Unconditional Love: Lessons from a Near Death Experience

Nayaswami Krishnadas shares this inspiring personal story during his Sunday Service talk at Ananda Village, March 20th 2022. You can find the complete talk here. Feeling very blessed to have an experience of near death, Krishnadas shares that a light was brilliant and beautiful, that there was unconditional love, no judgment.

Transcript

Nayaswami Krishnadas:

And, I remember... I was very blessed to have this experience of a near death experience. And I wanted to share with you: I fell back and hit my head very hard. And it sent me into this tunnel, right? And so I remember, when I first entered the tunnel, there was... there was a feeling that my father was present, who died at an early age and when I was fourteen, and a friend of mine that also I—I love this little boy—he was like my little brother. And he got run over by a car. And I missed him very much. And he was there, as well. I remember feeling their consciousness.

But as I entered this tunnel, I could see at the end of the tunnel: there was a very brilliant, bright, beautiful white light. And it was so bright and so beautiful that I wanted to go into that light. There was no resistance... only that I was feeling resistant or hesitant because I felt shame, I felt guilt, about...because I remember the experience very vividly to this day—it happened when I had first gotten into yoga.

Changing Consciousness

And I had been into yoga for about six months and was shedding off many of the vices and lots of things that were no longer needed or useful. And so I had a very deep and profound change in my consciousness and my life. But this came right after that.

And, like I said, the light was so brilliant and so beautiful. And as I wanted to go into it, I was hesitant, because of this: thoughts of shame and guilt. And I kept thinking, "Forgive me; forgive me," you know? because this light was so revealing. And the rays were, like, streaming towards me and, like, going through me.

And I have to say: There was a being at the heart of this light—a male... with more of a "he" consciousness. So, as I was having these thoughts, from the light came this very strong message transmitted kind of into my consciousness. It said, "There's nothing to forgive: you were never judged."

Unconditional Love

And that was so beautiful. It wasn't just the words, but imbued in those words was unconditional love... unconditional love—the Father, the Mother, our true parents, the Light, the Love. There's no judgment; doesn't matter what we've done. That's our baggage. And that baggage: why it's bad or wrong is because it separates us from the Light, from the Love. It separates us from feeling our true identity as a child of God, as a child of the Light.

So, having felt that unconditional love, the resistance evaporated in an instant, and I just wanted to go into the light. So I was streaming down this tunnel. And while I'm going into this... into the light, I remembered this third salient point—the brilliant, bright, beautiful light that Master said is an otherworldly light. It's brighter than a thousand million suns. That's why it's so beautiful... and the unconditional love.

Mysteries of the Universe

But the third one was: I was kind of like, in today's verbiage, downloaded; I was being downloaded all the mysteries of the universe. It's like I'm going into this into the light and I'm thinking, "Oh, yes! yes! of course!" You know, and it wasn't [that] I was asking, "What came first: the chicken or the egg?" I wasn't asking these things. I wasn't asking really anything.

But it was this... this direct transmission of information, that was just, like, removing all doubt of anything. It was... it was... it was wonderful, but it wasn't like when I came back, I could, you know, MC equals whatever. Like, I couldn't, like, start spouting off all of these: the answers or the mysteries. I think it was an intuitive connection: that what I came away with was the truth of that we are, you know, children of God.

And I came out of that, so... with such a beautiful feeling. It wasn't my time to go, obviously. And I didn't sleep for three days; I didn't eat. I was just like... I felt like I was big as this temple. I didn't need any... material, you know... sustenance: I was just full!

And that evening, I was sitting there in—this was in Ohio and, and at this ranch. I was out there was a big cornfield... I was just sitting that evening out there in this cornfield, just looking up at this, this planet—because it was so bright, it had to be a planet. And there wasn't a lot of stars shining in Ohio at that time... at that time of year. But I was just looking up at it and thinking how beautiful it was, you know: everything was beautiful at that time, following that experience.

Kriya Yoga as Key

And this voice came into my head, unmistakably, just as vivid and clear as I'm talking to you now. And it was the Father again. And He said, "Why do you continue to live the way you do? I've given you yoga. I've given you the key to life." That got my attention.

Whether you've had one of those or not, it's still the same for each and every one of us, isn't it? You know, we're all children of God, children of the light. And we were all called, unmistakably (or you wouldn't be sitting here), by Master. And you were ready. And now he's given you the key to life, he's given you yoga—kriya yoga—and it's just a few more ticks on the clock and we are free... and we're out of here. We need to live in that consciousness now, don't we?