A Brāhman in Limbdi named Vaijnāth had, by the performance of yoga, obtained the power of sending his spirit out of his body and recalling it at pleasure.[27]
The soul of a living being leaves its physical tabernacle during sleep and hovers about. It can go to and return from even the heavenly and infernal regions.
There are eighteen kinds of siddhis or accomplishments, one of which is parakāyāpravesh or the power of entering the body of another and returning to one’s own body at will. The soul cannot exist separated from the body. When a person who revives after death is asked how he returned to life, he declares that he has been carried to the presence of the god of death by his messengers, being mistaken for another bearing the same name and living in the same locality. When such a mistake is detected, the god of death tells the soul of the man concerned that his life’s span has not yet ended, and sends it back to the body, which appears to be dead.[28]
Often the soul of a man ascends to his temples, when the man is supposed to be dead although he is alive. In such cases, when the soul descends, the man is supposed to come to life again.
It is believed by some people that if all the desires of a man are not satisfied at the time of his death, his soul leaves the body to satisfy them and subsequently returns to the corpse, whereupon the body revives.[29]
A devotee in his meditative trance can send forth his soul whithersoever he pleases.[30]
It is also believed that the soul of man leaves the body in sleep to enjoy those pleasures which it cannot enjoy in wakefulness.[31]
The popular conceptions of the character and functions of the bhut or disembodied soul are as follows:
A ghost has no recognised form. It may assume the form of a human being, a goat, a blaze of fire, a whirl-wind or any other object it pleases.[32]
Some assume a terribly gigantic and fearfully uncouth frame, with big fang-like teeth, long matted hair and a height that reaches the sky. At times they assume the form of a child and cry heart-breakingly at a concealed corner of a road. Should a passer-by, out of compassion, try to save it, the supposed infant begins to lengthen its legs to show its benefactor its real and supernatural dimensions. Sometimes it transforms itself into a gigantic and terrible being, taking possession of the man if he becomes afraid.[33]