Death and reincarnation: Eternity's voyage

Part I: The realm of death

Question: Why is death necessary? Why can't the soul keep on progressing and evolving in the same body?

Right now death helps us in a sense; it allows us to take some rest. Then when we come back, we come back with new hope, new light, new aspiration. But if we had a conscious aspiration, a mounting flame burning within us all the time, then we would see that physical death could easily be conquered. A day will dawn when there will be no necessity for death. But right now we do not have that capacity; we are weak. Spiritual Masters, liberated souls, however, do have mastery over death, but they leave the body when the Divine wants them to.

Question: Is it possible for a man to learn what death is while still living, by actually entering into death?

Question: Guru, would you explain the spiritual significance of this practice or the need for it?

Question: Is death painful?

Then, of course, there is physical pain. At the time of death, even right up to the last moment, if somebody is suffering from a disease and if he cannot throw this disease into something higher or deeper, naturally his last days will be extremely painful. Even the last moment will be very painful because the death-being will come to him in a very destructive form. The death-force, death-being, appears before each individual in a different form according to his soul’s achievement and realisation on earth.

Ordinary people who are not aspiring, people who are absolutely wallowing in the pleasures of ignorance, will feel death as a terrible, ruthless being, a dark and awful figure. Sometimes the death-force has many subordinates which come before the dying person, and people very often see tigers or unimaginably huge beings, and become frightened. But sincere seekers see their spiritual Master or a luminous being, like an angel, taking them in a chariot. These seekers have worked hard on earth for many years and now Mother Earth consciously wants to offer them her blessingful and divine gratitude. Their Inner Pilot or their Guru takes them, but they see the benign Hand of God right in front of them, carrying them in His Golden Boat to the other Shore. Some people see their long-departed relatives at the actual time of death. Their dearest ones come, and it is just like somebody who knows the way taking them to a new world.

Question: Why is it that so many linger in pain for a long time before dying?

Again, I have to say that the law of karma is not simple; it is very, very complicated. Some souls are very pure and spiritual, but still they suffer when they die. Is it because of their past wrong karma? No, it is because they identify with humanity and want to experience for themselves the bitterest kind of suffering. Most of the great spiritual Masters have had very painful deaths. Why? At their own sweet will they could have left their body, but they did not do it. Instead they contracted cancer and other serious diseases, and only after much suffering did they die. In their case, what they were doing was entering into humanity’s suffering and trying to feel how humanity suffers. Unless we enter into the suffering of humanity, everything is theoretical; nothing is practical. But if ordinary people suffer, we see that it is the law of karma, the wheel of karma, that is operating.

Question: Is it possible for a spiritual person who is dying a painful death to transform his pain into joy through meditation?

Question: In one of your meditations from your diary you mentioned that death was an obstruction. I always thought you considered death to be a transition that just enables us to be reborn and make continuous progress.

This life is a golden opportunity given to us by the Supreme. Now opportunity is one thing but achievement is another. Our spiritual evolution, our inner progress is very steady, very slow and at the same time, most significant. Naturally there are people who for hundreds or thousands of incarnations will follow a normal, natural cycle of birth and death. Then one day, in God’s Eternity, they will realise God. But some real, sincere, genuine aspirants make a soulful promise that in this incarnation, here and now, they shall realise God. They say this in spite of knowing that this is not their first life or their last life. But they know that there are people who have realised God and they do not want to wait for some distant future incarnation. They feel that it is useless to live without God-realisation and they want to have it as soon as possible. In such cases, if death comes and they are still unrealised, then death is an obstruction. If somebody who is destined to die at the age of fifty is aspiring soulfully, if he can push his death back, with the kindest approval of the Supreme, for another twenty or thirty years, then during this period what will he be doing? He will be continuing his sincere aspiration, his deepest meditation, his highest contemplation. He will be like a racer running towards his Goal with no obstruction. During these extra twenty or thirty years he may reach the farthest end, where his Goal lies.

