We mortals have so many misconceptions about death that it has grown in importance and implanted in us the idea of annihilation and pain. Death is simply one of the steps in the soul’s journey from the state of changeable matter to the changeless state of Spirit.

Never discourage a dying person

Once two students of mine, a brother and sister, had a very interesting experience. The sister lay dying in a room with her brother and doctors in attendance. When the brother left the room for a moment, his sister had a spasm and appeared to have died. The doctors exclaimed, “All is over; her pulse has failed.”

As soon as the brother came back, he ordered everybody out of the room, and then shook his sister vigorously, crying, “Sister, remember what Yoganandaji told you: If you make the effort you will live.”

His sister made a supreme effort and her breath returned. She sat up and told of her experience: “I was trying through my will power to stir the life force in my inert body, but as soon as I heard the doctors say, ‘All is over,’ I lost the will to live and experienced a complete inertia in my muscles and internal organs.”

So remember, never say anything to discourage a sick or dying person from making the effort of will to live, even if death appears certain. It is the exercise of will power that connects the life-sustaining energy to the body.

To keep your will power strong, try never to lose interest in life. Death comes when your will gives up. You become so tortured by illness or pain that you say, “All right, let me go.” And you give up.

The process of dying

When the average person dies, the entire body usually becomes paralyzed, just as when a part of your body sometimes “goes to sleep.” In the beginning the dying person is conscious of this process.

When the heart begins to grow numb, there is a sense of suffocation because without heart action, the lungs cannot operate. This sense of suffocation is a little painful for only one to three seconds, but because souls reincarnate many times, they retain the memory of this painful feeling of suffocation. This memory causes fear of death.

During this feeling of suffocation, attachments to possessions and loved ones sometimes come strongly to mind and there is a struggle to bring the breath back. At this time, a condensed review of all the good and bad actions of this lifetime takes place in the mind of the dying person. The senses of touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing then vanish in succession, with the sense of hearing being the last to leave.

The soul next finds itself suddenly relieved of the body’s weight, the necessity of breathing, and any physical pain. When the soul realizes that its body is gone, it becomes reconciled to dying and experiences a sense of soaring through a very peaceful tunnel.

When a person dies suddenly, as by a gunshot or sudden accident, he experiences practically no physical pain. If he has lived a good life, he seldom suffers any mental agony.

The period between death and rebirth

In the astral world, people of worldly consciousness enter a sort of gray mist. Some of them are vaguely conscious, depending on the sensitivity of their perception, but for many it is like a dream. They aren’t quite sure what is going on.

If your intuition is even slightly developed, however—especially if you’ve meditated and prayed some in this life, but also if you’ve served others, even as a soldier who fought heroically in battle—you will find that the astral world is far more beautiful than this one, and extremely enjoyable!

What binds us to this world?

Many superficial devotees are haunted by the fear of death. Rather than lament the inevitability of death, they should try in every way to become free of all earthly attachments by tuning in to Spirit in meditation.

There is the story of a man who, as he lay dying, saw that the oil lamp in his room was burning too high. He called out to his son, “Hey, Ramu, turn down that light: It is wasting oil!” There the man was, on the point of leaving his body—the “oil” in his own “lamp” was nearly exhausted. And still he worried about wasting the oil in that lamp! Such is worldly attachment. Even at death, people cling to what they call life.

Most people lose all interest in this world at the time of death. That is natural and right: After all, they are soon going to have to leave it! Besides, this world is God’s, not ours. That mental disinvolvement at the approach of death should remind everyone of the need to be inwardly non-attached throughout life, even while busily engaged in worldly activities. Eternal bliss awaits you if you remain non-attached to this world, and “attached” only to God.

Always be vigilant and monitor your reactions

Devotees haunted by the fear of death must learn to separate the immortal soul from the consciousness of the mortal body. You are sent on earth to witness earthly experiences—heat and cold, disease, war, famine, pain and suffering—as unaffectedly as you would watch a motion picture. When you are able to watch your own life’s experiences as unaffectedly as you watch motion pictures, you will leave this earth in death as a free master.

Earthly experiences do not create attachment until the heart is touched. The heart, through its likes and dislikes, binds an individual to the wheel of birth, death, and earthly suffering. So always be vigilant and monitor your reactions. Gradually learn to control your reactions to both agreeable and disagreeable experiences.

Remember, however, that renunciation of material objects, of itself, does not insure freedom from attachment. It is by communing with the greater bliss of Spirit in meditation that a person learns, through deep inner conviction, to rise above the likes and dislikes of the heart and to relinquish the lesser joy of earthly experiences.

The devotee who meditates deeply and experiences the pure joy of Spirit attains an unwavering mental calmness and is able to rise above the duality of pain and pleasure.

Learn to die “consciously”

Although the ordinary person at the time of death is not conscious of his soul moving through the spiritual eye, devotees who are unattached to the body, and who have  achieved control over the life force, experience no loss of consciousness at death. They move consciously through the spiritual eye and experience what is known as “conscious death.”

In the superconscious state of meditation, the eyes become fixed at the spiritual eye at the point between the eyebrows. As human beings, we are like the unhatched chick in the shell. By meditation and concentrating on the spiritual eye, we can bore a hole in the roof of the shell and the soul can slip out into the infinite.

