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Hello! My name is Athet Pyan Shinthaw Paulu. I am from the country of Myanmar. I would like to share with you my testimony of what happened to me, but first I would like to give some brief background information
from my life growing up.
I was born in 1958 in the town of Bogale, on the Irrawaddy Delta area of southern Myanmar [formerly Burma]. My parents, who were devout Buddhists like most people in Myanmar, named me Thitpin [which means 'tree' in English]. Our lives were very simple where I grew up. At the age of 13 I left school and started working on a fishing boat. We caught fish and sometimes also shrimp from the numerous rivers and streams in the Irrawaddy area. At the age of 16 I became the leader of the boat. At this time I lived in Upper Mainmahlagyon Island [Mainmahlagyon means 'Beautiful Woman Island' in English], just north of Bogale where I was born. This place is about 100 miles southwest of Yangon [Rangoon], our
nation's capitol city.
One day, when I was 17, we caught a large number of fish in our nets. Because of the many fish, a large crocodile was attracted to us. It followed our boat and tried to attack us. We were terrified so we frantically rowed our boats toward the riverbank as fast as we could. The crocodile followed us and smashed our boat with its tail. Although no one died in this incident, the attack greatly affected my life. I no longer wanted to fish. Our small boat sank because of the crocodile attack. We
had to go home to our village that night on a passenger boat.
Not long after, his employers transferred my father to Yangon City [formerly spelt Rangoon]. At the age of 18 I was sent to a Buddhist monastery to be a novice monk. Most parents in Myanmar try to send their son into a Buddhist monastery, at least for a time, as it is considered a great honor to have a son serve in this way. We have been observing
this custom for many hundreds of years.
A Zealous Disciple of Buddha
When I turned 19 years and 3 months old (in 1977), I became a normal monk. The senior monk at my monastery gave me a new Buddhist name, which is the custom in our country. I was now called U Nata Pannita Ashinthuriya. When we become a monk we no longer use the name given to us at birth by our parents. The name of the monastery I lived at is called Mandalay Kyaikasan Kyaing. The senior monk's name was called U Zadila Kyar Ni Kan Sayadaw [U Zadila is his title]. He was the most famous Buddhist monk in all of Myanmar at the time. Everyone knew who he was. He was widely honored by the people and respected as a great teacher. I say he "was" because in 1983 he suddenly died when he was involved in a fatal car accident. His death shocked everyone. At the time I
had been a monk for six years.
I tried hard to be the best monk I could and to follow all the precepts of Buddhism. At one stage I moved to a cemetery where I lived and meditated continually. Some monks who really want to know the truths of Buddha do things like I did. Some move deep into the forests where they live a life of self-denial and poverty. I sought to deny my selfish thoughts and desires, to escape from sickness and suffering and to break free from the cycle of this world. At the cemetery I was not afraid of ghosts. I tried to attain such inner peace and self-realization that even when a mosquito
landed on my arm I would let it bite me instead of brushing it off!
For years I strived to be the best monk I could and not to harm any living being. I studied the holy Buddhist teachings just like all my forefathers had done before me. My life proceeded as a monk until I got very, very sick. I was in Mandalay at the time and had to be taken to the hospital for treatment. The doctors did some tests on me and told me I had both Yellow Fever and malaria at the same time! After about one month in the hospital I was getting worse. The doctors told me there was no chance for
me to recover and discharged me to make a rrangements to die.
This is a brief description of my past. I would now like to tell you some of the remarkable things that happened to me after this time...
After I was discharged from the hospital, I went back to the monastry where other Monks cared for me. I grew weaker and weaker and was lapsing into unconciousness. I learned later that I actually died for 3 days. My body decayed and shrunk to death, and my heart stopped beating . my body was prepared for cremation and was put through traditional Budhist purification rites.
Although I faded away in my body, I remembered my mind and spirit were fully alert. I was in a very, very powerful storm. A tremendous wind flattened the whole landscape untill there were no trees or anything else standing. just a flat plain. I walked very fast along this plain for some time. There were no other people any where, I was all alone. After some time I crossed a river. On the other side of the river, I saw a terrible lake of fire.