But if death interferes, then he does not realise God in this life. In the following incarnation very few souls can immediately take up the thread of their past aspiration. As soon as one enters into the world, the undivine cosmic forces come and attack, and the ignorance, limitations and imperfections of the world try to cover the soul. In the formative years of childhood, one does not remember anything. A child is innocent, ignorant and helpless. Then, after a few years, the mind starts functioning. When one is between eight and twelve years old, the mind complicates everything. So for the first eleven, twelve or thirteen years of the next incarnation almost all souls, despite being very great and spiritual, forget their past achievements and deepest inner cry. Now there are spiritual Masters or great seekers who get a few high experiences in their childhood or who start thinking and singing about God at a very early age, but usually there is no strong connecting link between the soul’s achievement on earth in its previous incarnation and these childhood years in the present incarnation. There is a link, a very subtle link, but this link does not function significantly for the first twelve or thirteen years.

Some souls do not regain the aspiration of their past incarnation until the age of fifty or sixty. From the spiritual point of view, these fifty or sixty years in their following incarnation are absolutely wasted time. So in this incarnation if one loses fifty years, and if in the past incarnation one has lost twenty or thirty years, then it is eighty years wasted. In this case I say that death is a real obstruction. We have to remove that obstruction with our aspiration, our unbroken aspiration. Aspiration should be like a bullet. It should pass through the death wall.

But even though it may take some time, eventually the inner being will come consciously to the fore and the person in his new incarnation will start praying and meditating on God most powerfully and sincerely. At that time he will see that nothing from his past has really been lost. Everything has been saved up in the Mother Earth-consciousness, which is the common bank for everyone. The soul will know how much it has achieved on earth; and all this is kept very safely inside the Earth-consciousness, the earth bank. You deposit money here in the bank. Then you can go to England and after six years or more you can come back and take out your money. The soul does the same thing after having left the earth for ten or twenty years. All the soul’s achievements are kept here intact in Mother Earth. Then Mother Earth gives them back again when the soul returns to work for God on earth.

Question: When we die, what is the best thing to do?

Last year your father died. If you had been physically present what you should have done at that time was to meditate most soulfully. Although your father was not consciously my disciple and had not accepted our path, who knows what he will do in his next incarnation? You know that there is somebody who can help your father while he is dying, so you should have meditated on me. One always knows who can help in any situation. When somebody is sick, one calls the doctor. When somebody is in legal trouble, one gets the help of a lawyer. If you had wanted to help your father, immediately you should have thought of me and meditated on me. If you had tremendous aspiration or spiritual power, you would have given him all your spiritual strength. But your spiritual strength right now is your aspiration, and the source of your aspiration is inside this Master, your Guru. So if you want to help your dearest ones, you have to do it in this way.

Question: Is there any special way we should meditate on a person who is dying?

Question: What should be the attitude of the dear ones when somebody close is dying?

If the Supreme wants to take somebody away from our life, we must accept this. “Let Thy Will be done.” If this is our attitude, then we will have the greatest joy. And this joy does the greatest service to the one who is going to depart. When we totally surrender to the Supreme, this surrender becomes additional strength and power for the departing soul that is suffering here in bondage. So if we really surrender our will to the Will of the Supreme, then this surrender will verily bring peace, an abiding peace, to the soul that is about to leave the earth-scene.

Those who have started meditating and concentrating are getting glimpses of their past incarnations. If we believe we had a past and we know we have a present, then we can also feel that we will have a future. Knowing this, we have to be always conscious of this truth: that there is no death. In the Bhagavad Gita it is said, “As a man discards his old clothes and puts on new ones, so does the soul discard this physical body and take on a new body.” When we know that the person who is going to die is just leaving aside this old body before accepting a new one, and if the person who is dying also has the same knowledge, how can there be any fear?

Question: Guru, I had a young friend who died just six weeks ago, and the day before he died he told his father that he would die the next day, and he did. How could he know?

Question: When a person is sick and, medically speaking, there is no hope of recovery, is it good to tell the person he is going to die and to start helping him get ready for departure?

Question: Can you postpone with your will-power the time of death?

Question: Can you postpone it indefinitely?

Question: Have you ever had to actually fight the death forces to save somebody's life?

Question: I work in a cancer hospital where people frequently die. Sometimes when people are dying I see a quality or a look on their face which is very similar to something that I see in your face. Can you tell me why?

