Storytelling Week 5: The Ghost-Brahman

Once upon a time there was a Brahman. He had just married the love of his life. They had been dating each other for over five years and had finally decided to tie the knot. The Brahman had always supported his mother and now that he had married, there was an extra person to support. He told his mother and his new wife that he would have to travel to a far away place to earn some money for he did not have enough to continue the support. The Brahman told them that he would return in a couple of years whenever he had earned enough. Then he gave his mother all of the money he currently had and told her to take care of his wife. The next day he ventured off to a far away land in hopes that he would return full of wealth, but little did he know what was about to happen back at his home.

The next day a ghost came to his home. It was a ghost that looked exactly like the Brahman in every way.  His wife asked why he had returned from his journey so soon, and the ghost lied to her, saying that he decided it was more important to stay at home with family. The ghost had a hunch that no one knew that he was lying. This continued for many years and everyone believed that the ghost Brahman was in fact the real Brahman. His wife believed it, his mother believed it, and even the townspeople believed it.

A remake of the Ghostbusters' Logo. Found at: Deviant Art

After the real Brahman had earned enough money, he finally returned home. He was shocked when he got home and saw a ghost in his home in the place of him. The ghost told him to leave because no one would believe that he was the real Brahman. The Brahman knew exactly what to do though. He had been waiting for an opportunity to call some of his old friends. He picked up his phone and called the Ghostbusters. He had known them since he was but a young child. The Ghostbusters were a team of ghost chasers that knew how to capture ghosts forever. He gave them a call and they were there immediately with all of the necessary tools to hunt ghosts. They formulated a plan in order to capture the ghost of Brahman and then the time came to catch him. The Ghostbusters grabbed their vacuum cleaners and surrounded the ghost. These weren't any ordinary vacuums, but were specially modified in order to capture ghosts forever. The ghost had nowhere to go and was trapped. The Ghostbusters turned their vacuums to the maximum level and sucked the ghost into a safe storage container. The ghost of Brahman was no match for the Ghostbusters. Brahman happily paid the Ghostbusters and they were on their way. The real Brahman returned to his home and told his mother and wife exactly what had happened and that he really had been gone the last two years earning enough money to support them. They were shocked but happy to finally have the real Brahman back. While away, Brahman had earned quite a bit of money by buying and selling horses. He was one of the best used-horse salesmen in the world. He earned enough money for his mother and his wife to live very happily for the rest of their lives.

Author’s Note:

I wrote this story based upon The Ghost-Brahman. I kept the beginning of the story almost the exact same, but when the Brahman returned, the story took a turn. In the original story, Brahman went to the King and asked for help. Day after day the King told him to come back tomorrow. This is because the King was so baffled that even he did not know what to do. So eventually the King of the cowherds found a way to trick the ghost into showing that he was the real ghost. Instead of telling it that way, I decided to have him call the Ghostbusters. I thought this would add a little comedic effect to the story. In the original story, the King of the cowherds tricked the ghost into changing shapes to prove he was the real Brahman. Of course being able to change shapes proved that he was the ghost and when he changed shapes, the King captured him in a small container. The Ghostbusters instead used high-powered vacuums to capture the ghost. Ghostbusters has always been one of my favorite movies so I found a way to add it in to this story. I also added the part at the end where he made all of his money buying and selling horses. I thought this was a good way to add a little bit of detail to this story. I believe that detail is very important in stories, and a lot of mythology lacks detail. Overall this was a very odd story with the addition of the Ghostbusters, but odd stories are my specialty.

The original story can be found here: Folk-Tales of Bengal by the Rev. Lal Behari Day, with illustrations by Warwick Goble (1912).