadvocate.com
No comments:
Post a Comment