Who these people are, I cannot tell. There are hundreds and thousands who are not my direct disciples. But they knock at the Universal Consciousness, and there receive my Light, my Compassion. That is why you see my face on their face. They see me, and get help from my compassionate inner being. At that time, an illumined part of my being, of my inner existence, goes there to give them some consolation, some little illumination, so that in the soul’s world they can have a better existence and can come back again to aspire. If you look at a dying person and if you see my face, then you will know that this person is a seeker. There is no need for him to be my disciple. But if he has extremely sincere aspiration, because of my Universal Consciousness, I can be there.

Question: Sometimes people burn themselves to death as a protest against war. From the spiritual point of view, what does this accomplish?

Now from a spiritual point of view, suicide does not serve any purpose. The mother has sacrificed herself for her children. By her own physical sacrifice she thought that she would create harmony, but in the vital world there is no escape, no forgiveness for her. To the vital world she will go for her stupidity, and there she will stay. Why did she not have the wisdom to see that the children are not her children, but God’s children? God gave her these children, so why did she not approach God to illumine their consciousness? Why did she not pray to God for their harmony and peace?

Question: Can someone who has committed suicide realise God in a future incarnation?

Question: Your philosophy states that the soul is always making progress, but how do you reconcile that with the fact that when someone commits suicide his soul falls?

Question: What is the difference between cremation and a regular burial?

From the spiritual point of view, we know that the body has come into existence from five elements: earth, water, air, ether and energy. From five elements the physical sheath came into existence, and with the help of fire it will go back into the five elements. With cremation the physical body will dissolve with utmost purification, which here means transformation.

Question: You have spoken about physical death. Could you say something about the kind of death and rebirth that occurs in the spiritual life?

We will build the edifice of Truth on aspiration, not on desires and worries or anxieties and doubts. The past wanted to show us the Truth in one way. But the past was not able to show us the Truth; that is why we are what we are in the present. Whether the present will show us the Truth or not we do not know. But we think we will see the Reality either in the immediate present or in the fast-dawning future, the future that is growing in the immediacy of today.

Question: I was actually thinking more in terms of rebirth. How can I become like a child again and accomplish this spiritual rebirth?

Question: Can you say something about eternity and the eternal life?

We come from the Infinite Life, the Life Divine. This Infinite Life stays on earth for a short span of time, say fifty or sixty years. At that time we have within us the earth-bound life. But inside this earth-bound life is the boundless Life. After a while this Life again passes through the corridor of death for five or ten or fifteen or twenty years. When we enter this corridor, the soul leaves the body for a short or long rest and goes back to the soul’s region. Here, if the person was spiritual, the soul will regain the Eternal Life, the Life Divine which existed before birth, which exists between birth and death, which exists in death and, at the same time, goes beyond death.

Part II: Is death the end?

Is death the end?¹

Death is the road. Life is the traveller. The soul is the guide.

When the traveller is tired and exhausted, the guide instructs the traveller to take either a short or a long rest, and then the traveller’s journey begins again.

In the ordinary life, when an unaspiring man wallows in the mire of ignorance, it is the real victory of death. In the spiritual life, when an aspirant does not cry for a higher light, bliss and power, it is the birth of his death.

What can we learn from the inner life, the life which desires the extinction of death? The inner life tells us that life is soulfully precious, that time is fruitfully precious. Life without the aspiration of time is meaningless. Time without the aspiration of life is useless.

Our mind thinks of death. Our heart thinks of life. Our soul thinks of immortality. Mind and death can be transcended. Heart and life can be expanded. Soul and immortality can be fulfilled.

When the mind and death are transcended, man will have a new home: Light, the Light of the Beyond. When the soul and immortality are fulfilled, man will have a new goal: Delight, the transcendental Delight.

Today man feels that death is an unavoidable necessity. Tomorrow man will feel that immortality is an unmistakable reality.

Unfortunately, most of us cherish wrong conceptions about death. We think death is something unusual, something destructive. But we have to know that right now death is something natural, normal and, to some extent, inevitable. Lord Krishna tells Arjuna: “O Arjuna, certain is death for the born and certain is birth for the dead. Therefore what is inevitable ought not to be a cause for thy sorrow.”

The Chandogya Upanishad tells us something significant: “When the hour of death approaches, what should we do? We should take refuge in three sublime thoughts: we are indestructible; we can never be shaken; we are the very essence of life.” When the hour of death approaches us, if we feel that we can never be destroyed, that nothing can shake us and that we are the very essence of life, then where is sorrow, where is fear, where is death? No death.

