“I am making glad preparations for Her coming: I sing with laughter! All my thoughts have been clothed in new robes. I have asked my feelings to sing a reverent, celestial hymn. And I have roused all the residents in my villa of inspiration to celebrate this coming, gala day in honor of my entry into the infinite kingdom as a proclaimed son of the King of Peace. I have asked my sentries of will power and determination to banish every gloomy, carping inhabitant from my kingdom, and to slay on sight the devils of fear, pain, sorrow, and attachment. My celebration of entry into my bliss kingdom must be attended only by laughter and gay music. No pale timidity or dark sorrow will be permitted to join my festivity. All subjects of my mortal kingdom are called, today, to a festivity of unleashed though watchful merriment. They are all waiting with me to welcome that divine messenger, Death, when he comes to unlatch this door of finitude and release them into the free kingdom of Infinity.
“All the inmates of my consciousness rejoice to leave their mortal prison, where they have been so long lashed with worries, thrown into a solitary confinement of fear, and submitted to constant beatings by accident, failure, disease, and unhappiness. The inmates of my mental dungeon are glad to dump these brittle bones and throw the whole bag of flesh into the fire of divine joy. Oh, see: The bird of paradise is preening its wings to soar high into the skies of blissful omnipresence! The inmates of my mental kingdom are all waiting, quivering with joy, as the slow hours pass before we can all welcome our sweet savior, Death, to lead us into his kingdom by God’s sovereign command.
“Oh, dear ones,” continued the youth, “rejoice in my joy on this, my eve of freedom from this prison. I go before you. For me, now, no breaking bones, no accidents, no fear of failure, disappointment, or opposition! No more harassment by others’ demands or expectations of me, no thought of bills to pay for the mere ‘privilege’ of maintaining this now‐useless body!
In his laughter he had often heard the echo of God’s merriment. This laughing youth of many charms lay dying in a hut, yet the blast of illness could not wither his smiles. The doctors came and told him dolefully, “Only a day, just one day we give you to live.”
The dear ones of his family cried aloud, “Leave us not, dear that you are to our souls. Our hearts are bursting for thee in thy plight.”
The youth’s smile grew brighter, and he spoke joyously yet with compassion, in a voice of song, “Ah, just a day, yes! Only a day between me and my long‐lost Beloved. Oh, how slowly pass these intervening hours! When they finish, my Beloved will open the prison gates of this life and embrace me in Her infinite arms. The prison walls of this existence will crumble, and my released life will soar beyond these mortal shores toward my immaculate kingdom of beautiful dreams, where no nightmare of illness will ever dare to cross the threshold of my peace.
“I am the sea billow; in the vast sea will I find freedom. I am a mote of dust in the light; I will now fly through space with the stars. I am a drop of ambrosia; I will become a vast sea of nectar. I am a river of moonlight; I will melt in iridescence. My nightmare of imprisoning desires has ended; my dreams of grief are over as the light of laughter awakens in my soul. The candle of many lives, flickering with earthliness, has been extinguished forever by the gust of Her love, its little light disappearing into the divine light that plays over splendors of eternity. The shadows of imaginary fears have all vanished before the infinite light as it spreads out into all the dark nooks of my consciousness.
No greed for possessions will ever again gnaw like mice at my soul. No discourtesies, naggings, quarrels, pain, or disease will ever dare to crowd noisily at the doors of my senses, which now will be locked shut! I will be ‘not at home,’ for I’ll be roaming with my Beloved on fair mountains and meadows of cosmic freedom. Pray, wish me not back in your prison to chant dolefully with you in your chorus of sorrow and pain. If I am needed, however, I will gladly come back a million times, wearing my robes of immortality, to free you from your mortal prison and bring you to my home of infinite bliss.
“I am free! Soon I will be released! But I will also be sad to look back and see you locked behind those prison bars of mortal life, locked up in your uncertainties, fears, and almost daily anguish.
“’Tis less than a day now, the doctors tell me. Very soon I shall be on my cosmic way. No music can be sweeter than the song I’ll sing, every moment through eternity. Less than a day now! Less than a day before my Beloved comes in the dazzling chariot of Death to take me away to the kingdom of deathless happiness, where I will live in my palace of bliss‐dreams far, far away.
You weep for me dark tears, sorrowing at your impending loss in me, but I weep for you glad, joyous tears, for I am going before you—yes, for your own welfare’s sake also—to light candles of wisdom all the way. I shall wait for you there, to welcome you to my place of eternal freedom with my one and only Beloved, and yours.”
