Steve Jobs lives on in 'mystical glass palace'

When Steve Jobs – the billionaire entrepreneur behind Apple or the technological saviour of mankind, depending on who you speak to – died in October last year, many asked about the future of Apple but few about the future of Jobs himself.

Upon learning of his boss's grand exit, the software engineer Tony Tseung sent an email to a Buddhist group in Thailand to find out what Jobs might be reincarnated as in his next life, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday.

Jobs had a lifelong interest in Buddhism after some soul-searching in India during his post-university days. It was only natural that reincarnation – a key tenet of the Buddhist faith – would be on the mind of the Apple founder.

This month, Tseung finally got a response from monks at the Dhammakaya Temple north of Bankgkok.

In a televised speech, the abbot Phra Chaibul  explained that Jobs has returned as a celestial warrior-philosopher and now resides in a "mystical glass palace" floating about his old office in Cupertino, California, the home of Apple HQ.

Many have found it hard to stomach Chaibul's claims that Jobs is being waited on by 20 servants, however, which WSJ reports are said to bear some resemblance to the blue-shirted "Geniuses" that staff Apple Stores around the world and help the public with their various iPod-related foibles.

Leaders of other Buddhist groups have criticised Phra Chaibul for his Jobs-themed speeches (there have been others, apparently) as a way to lure the curious and tech-savvy to the group's temple in Thailand.

But few have questioned why, as a celestial being with eternity at his fingertips, Jobs would return to his former workplace and hover there benignly in a greenhouse.

The news comes as Ashton Kutcher has been sighted in Vrindavan, India, filming a section of the forthcoming Steve Jobs biopic of which the US-star plays the titular lead.