In Budhism we do not have a concept of a place like this. At first I was confused and didn’t know that it was hell until I saw Yama – the king of hell. His face looked like the face of a lion his body like a lion. His legs were like a naga (serpant spirit) he had a number of horns on his head. His face was very fierce, and I was extremely afraid. Trembling I asked him his name. he replied “ I am the king of hell, the destroyer. The king of hell told me to look into the lake of fire. I looked and saw the saffron coloured robes that Budhist Monk wear in Myanmar. I looked closely and saw the shaven head of a man. When I looked at the man’s face I saw it was U ZADILA KYAR NI KAR SAYADAW.( the famous monk who had died in a car accident in 1983), I asked the king of hell ‘ why this leader was confined to this lake of torment ? he was very good teacher. He even had a teaching tape called “ Are you a man or a dog?” which had helped thousands of people understand their worth. As humans is far greater than the animals. The king of hell replied “ yes he was good teacher, but he did not believe in Jesus Christ, that is why he is in hell.
I was told to look at another person who was in the fire. I saw a man with very long hair wrapped on the left hand side of his head. He was also wearing a robe. I asked this king who is this ? he replied “ this is the one you worship Gautama Budha.” I was very disturbed to see Gautama in hell. I protested he had good ethics and good moral character. Why is he suffering in this lake of fire ? King of hell answered “it doesn’t matter how good he was. He is in this place because he did not believe in the eternal God”
The I saw another man who had soldiers uniform. He had a large wound on his chest. I asked who is this man ? the king replied “ this is Aung San the revolutionary leader of Myanmar. “ I was told Aung san is here because he persecuted and killed christians, but mostly because he did not believe in Jesus Christ “ In myanmar the people have a common saying “ soldiers never die, they live on “ I was told that the legions of hell have a saying that soldier never die but they go to hell for ever. I looked and saw another man in the lake of fire. he was very tall and dressed in military armour. He was also holding a sword and a shield. This man was taller than any person I had ever seen and had a wound on his forehead. He was six times the length between an man’s elbow and tips of his fingers. When he stretched his arm out straight plus one span of a man’s fingers when he spread out his hand. The king of hell said “ this mans name is Goliath. He is in hell because he blasphemed the eternal God and his servant David. I was confused. I didn’t know either Goliath or David. He said Goliath is recorded in the christian Bible. You don’t know him now but when you become a christian you will know who he is. Another king of hell came to me. I also saw a being whose job is to stoke the fire beneath the lake of fire, to keep it hot. This being (person) asked me” are you going into the lake of fire too I replied “NO ! I am only here to observe !” The appearance of this creature stoking the fire was very terrifying. He had ten horns on his head and a spear in his hand that had 7 sharp blades coming from the end. The creature told me “ you are right, you came here only to observe, I cannot find your name here” he said “ you must now go back the way you came “ He pointed me towards the desolate plain that I had first walked along before I came to the lake of fire. I walked a long time, until I was bleeding , I was in great pain, finally after walking for about 3 hours I came to a wide Road, I walked along this road for some time until I came to a fork. One road going off to the left was a wide. A smaller road went of to the right hand side. There was a sign posted at the fork saying that the road to the left was for those who do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. The smaller road to the right was for believers in Jesus Christ. I was interested to see where the larger road led, so I started down it. There were 2 men walking about 300 yards a head of me. I tried to catch up with them so I could walk with them but no matter how hard I tried I coundn’t catch them up, so I turned around and went back to the fork in the road. I continued to watch them 2 men as they walked down the road. They were suddenly stabbed, these two men cried out in great pain. I also cried out when I saw what happened to them. I realised the bigger road ended in great danger for those who travelled down it. I started walking down the believers road instead. After travelling for about an hour the surface of the road turned into pure gold. It was so pure that when I looked down I could see my own reflection perfectly. I then saw a man standing in front of me . He was wearing a white robe. I also heard beautiful singing. Oh it was so beautiful and pure it was much better and more meaningful than the worship we have in churches here on earth. The man in white robe asked me to walk with him. I asked him what is your name ? but he did not reply. After I asked him six times the man answered “ I am the one who holds the key to heaven. Heaven is a very very beautifull place, you cannot go there now, but if you follow Jesus Christ you can go thereafter your life has finished on the earth “ the man’s name was Peter. Peter then asked me to sit down and showed me a place to the north. Peter said “ look to the north and see God creat man. I saw the eternal God from a distance. God spoke to the angel “ let us make man “ the angel pleaded with God and said “ please don’t make man. He will do wrong and will grieve you. But God created a man anyway. God blew on the man and the man became alive. He gave him the name “Adam”
Then Peter said “ Now get up and go back to where you came from. Speak to the people who worship Budha and who worship idols. Tell them they must go to hell if they don’t change. Those who build temples and idols will also have to go to hell. Those who give offerings to the Monks to earn merit for themselves, will go into hell. Those who chant and give life to idols will go to hell” Peter told me to go back to earth and testify about the things I had seen.
