Book excerpt: While doubting the omnipotence of Gadadhara and her threats, we trust the word of honest pilgrims who saw “the shadow of their departed relatives.” The earth’s atmosphere is jam-packed with the astral remains of men and women disintegrating in the limbus of the Roman Catholics (kama-loka) images of empty shells (ghosts) that are magnetically drawn to those whom they had loved on earth. The Hindu practice of Pind Daan or Shraddha is a mere superstition, and any effects thereby produced are caused unconsciously by the strong belief of the temple’s priest. The best way to help a restless ghost is to stop thinking of it, and allow nature to take its course. The body being only the covering of the soul, at its dissolution we shall discover all the secrets of nature, and darkness shall be dispelled, says Seneca. No man or priest can impede the immutable law of nature (karma), especially after the death of the person that evolved it. The departed should be left alone to rest in peace, in the bosom of the earth. It is the cunning Brahmans who need the Pind Daan more than the Asuras, and the greedy Christian clergy who exploit the credulity of their pious laity by extorting money from the bereaved in useless ceremonies and prayers upon the dead.