Shanti Devi – The Child Who Recalled Her Last Life
by Marguerite dar Boggia
A Renowned Case of Reincarnation
Shanti Devi is one of the most renowned cases on reincarnation. She was born on December 11, 1926 at 1:47 p.m. in New Delhi, India. In her previous incarnation, she was known as Lugdi Chaturbhuj, and was born on January 18,1902 at 10 AM in Mathura, India.
In 1996, I gave a lecture at the ISAR astrology conference in Chicago on Reincarnation using her charts. I obtained the dates and times of birth and personal information from the renowned Hindu astrologer KN Rau. I met him in 1995 when he was in Southern California.
How did we learn of this case? One of KN Rau’s students was a relative or friend of the family of Shanti Devi. He told KN Rau that when he was young he studied at her house, where it was quiet. He said from the age of about three or four she would refer to ‘her house’ and ‘her house had many sweets.’ She also referred to ‘her husband’. When he tried to learn the name of her husband, she would not reveal it. Eventually she did reveal it, when she was promised that he would write to her husband.
Connecting with the Husband of Shanti Devi
He did write to her husband. When her husband was contacted, he sent his cousin instead of himself. Lugdi was indignant and said, he was not her husband, but his cousin. She wanted to be taken to her husband.
Later, her husband did visit her with his new wife and her son, who was born just before she died in her last life. When she saw her son, she was emotionally overwhelmed and ran to give him her toys. When asked how she knew he was her son, she responded that the soul knows. She demanded to know why her husband remarried, when he promised not to remarry. She wanted to be with him.
When her husband spoke to her alone, he asked, since she had arthritis and could not move very well, how did she become pregnant. When she described the whole intercourse procedure, he then believed that she was his former wife. (1)
Popularity in India and Travels
The publicity was equivalent to the reappearance of the Christ. Thousands of people were at her door. She was so famous that Mahatma Gandhi invited her to his ashram. He appointed a committee of prominent individuals to investigate and report on their findings. The report was published in 1936. They all traveled to Mathura, where she had been born in her last life.
In Mathura, she was emotionally overwhelmed at seeing her Mother and Father. She recognized people and knew the dialect. When taken to her husband’s house, she knew she hid her money in a hole under a flower pot. On lifting the flower pot, the money was not there. Her husband said that they used the money, as she had wished, to give to the Temple.
She never married and never had children. She studied astrology and met K.N. Rau, the prominent Vedic Teacher. She died on December 27, 1987 at the age of 61. (2) Her destiny was to bring people closer to truth: that there is life after death and to shake off materialistic beliefs that bind the soul.
More about Her Last Life
In her last life, at the age of ten, Lugdi married Kedarnath Chaube. He owned two shops selling cloth (yardage). His previous wife had died.
In 1915, when she was about 13, her child was stillborn after a Caesarian section. She had a second child when she was 23 years of age, again by Caesarian section. Nine days later, on October 4, 1925, Lugdi died.
Many books were written using the case of Shanti Devi to support the theory of rebirth and reincarnation. One of the most famous reincarnation research investigators is Ian Stevenson, of the University of Virginia; another is Dr. K.S. Rawat.
Resources: (1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanti_Devi (2) http://www.carolbowman.com/dr-ian-stevenson/case-shanti-devi/
About the Author
Marguerite dar Boggia presently serves as Membership Secretary for ISAR, the International Society for Astrological Research. She was past Secretary and Director of ISAR and Publisher of its journal, Kosmos. She co-founded, and is past Secretary and Director of United Astrology Congress (UAC). Her present efforts are to aid in the expansion of humanity’s consciousness by offering, three free pages weekly online of the ageless wisdom studies as known by Pythagoras and Plato. Reach Marguerite online at www.FreePythagorasTeachings.com
