The Pisachas (Demonic Spirits)

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Day 16th October, 2017....

A cool morning of October (mornings are rarely cool in Mumbai
and its suburbs especially during the month of October) where
everything is pleasant. People are gearing up for Pre-Diwali
preparations in full swing. Suddenly, me and my parents start to
experience moistness along with the coolness of the morning. We
feel it might have started raining (as it is the condition now-a-
days). No!!!! no trace of rains, the sky is spot-clear. We suddenly
realize that this is not a natural moistness but a resultant of Pre-
Diwali preparations. Yes!!! the ceiling is leaking!!!!!!
Yikes!!!!! And every electronic appliances is at stake. How come the
ceiling is leaking after so many recent renovations???
Dad, runs to the top floor apartment to understand what exactly
is happening above. In-turn we are even more traumatized to
learn that they are cleaning their entire house by pouring buckets
and buckets of water!!!! Such high intensity cleaning with stocking
of water is bound to challenge the toughest of plastering.....
Soon the house is seemed to be turning into a swimming pool.

What next?? Immediate actions are taken by informing the society

secretary to stop all this mess and the people are made to realize
that even if water is abundantly available to us here, it is our duty
to use it with care and caution. Such a waste!!!!!!
When all this chaos subsides and things are back to normal we
discuss about what actually the people might have been thinking
while turning their house into a swimming pool. My mom suddenly
exclaims they have been possessed by Jal Pisacha (A Water
spirit/demon), because of which they are wasting water. I am like
whattttt in the world is that!!!!
We had a hearty laugh together but her sudden exclamation raised
a few questions in my mind. I asked her, what is a Jal Pisacha?
She said "a water demon" which gets into the minds of some people
who haven't seen enough water in their lifetime and are brought in
contact with abundant water. Such people forget the conditions
they used to live and waste the precious water and so I felt they
have been possessed by something unknown which I termed as Jal
Pisacha..." She said that her father (my grandfather) used to tell
her stories about Pishachas which she used to listen keenly, but
never in her lifetime had she known to experience such things.

So.... that did not settle things for me. Most of you will also agree
that if you hear things like ghosts, spirits or demons, you are
bound to be interested in it no matter what!!!! The stories that we
have heard in our childhood are bound to incline us towards such
kinds of information which drives our curiosity.
You might hate it, you might love it and I did bet on that you
cannot ignore it!!!!!
Having a research virus embedded in my blood stream, eventually
I screened through some of the literature and found very new
things. I wont be discussing in greater details about what when
and how of the pishachas but some interesting stories about their
existence, some from the folklore, some from the surrounding
around and some from within the family.....
After all the trivia surrounding the present topic let us get into its
mainstream " The Pishachas".
Pishachas, as per the Hindu mythology, are blood sucking and
meat eating demons that can possess a human body and control
it. It can take any form and modify itself according to its needs.
Pishachas are not humans but are a separate race from humanity.
These are nocturnal and haunt the cremation grounds for blood
and meat and are supposedly creation of lord Bramha Himself.
So!! Whatever they are, these are obviously creepy.....
Contrastly though, some people refer a Preta (evil/malevolent
spirit of a dead person viz. ghoul) when possess the corpse of
another person and animates it, is called a pishacha viz. A
Vampire.
Howsoever they are defined, we can conclude Pishachas are even
more dangerous than ghosts as they are blood suckers and meat
eaters!!! Yuk!!!! Atleast Ghosts have some motives or unfulfilled
desired to stay behind!!
People over times have described different types of Pishachas
namely, Jala Pishacha (The water spirit), Kolli Pishacha (The fire
Spirit), Bramha rakshasa (The priests soul) a few more unnamed
though. Let me get you across some interesting stories which I had
heard from near dear ones..

Story 1: The Tiala (oil) Pishacha ( A new type of Pishacha defined

by me!!!)
This was the story as recited by my mother who heard it from my
grandfather when she was a kid herself. The story goes this way...