Sarada Devi, the consort of Sri Ramakrishna, said something very significant: the difference between a spiritual man and an ordinary man is very simple. Easily you can know the difference between the two. An ordinary man cries and sheds bitter tears when death approaches him; whereas a spiritual man, if he is really spiritual, will laugh and laugh when death approaches, for to him death is fun, nothing else.

Here we have to say that a spiritual man enters into the cosmic game; he becomes a conscious instrument of the cosmic game. That is why he knows that death is not an extinction. It is only a short or long rest.

Again and again we shall have to come back into the world. We have to work for God here on earth. There is no escape. We have to realise the Highest on earth. God will not allow us to waste or squander the potentialities and possibilities of the soul. Impossible.

Kipling’s immortal utterance runs:

> They will come back, come back again,

> He never wasted a leaf or a tree.

Each incarnation is leading us towards a higher life, a better life. We are in the process of evolution. Each incarnation is a rung in the ladder of evolution. Man is progressing consciously and unconsciously. But if he makes progress in each incarnation consciously, then he is expediting his spiritual evolution. Realisation will take place much sooner for him than for those who are making progress unconsciously.

We know that we started our journey from the mineral life and then entered into the plant life. Then we entered into the animal kingdom. From there we have come into the human world. But this is not the end. We have to grow into divine beings. Unless and until we have become divinised and transformed, God will not be satisfied with us. He can manifest in us and through us only when we are totally transformed and fully illumined. So when we think of our evolution — inner evolution and outer evolution — we should get abundant joy. We lose nothing, nothing in so-called death.

Jalalu’d-din Rumi most beautifully and soulfully tells us about evolution:

> A stone I died and rose again a plant,

> I died an animal and was born a man.

What is death after all? Death is a sleeping child. And what is life? Life is a child that is playing, singing and dancing at every moment before the Father. Death is the sleeping child inside the heart of the Inner Pilot. Life is inspiration. Life is aspiration. Life is not the intellectual mind. Life is not a game of frustration. No, life is the message of divinity on earth. Life is God’s conscious channel to fulfil divinity in humanity on earth.

There is much truth in Confucius’ saying: “We do not know life. How can we know death?” But I wish to say that we can know life. If we realise life as God’s embodiment of Truth, Light, Peace and Bliss, then we know what life truly is and recognise death as nothing but a rest — one necessary at the present stage of evolution.

There will come a time when rest will not be necessary at all. Only Life will reign supreme — the Life of the Beyond, the Life of the ever-transcending Beyond. This Life is not and cannot be the sole monopoly of an individual. Each human being has to be flooded with this Life of the ever-transcending Beyond, for it is here in this Life Divine that God will manifest Himself unreservedly — here, here on earth.

Part III: A tale of the Beyond

A tale of the Beyond²

Then they asked, “Why can’t we go there?” I said, “You cannot go there because that place is very, very, very far away, and you need a kind of ticket. Here when you want to go from one place to another you buy a ticket and you go there. For that place there is a special ticket and special money, so when you get these you can go to that place.” Then they asked, “Is he thinking of us?” I said, “He is thinking of you constantly. He is thinking of you and blessing you, and his soul will be helping and guiding you.”

The first day Buddy got his fatal attack, his mother, Karuna, phoned me in the small hours of the morning. I concentrated on him and the moment I did so I found that his death was just minutes away. Then immediately I went into my highest transcendental consciousness and invoked the Supreme and the Supreme’s descending Grace. Later that evening, around six o’clock, the critical period would pass and he would be saved. At that particular hour I saw his soul enter into my room while I was meditating. He said, “Save me, save me.” I said, “You are already saved. The Supreme has saved you.”

You may say, “He was saved at that time, so how is it that now, a month later, he has left the body?” My answer is this: there is a cosmic Plan, and God has the right to change this cosmic Plan according to His own Will. At first Buddy’s soul, with an adamantine will, was fighting to stay on earth, and we identified with his soul. With our prayer, with our concentration, with the force we put on the physical, with our soul’s cry, he did stay on earth. But his soul saw that after he was cured this physical body of his would not be able to fulfil the high mission that he was placing in front of himself. When his soul brought forward this high, higher, highest vision right in front of his nose, at first his body was afraid to embrace the vision and reality. But the soul convinced the body that not with this body, but with another form, another body, he would fulfil himself he would fulfil God and he would fulfil humanity. At 10:15 that morning the Supreme and his soul made the decision that he would leave the body. Immediately afterwards I entered into the occult world and garlanded him with my soul’s concern and blessing and all my love and sweetness. About an hour later his soul actually did fly away from the cage.

