Do We Not Have Dreams During Our Last Day on Earth?

Dear Frank,

I have never read this teaching by Yogananda, so if you have a reference, I’d be very glad to see it. Please post it in the comments below. I am always happy to learn new things which Master has taught.

To be honest, it would actually surprise me if he had stated that we don’t have any dreams on our last days on earth, because he wrote:

“When death comes it is variously experienced by different people according to their earthly mode of living. Just as people have various durations and qualities of sleep, so different people experience death differently. The good, hard-working man in the workshop of life goes to a deep, unconscious but restful sleep for a short while to wake up again in some other region of life. The man who neglects the duties of life or causes confusion often experiences something like nightmares or terrible dreams during death. The moral man often has delightful dreams at death. The wise man experiences through death an infinitely better, safer haven.” (From an article, The Mystery Of Life And Death).

Another point is that nowadays there is much scientific research about “Vivid Dreams” which happen just before a person dies. They occur, so they say, to comfort the person who passes.

In that same article quoted above, Yogananda inserted one of his poems which you might enjoy. The dream of death (of a wise man) is joy, he says.

Insult not me
With your cries of sympathy
When I soar
To the land of eternal light and love.
It is I who should feel for you.
For me disease, shattering of bones,
Sorrow, excruciating heartaches no more.
I dream joy, I glide in joy,
I breathe in joy evermore.
You are left behind
Oh, yet Life’s wheels to turn and wind.
I have worked with diligence
In the office of life
And now I have won
My pension of earned peace.
I left the flickering shadows of life’s shores;
I am living by the shoreless shore
Of the Eternal Sea evermore.

All the best,
Jayadev