Is rebirth possible? Is there a scientific basis for believing in reincarnation? Since time immemorial, man has tried to find a solution to this riddle, but convincing evidence has eluded him until now.
Now, in perhaps the first case of its kind, a forensic expert from Patiala has attempted to prove the phenomenon scientifically.
Putting up for discussion his study on the revival case of a child who lived in Chakkchela village of Jalandhar district in his previous life and now lives in Alluna Miana village of Ludhiana district, Vikram Raj Singh Chauhan claims that based on a comparison of the handwriting of the child in his previous and current births, he proves the theory that revival is possible.
His findings were praised at the recent National Conference of Forensic Scientists at Bundelkhand University, Jhansi.
Back in 2002, a six-year-old boy, Taranjit Singh of Alluna Miana village near Payal in Ludhiana, claimed to remember his previous life. In fact, according to his poor parents, the boy had been claiming it since he was two years old and trying to run away from home.
The boy said that in the past he was born in Chakkchela village in Jalandhar district, his real name was Satnam Singh and his father’s name was Jit Singh.
According to him, at the time of his death, he was a grade IX student in a school in Nihalwal village. On September 10, 1992, he was cycling home from school with his friend Sukwinder Singh when a scooter named Joga Singh of Mirajwala village, tehsil Shahkot, hit him.
He sustained serious head injuries and died the next day.
His current father, Ranjit Singh, said that as the boy became more persistent, he and his wife took him to Chakkchela village in Sangrur district. They couldn’t find anyone who looked like the people his son called his parents. When someone told them that there was also a Chakkchela village in Jalandhar district, they decided to go there.
The boy’s father Ranjit Singh and his friend Rajinder Singh went to the public school in Nihalwal village in Jalandhar district, where they met an old teacher who told them that it was true that a boy named Satnam Singh had died in an accident and was the son of Jit Singh of Chakkchela village. The family then made their way to Jit Singh’s home and told the whole story.
Ranjit Singh also said that his son claimed that the books he was carrying when the accident happened were soaked in his blood. He also had 30 rupees in his wallet.
Upon hearing this, a woman, who Taranjit said was his mother in a previous birth, began to cry and confirmed his words. She said that she kept the blood-stained books and 30 rupees as the last memory of her child.
A few days later, Taranjit Singh’s former life brother Keval Singh, sister Lakhbir Kaur, friend Buta Singh, father Jeet Singh and mother Mohinder Kaur came to Alluna Miana village to meet Taranjit.
Lakhbir Kaur showed Taranjit Singh pictures and asked him to recognize himself in his previous birth. Taranjit Singh immediately recognized himself, as well as a picture of his parents in his previous birth.
This story was published in some newspapers. Vikram Chauhan said that being a man of science, he refused to believe such a story, but driven by curiosity, he decided to investigate.
He visited the villages in question several times. The boy and the parents of both families repeated the same story. He spoke to the shopkeeper, who told him that a few days before his death, the boy had borrowed a notebook from him for three rupees.
When the shopkeeper went to the boy’s village, the boy immediately recognized him, but said he only owed him 2 rupees. The shopkeeper acknowledged this fact and said that he only wanted to verify the authenticity of the child’s statement.
After that, to scientifically confirm what had happened, Chauhan took samples of the handwriting of Taranjit Singh in Gurmukhi and English and that of Satnam Singh from notebooks kept in Satnam Singh’s family to see if Satnam Singh’s and Taranjit Singh’s handwriting were similar.
The investigation was based on the basic theory of forensic science that the handwriting of two different people cannot be the same. If Taranjit Singh and Satnam Singh were the same person, then their handwriting should also be the same.
The author explained that a person’s handwriting has specific characteristics that are determined by their personality, so no two people write alike.
It is an applied science combining the study of optics, physiology and psychology. A person’s psychological makeup largely determines his or her handwriting.
Thus, the mind plays an important role in shaping a person’s handwriting, while the hand only brings to life the dictates of the mind, which cannot be the same for two different writers.
According to the author, he was amazed to find that Taranjit Singh’s handwriting was almost exactly the same as that of Satnam Singh. The only difference was the muscular coordination of the two writers, as Taranjit Singh was not used to writing. This was rather unusual and suggested that there was something similar about the two boys.
The author argued that if the soul is assumed to pass from one person to another, it can be inferred that the mind will remain the same. Thus, if it is believed that Satnam Singh’s soul was transferred into the body of Taranjit Singh, then it makes sense that Taranjit Singh’s handwriting would match that of Satnam Singh.
The scientist proved this at the conference. According to conference transcripts, several forensic experts examined the handwriting samples and found that they were similar.
“I have some scientific reason to believe that rebirth is possible,” Chauhan says, “but I want to continue research on the subject and keep a close eye on the child’s development.”
According to Chauhan, another factor backed up his conclusions. “In his current birth Taranjit never went to school because he belongs to a poor family, but when I asked him to write the English and Punjabi alphabets, he wrote them correctly.”
In 2002, Taranjit was living with his current family’s parents because they refused to give him to his previous parents. His previous parents did not insist, saying they understood his new parents’ feelings.
