Understanding the phenomena of life

Saurabh Tankha

I chanced upon Many Lives, Many Masters when I was passing through a particularly distressing period of my life, a sort of personal crisis. My dad wasn’t well, in fact, he was in a very bad shape, and for a person who had only helped others all his life, this was something I couldn’t accept. They all talk of karma. Surely, dad hadn’t done any wrong to anyone. He was the kind of person who always went out of his way to help others, often giving his own possessions to those in need. Not that we were very rich. We were just upper middle-class family, dad being the only earning member.

So the pain he was passing through was something beyond my comprehension. I was angry at everyone, and hugely so with God, for having given him this pain. I couldn’t feel at peace anywhere, not even while visiting temples, praying desperately to God to make my father alright.

I don’t remember who told me about this book but I do remember picking it one day while returning from office from the shop that sold second hand books in Mayur Vihar II, Delhi. That’s where I lived then. The first few days, it just remained on my table. One night, when it was particularly difficult for me to sleep, I started flipping through it. A few pages into it, I was hooked. I read the entire book that very night!

Did this book open new horizons for me? Did it soothe my hurt soul? Did it pacify me? Did it make me accept my dad’s ill-health? Well, it did all of it and much more than that. It put me on the path of spiritualism. From the very materialistic level of my being, I began treading the path hitherto unknown to me.

The book tells the life story of a young mental health patient, Catherine, who comes to psychotherapist Dr Brian Weiss for treatment of her recurring nightmares and anxiety attacks. But what came up during her hypnosis sessions was something neither the doctor nor the patient had envisaged.

Catherine recalled her past-life traumas during these sessions, which held the key to her problems. A firm believer in modern science with not an iota of trust in Hindu concept of reincarnation, Dr Weiss initially doesn’t believe her but soon his scepticism is eroded.

During hypnosis, Catherine talks about space between lives, which contained remarkable revelations about Dr Weiss’ family and his dead son. Using past-life therapy, he was able to cure the patient and embark on a new, more meaningful phase of his own career.

Trust me, the book will usher in new knowledge, and explain many a phenomena of life. And in some strange manner it calms the battered, disgruntled soul. I do miss the physical presence of my dad, no doubt. But I know he is somewhere around, he hasn’t left me altogether.