In other words, by deep concentration at the light of the spiritual eye, we gradually learn to send our energy and consciousness through the spiritual eye into the infinite.  Many devotees have beheld this tunnel of light (the spiritual eye) ushering them into the infinite at the time of death.

An unshakeable inner conviction

The ordinary man fears death, but the wise man sees birth and death as changes playing on the bosom of Spirit—just as waves repeatedly rise and fall on the bosom of the sea. A soul awake in omnipresent Spirit loses his delusive nightmares of births and deaths.

A poet or religious fanatic may imagine this cosmos to be only a dream in the mind of God, but that will not help him overcome death and attain immortality. The yogi, however, through ecstatic communion with God in meditation, achieves an unshakeable inner conviction of the unreality of the physical cosmos. By beholding the universe as a dream of God, he becomes one with the omnipresent Spirit and attains immortality.

This article first appeared in print in Fall 2009: “Understanding Death,” Swami Kriyananda, Clarity Magazine.

From articles and lessons, 1930-1938, and Conversations with Yogananda, recorded by Swami Kriyananda, Crystal Clarity Publishers.

Clarity Magazine articles can be printed in “text only” format, using your own computer.

19 Comments

  1. Its very beautiful and to understand of death is also easy.We can try to die consciously and always give courage to dying or ill people.

  2. I thank you for the reality of “Death.” I see this is the most feared, misunderstood part of this journey of the soul in society. I have been deeply gracious for the understanding of this part of our
    journey….There is only a continuation. I am in hopes of more fluently conveying this to others but I understand that it is the listener who through their own free will and spiritual growth chooses to know the truth and therefore set their selves free of the fear and finality which is an illusion….
    Thank you again
    Vanity

  3. Beautiful and comforting explanation as are all of Paramahansa Yogananda’s commentaries.

  4. Wonderful article! It was very knowledgeable and guided us about the ways to attain easy death. Thanks.

  5. Its beautiful, scary but even then its true.Once I had a dream that I was a soldier in a helicopter, all of sudden being shot in the forehead. The experience of death might be micro seconds, but it appeared long to me. I thought the moment the bullet hit me I will be in lots of pain. Instead of pain I saw my consciousness leaving my body. All of a sudden I felt so much of joys which I haven’t experienced in real life.The feeling cannot be described. I really wonder, if that world has so much of joys why we are back. Also I really think most soldiers will have same experience of joy and bliss if they die in battle field

    Aditya

  6. YOGANAND GURUDEV HAS SO SIMPLY LESSENED THE MYSTERY AND TERROR THAT OTHERWISE SURROUNDS DEATH. MAY WE ALL BE OPEN VESSELS TO RECEIVE THE SUPREME BLESSING OF A TRULY POISED CALM AND COMPLETELY FEARLESS PASSING ON. JAI GURUDEV!!

  7. This is something I have kept to myself for many years – I’ve spoken of it to only a few of those closest to me.
    In 1971 I was working in a shipyard, welding large steel fabricated sections. The piece I was working on weighed 17 tons.
    At one point I had to have the piece turned over by a crane. I connected the chains from the crane to the piece but when I was in between the front of the crane and the piece someone, not seeing me, gave the cranedriver the signal to lift.
    As the 17 ton piece came up it swung into the front of the crane. I was side on to it; it struck me and started crushing me.
    I felt a massive pain for a moment as my ribcage was being crushed. Suddenly the pain disappeared. A penetrating and universal light illuminated a vast universe made up, at one and the same time, the most vast universes and the most small molecules and atoms. All was suffused with a sound which I could only describe as music although I have heard no orchestra on earth play like it. For me it was the most beautiful, peacful and joyous place – a pure delight. At some point a question was asked: “Is it complete?” I knew that what was being referred to was my life. I knew that if I answered Yes, then I could stay here in this wonderful place. However, I also knew that if I replied Yes, I would not be telling the truth. I answered, “No.” Those witnessing the event describe what happened next:
    “You just flapped your arms and pushed the steel box from off you. You then danced out turning circles.” I came to leaning against a wall surrounded by five or six workmates asking “Are you OK?”
    Later, at the hospital, it was found that all I had suffered was stripping the skin from the outside of both arms and three fractured ribs. We do have a role to play in the time of our going.

  8. What an easy explanation for the most dire fear that man has to confront in his life. Thanks Master for simplifying this phenomenon called Death which I always felt like a dangling sword waiting to tear us ….

  9. Wow! As soon as I read about being attached to God instead of to this world, I was instantly changed spiritually. This is a very powerful article. Thank you Master.

  10. Death is that inevitable event that one has to experience in his life. We fear death because either we do not have that supreme knowledge about death or we remain confused in several philosophical theories of death. Then how the mystery of death will be unveiled ? It’s only by deep to deeper meditation or by constant chanting of that holy mantra that will be given to you by your guru.

    This practice will help one to perceive how he or she is getting attached to this mortal world. Gradually and gradually he will start to be indifferent towards worldly and corporeal pleasures. The blessings of the guru and the inner urge of the devotee to understand the infinite will make him understand the inevitable death. If 9ne loves Sri krishna he needs to feel the divine in his heart. More the Purification of inner soul takes place the more you move towards the divine mother.

    Have the only belief that we can not do anything neither can we change our fate but the only thing we can do is to try to feel the divine in all our work …the third eye will automatically be opened.

    Joy Gurudev Yogiraj Shyamacharan Lahiri.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *