# Wrong Mrs Kaur — take her back

- Teacher: Ajahn Brahm
- Type: Story
- URL: https://beingmindfulstories.com/stories/brahm-wrong-mrs-kaur-nde
- Themes: death, near-death, humour, names
- Life situations: thinking about death, mistaken identity

## Synopsis (editorial summary)

In Ven. Nibbūto's Sikh village, where men are Singh and women Kaur, an old lady is certified dead and put in a coffin for that evening's cremation. She comes to and describes a near-death scene: spirits drag her to a boss spirit who scolds them for grabbing the wrong Mrs Kaur and sends her back. Minutes later another Mrs Kaur dies.

## The story, as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)

I've I've told this story before. This comes from uh one of the monks. He's a currently visiting his family over in India. That's Venerable Nibbūto. He said this happened in his village. And that was the case where he was uh from a family of Sikh people. And all the men have the surname, in that village anyway, Singh. And all the ladies have the same surname, Kaur. So when they always have the same surnames, sometimes they will have the same first name as well. And this was a problem because this old lady died in his village. And when she died, they they checked her out. This was, you know, a very, you know, well-off community, proper doctors, certified dead. They put her in the coffin and in that religion they would do the cremation that evening. They wouldn't wait around so long. So they had her in the coffin waiting for the cremation and then she came to. She wasn't dead. I remember telling this story a couple of days ago and one of the Thai ladies who comes every Tuesday to Bodhinyana Monastery, she said she experienced something similar to that in her village. This an old lady died and they had her in a coffin and the monks were there ready to do the cremation and then she was knocking in the coffin. This is a true story. Knocking in the coffin. And apparently the first to jump away were the monks who were there ready to do the jumping. [laughter] They were not that impressive at all. And then most of the other people ran away quickly cuz they were terribly scared, but then they opened the coffin and she was still alive. But anyway, this in the village in India, when she came to, you know, she was still alive, and they asked her what happened. And what she said, this is how she described that experience, a near-death experience, was she was met by two spirits or something, dragged away, and then this big boss spirit took one look at her and scolded the other spirits. "You've got the wrong Mrs. Kaur! Take Take her back!" Cuz they've all got the same surnames and many of the same first names. So they had to drag her back. And that's when she woke up. And a few minutes later, another Mrs. Kaur died in the village. This time they got the they got the right one.

## Teaching point

Even death bureaucracy can get the wrong person — and near-death reports can be oddly bureaucratic too.

## Reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)

In a village where every woman is Mrs Kaur, an old lady woke in her coffin saying the spirits had grabbed the wrong one, and minutes later another Mrs Kaur died. Ajahn Brahm worries for himself and Ajahn Brahmali. Whatever you believe, stories like this make death less grim and more curious.

## Source

- [Buddhism and Ghosts | Ajahn Brahm | 10 March 2023](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9fga9-6vFM) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 15:09 to 18:16: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9fga9-6vFM&t=909s

Other tellings of this story:

- [Reincarnation | Ajahn Brahm | 3 Feb 2017](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIrtqS0LkYQ) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 1:03:58 to 1:05:27: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIrtqS0LkYQ&t=3838s