Once upon a time in a small village in Karnataka there lived a

family of highly respected priests of the temple.
(For the sake of the story let us name them as Adiga family). So
the Adigas were well known and well respected family who had
immense faith in God and had generations dedicated to the service
of the temples. Their house was well protected from evil spirits as
Shri. Sumantha Adiga,chief priest of the village and the head of
the Adiga household, was also a well-known occultist. One day
Sumanth Adiga brought home a weird looking lady with long hairs
into their house to help the family with their household chores.
The lady, Aaditamma, was not supposed to enter the house but
would do all the chores required out of the house. There was one
condition the priest had set upon all the family members, no one
will give her any type of oil even if Aaditamma begs for it. It was a
clear-cut instruction and all the family members had to abide by
the statement of the head of the family without any damn question.
Aaditamma used to do all the work assigned to her, right from
bringing wood from the trees to cleaning the cattle and maintaining
the cattle-shed. She would eat what was given and would never
complain or say anything. The only thing she asked was to give her
some oil so that she can massage her long hairs which were dry
and she couldn't bear that. She used to talk with the members of
the family only when the priest wasn’t around and would beg for
oil everytime.
The ladies developed a soft corner for her and did not understand
why the head priest denied oil for her. Afterall, it was such a small
thing Aaditamma asked for!!! The ladies dared and asked the priest
whether they can give some oil to Aaditamma. The priest turned
furious and asked them what he once said should be abided.
After a few day, the priest had to go out of the village for some
work. So, he again strictly instructed all the family members about
his rules for Aaditamma. When Aaditamma realised the priest
won't be back for quite sometime, she started her tantrums,
begging for oil, crying and doing all sort of things she could, to
convince the ladies of the house. Finally, the Head Priest's wife
gave in to her demands and provided her some oil to apply on her
hair...

The moment the oil touched her hair, her body flamed into ashes
and an undefined, formless black figure with a creepy laughter
rose above the ground and merged with a tallest ashoka tree in the
surroundings and the laughter could be heard continuously.
When the priest entered the village he came to know about the
creepy things he feared about the most. When he entered the
house he was fuming with rage and demanded who had violated
his instructions. His wife agreed to her mistake but it was too late
to condemn her of anything because the loss was already done.

He immediately left the house with some of his enchanted books

and by the time he returned home, he had a relieved look on his
face.By this time the creepy laughter had also disappeared.
Still many questions were unanswered.... The priest could sense
curiosity amongst his family members and he decided they should
know everything..
He smiled and sat on the porch . Looking at everybody's curious
face he said " I know you have many questions in your mind as to
who was this Aaditamma and why did I bring her here?"
Everyone knew the suspense will now be unveiled and they sat
around Sumantha as though listening to some kind of a lecture.

Sumantha started " Three months back, when I was in the

neighbouring village to perform some yadnya, I came to know that
the villagers were traumatised by a pishacha since a long time and
many of the priests tried hard to get that evil spirit entrapped but
failed to do so. I had to do something for the villagers as I knew
how to trap the mightiest of the evil spirits and send them to their
world. "
" The problem was these evil spirits could not be directly sent to
their world and had to repent to their mistakes in this world and
only when they are free of their evil verses they can be sent back
to where they came from. Because of this reason I had to entrap
this pishacha into a recently dead corpse of a old women and the
only way out of the body was to apply oil on the hair and the
pishacha could again come out in the world to cause trouble. That
is why I instructed all of you not to give her any oil. But anyways
the trouble has been sorted out as the pishacha is now a part of
the Ashoka tree near our house which has the power to defend the
evilness of the spirit. " This was the end of it as the spirit was now
harmless and could not cause any more trouble. The priest had
used all his knowledge and had nullified the Ill effects of the
Pishacha..

Phew!!! I was actually loving the way Mom recited it to me.... She
doesn't know how true it is... but she says you can always enjoy a
story.....

I have many more in the list..... but things should not be extended
so much that one will lose the grip on it....
I will be back with a few more stories in continuation with this
topic.... Till then let me know your experiences or stories you have
heard about ghosts, evil spirits or demons...
Thank you very much for your patience to be with me till the end....