Becoming a Ghost - The Result of Sin and Suicide
The transition from one gross body to another is a natural law governed by karma. However, under certain conditions, this transition is interrupted. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that when a soul is "checked" from obtaining a new physical body, it enters the state of preta-yoni, or ghostly life. In this subtle existence, the living entity undergoes intense suffering, as they possess all the material desires of the mind but lack the physical senses to fulfill them.
Suicide and the Stoppage of Transmigration
The most common cause of becoming a ghost is suicide. Śrīla Prabhupāda warns that foolish persons who think they can end their misery by killing the body are mistaken. By "neglecting" the body provided by nature's laws, they are punished by being denied a new gross body. Instead of ending their problems, they enter a set of varieties of even more miserable conditions.
- One who commits suicide, he becomes a ghost.
- He thinks, "I'm suffering. If I commit suicide, then everything will be stopped." But he does not know that by committing suicide he'll increase another set of varieties of miserable conditions of life. He'll become ghost.
- If you accept natural death and natural body, then your karma ksaya, you annihilate your karma, but if you commit suicide, then you become ghost. Because nature's punishment. You got a body and you neglected it.
- Foolish person suffering from some disease, he wants to kill himself, sometimes commit suicide, because he does not know that after suicide, the policy, there is no stoppage; you will have to become a ghost because you have disobeyed.
The Anatomy of a Ghostly Body
Technically, becoming a ghost means existing only in the subtle body—the mind, intelligence, and false ego. Without the gross elements of earth, water, fire, air, and ether to form a physical shell, the subtle body acts "without the help of the instrumental gross body." This state leads to nonsensical speech and the haunting of others.
- Unless the living entity gets another gross body, he will have to continue in a subtle body, or a ghostly body. One becomes a ghost when the subtle body acts without the help of the instrumental gross body.
- Becoming ghost, you cannot enjoy anything grossly. The subtle body will create disturbance.
- When a person becomes ghostly-haunted, he talks all nonsense. Similarly, one who is under the influence of maya, he also talks. So this machine has proved successful even for a single man or children?
- After giving up the body, one is transferred to another body, but sometimes, if one is too sinful, he is checked from transmigrating to another body, and thus he becomes a ghost.
Deliverance Through Pinda and Prasāda
Vedic culture offers a scientific way to deliver those who have become ghosts. The offering of pinda—remnants of food offered to Lord Viṣṇu—is specifically meant to help forefathers who might be stuck in a ghostly condition. Śrīla Prabhupāda emphasizes that by the mercy of viṣṇu-prasāda, even a ghost can be favored with a new gross body or elevated further.
- It is not that everyone's father becomes a ghost, but the oblations of pinda are offered to the lotus feet of Lord Visnu so that if a family member happens to become a ghost, he will be favored with a gross body.
- The Sanskrit word for son, putra means that the son is expected to deliver the forefathers from the hellish condition of life. Sometimes due to our sinful activities, we become ghost. That is very hellish condition.
- If one is habituated to taking the prasada of Lord Visnu, there is no chance of his becoming a ghost or anything lower than a human being.
- In other words, they (one's forefathers) do not have to become ghosts - by offering oblations with faith and devotion to either Visnu, or His representative Aryama.
Attachment and the Loss of Material Direction
Beyond suicide and sin, intense material attachment can cause a soul to linger. Śrīla Prabhupāda notes that if one is too attached to an opulent life or an apartment, they may "become ghost" because they cannot leave. He also uses the metaphor of "ghosts without heads" to describe modern civilized men who have lost their spiritual intelligence, even while in a gross body.
- Sometimes we become ghost. If we become too much attached, we cannot leave. Therefore too much opulent apartment, opulent life, is not very good for spiritual advancement because we get too much attached to it.
- If a man is chopped of his head, and if he has got attraction, then he becomes a ghost without head. So at the present moment, all these so-called educated civilized men are ghosts without head.
- Krsna said to Vrkasura: he (Lord Siva) had a quarrel with his father-in-law, Daksa, he was cursed to become a pisaca (ghost). Thus he has become the leader of the ghosts and hobgoblins. Therefore I cannot put any faith in his words.
- Ghostly life means one who has misused this life, this body, and by his whims he has killed this body. He becomes ghost. That means he will have to suffer for so many day, then he'll get another material body.
Conclusion
Becoming a ghost is a detour in the soul's journey, filled with frustration and pain. Śrīla Prabhupāda urges us to avoid the "whims" of the mind and the sin of suicide by taking shelter of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. By habituating ourselves to viṣṇu-prasāda and spiritual discipline, we ensure that our transition from this body leads to a higher, more glorious destination, rather than the dark and troubled life of a ghost.
Dive Deeper into Śrīla Prabhupāda's Vani
Śrīla Prabhupāda lives within his instructions. This article is a summary of the profound truths found in the Vaniquotes category Becoming a Ghost. We invite you to visit this link to study the complete compilation and experience Śrīla Prabhupāda's teachings in their direct, verbatim form.