Soul and Body

Parakaaya Pravesha

When a person through his yogic powers can leave his physical body and enter another’s body, he is said to have performed ‘Para-kaaya Pravesha’. The recipient has no say in the matter. This kind of unauthorised
entry into another’s body happens in many formats:

The third kind, that is, entry of a soul into another person’s body is commonly referred to as ‘being possessed’.

Parakaaya Pravesha is one of the secret yogic powers or ‘siddhis’ that very few can master. There are hardly any accounts of such happenings. Yet most would be familiar with the controversial anecdote involving Adi Shankara and his Parakaaya Pravesha into the body of a dead king for about a month.

After a debate with Mandana Mishra resulting in his defeat, Mandana Mishra’s wife Ubhayabharathi Devi, challenges Shankaracharya to a continued debate with her. Shankaracharya accepts the challenge. He effortlessly answers the Vedantic questions she puts forth. Ubhayabharathi Devi then stumps Shankaracharya by questions about physical intimacy. Shankaracharya, a baal sanyaasi* and a celibate, unable to answer, asks her for some time.

*taking up sanyaasa as a young boy

When Shankaracharya sees the dead body of king Amaruka, of Benares, being taken for cremation, he and his disciple go to the burning ghat. Shankaracharya who had mastered Parakaya Pravesha, instructs his disciple to protect his physical body, leaves his body and enters the dead body of king Amaruka. The dead king slowly sits up, causing confusion and fear among the people gathered there. Thus Shankaracharya in the body of king Amaruka enters the palace, and the queens, and their retinue, receive him joyously. After experiencing conjugal life Shankaracharya’s soul leaves the body of king Amaruka and re-enters his own body.

Armed with first-hand knowledge, Shankarachraya takes on Ubhayabharathi Devi once again and defeats her in debate. Ubhayabharathi Devi then accepts Shankaracharya as the winner.

Talukina Ramaswamayya Subba Rao, popularly known as Ta Ra Su, was a Kannada scholar and writer of repute. It is said that he read various books and palm-leaf manuscripts in the Shringeri Matha library in order to write a book on the significance of Shrikshetra Shringeri and the Acharyas of the Shringeri Mutt. He was however sceptical about the Parakaaya Pravesha incident of Shankaracharya.

When he decided to skip the mention of the incident in his book, a well-wisher insisted that this was a very significant event, and should find a mention in the book. In order to convince Ta Ra Su about the possibility of Parakaaya Pravesha, he related an anecdote which took place in 1940s or 1950s.

The story goes thus, “Pandit Taranath (father of the late Sarod player, Rajeev Taranath) a spiritually evolved person lived near Harihar in Karnataka. During the course of discussion with a foreign visitor about Parakaaya Pravesha, the visitor expressed incredulity. Pandit Taranath asked the foreigner to come to the aashram early next morning.

The next day, as per the plan, Pandit Taranath, one of his disciples, and the foreigner went to the outskirts of the town. Upon seeing the dead body of a snake, Pandit Taranath signalled to his disciple to protect his body and his soul entered the body of the snake. The Pandit’s body became lifeless and the snake came to life. This was too much for the keenly observant foreigner and he took to his heels even before Pandit Taranath left the body of snake and re-entered his body.”

The well-wisher thus made his point that if a small-time yogi, the stature of Pandit Taranath could perform Parakaaya Pravesha in the 20^th century, for a yogi of the stature of Adi Shankaracharya, it must have been child’s play; and he requested Ta Ra Su to include the incident in his book.

But fate had other plans. Ta Ra Su passed away before he even began to write the book. However, his unfinished book (later completed by his wife), titled “Hinthirugi Nodidaga”, mentions this incident.