He also said you must speak in your new name. From now on you are to be called Athet Otab Shinthaw Paulu ( Paul who came back to life ). I didn’t want to go back, I wanted to go to heaven. Angels opened a book. First they looked for my childhood name (Thitpin) in the book, but they could not find it. They then looked for the name I had been given when I entered the Budhist monkhood (U Nata Panitha Ashinthuriya) but it wasn’t written in the book either. Then Peter said “ your name is not written here, you must return and testify about Jesus to the Budhist people. I walked back along the golden path. Again I heard the beautiful singing. The kind of which I never heard before or since. Peter walked with me until the time I returned to the earth) he showed me a ladder that reached down from heaven to the sky. The ladder didn’t reach to the earth but stopped in the mid air. On the ladder I saw many angels, some going to heaven and some going down the ladder. They were very busy. I asked peter “ who are they” Peter answered they are messengers of God. They are reporting to heaven the name of all those who believe in Jesus christ and the name of those who don’t believe. Peter then told me that it was time to go back.
The next thing I was aware of was the sound of weeping. I heard my own Mother cry out “ my son, my son why did you leave us now ? “ I also heard many other people weeping. I realised I was lying in a box. I started to move. My mother and father started to shout “ he is alive “ Other people who were further away did not believe my parents. I then placed my hands on the sides of the box and sat upright. Many people were struck with terror. They cried out “ it is a ghost” and ran away.
Those who remained were speachless and trembling I noticed I was sitting in smelly liquid and body fluids, enough to fill about three and half cups. This was liquid that had come out of my stomach and my insides while my body was lying inside the coffin. This is why people knew I had indeed been dead, Inside the coffin there was a type of plastic sheet. This sheet is placed there to retain a corpse’s liquids because many dead bodies release much fluid like mine did. I learned later that I was just moments away from being cremated in the flames. In Myanmar people are placed in coffins. The lid is then nailed shut and the whole coffin is burned. When I came back to life my mother and father were allowed to look at my body for the very last time. Moments later the lid would have been nailed shut and I would have been cremated. I immediately started to explain the things I had seen and heard. People were astonished. I told them about the men I had seen in the lake of fire and told them that only christians know the truth, that our forefathers and we have been deceived for thousands of years. I told them everything we believed is a lie. The people were astonished because they knew what kind of a monk I had been and how zealous I had been for the teachings of Budha.
In Myanmar when a person dies his name and age is written on the side of the coffin. When a monk dies , his name , age and the number of years he has served as a monk are written on the side of the coffin. I had already been recorded as dead but as you can see, now I am alive.
Note : Since Paul who came back to life experienced the above story he has remained a faithful witness to the Lord Jesus Christ. Burmese pastors have told us that he had led hundreds of other monks to faith in Christ. His testimony is obviously very uncompromising , because of that his message has offended many people who cannot accept that there is only one way to heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ. Despite great opposition his experience were so real to him that he had not wavered.
After many years in the Budhist monkhood, as a strict follower of buddhist teachings, he immediately proclaimed the Gospel of Christ following his ressurrection and exhorted other monks to forsake all false Gods and follow Jesus Christ with all their hearts. Before the time of his sickness and death he had no exposure to christianity at all. Everything he learned during those three days in the grave was new to his mind.
In a bid to get his message out to as many people as possible, this modern day Lazarus began distributing audio and video cassette tapes. We are told it is now quite dangerous for citizens of Myanmar to be in possession of these tapes.
His fearless testimony has landed him in prison atleast once, where the authorities failed in their bid to silence him. Upon his release he continued to testify of the things he saw and heard. His current whereabouts are uncertain. One Burmese informant told us he is imprisoned and may have been killed. While another was told he is now released from prison and is continuing his ministry.