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THE GHOST LADY
Ghosts, in the literature of parapsychology and mysticism, are human beings who have died and yet continue to inhabit the Earth in their astral bodies long after they lose their physical bodies. In this story, Guruji tells about a ghost who appeared to him first in a dream and then later in the light of day. As in many ghost stories “The Ghost Lady" can exist on different levels of reality yet she cannot achieve liberation from this plane of reality. The story concludes with Guruji's reflection on the relation of yogis to ghosts.
W hen I was a young monk and I was studying and
doing my yogic practices faithfully under my guru, I had the Indian system of going to the toilet outside.
In India, the kikkar tree grows very large and produces red leaves and beetlenuts which some people eat. Near my guru's ashram, a kikkar tree was located in a private and dry place where I went to the toilet in a pit, at twelve o'clock everyday.
One night, while I was sleeping, an old fearfullooking woman appeared to me in a dream. She was sitting beside a road chewing beetlenuts and her mouth was red and nasty-looking from the beetlenut juices. In my dream, I asked her, “Why are you here?” But instead of speaking, she only shook her head violently and her
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