Now two or three days earlier his mother felt that Buddy was saying good-bye. She felt it because her body, mind, heart and soul were totally one with her child. The decision took place at exactly 10:15 in the morning, but the mother’s heart saw the truth before the truth even came into existence. Because of her psychic oneness with Buddy, her intuitive feeling made her know even before God made the decision.

If I act like any ordinary human being who does not identify himself with the Supreme’s Will, then from the very depth of my heart I am prepared to say that it was a terrible defeat that Buddy passed away. We lost in the battlefield of life, where each second is an opportunity for the soul to achieve, to materialise, to manifest here on earth. Because I identified with him, I cried and cried from the very depth of my heart. Believe me, I personally can be in my highest and again I can be in my lowest. When I am in the physical, I suffer. The first thing I said was, “It is my defeat, my defeat, because I put so much concentration, so much force on him.” But from the spiritual point of view, this loss, this defeat, was no defeat. When we are identified with the Will of the Supreme, we feel that His Will is All-compassion and All-fulfilment. The moment we all surrendered to the Will of the Supreme, Buddy left the physical. His mother, sister, he and I all entered into the Will of the Supreme and said: “Let Thy Will be done.”

Now why is it that in the beginning we do not surrender to the Will of the Supreme? First of all, in this world we are identified with the physical. We try to possess our dearest one as long as we can. And secondly, we feel that it may be God’s Will that he live in order that his soul may get more inner experiences in the field of manifestation. But our highest Self is always one with the Supreme, and from there we see the eternal Vision and the eternal Reality. When we are one with the Supreme, we feel eternity as our very own. Buddy was on earth for forty-two years, but his spiritual name, Asim, means eternal, boundless, infinite life. It is the infinite life that the soul possesses and cherishes.

When I saw Buddy in the hospital before he died, he said, “Help me get out of the hospital alive.” I told him certainly he would be all right. It was not my false compassion, but my genuine feeling, and that feeling was my vision. God is all love; God is all wisdom. And although God’s decision is ultimate, God can change His Will and make another decision. Later, about three hours after he left the body, he said to me, “I am more alive than ever.”

What is the meaning of “alive” here? To ordinary people, to those who do not believe in God, it is absurd. They will mock me. But those who have entered into the inner life will feel that Buddy is now living in eternal Life. Formerly he was in earth-bound life for forty-two years. In these forty-two years he had many, many experiences. But in comparison to the experiences he is having now in one fleeting second, these earthly experiences are nothing. In one fleeting second he is having thousands and millions of experiences in the inner world, and these experiences are the kind that fulfil us within and without. When Buddy died, the soul of my physical mother came down from the soul’s world and took his soul into the vital world. Then my closest friend, my best admirer, my spiritual brother Jyotish, who passed away three years ago, came and took Buddy into a very high world to rest. I went there to see him. He is very happy. I sat beside him and what did he say? He said his physical body was junk. “Did you want me to stay with that body?” And what was I to tell him? “Junk!” he said. That was his word. He wanted me to stay with him for a while and he made me sit. Then we had all kinds of divine jokes, and he told me quite a few secrets, which I have told to the members of his family. I can say a few things about his concern for his dear ones, but the deepest secrets I cannot tell. He said the children must eat more for the next three months. Then last night he came to me and said, “Oh, tell my mother and sister that from now on I shall not only be inside them, but also for them, for them, for them.”

Yesterday his niece, Holly, asked me, “In Heaven, do they eat food?” I told her, “Certainly they do.” Now I am sure all of you know that here on earth we eat. Also in Heaven, in the vital world, we eat. The food is different from ours. It is like tiny particles of sugar, which have a very grey colour. About seventeen years ago, one of my sisters, who was very fond of me, died. The first time I entered into that vital world she gave me that food. I said, “I cannot eat it. It is all bone; I don’t want to eat bone.” She laughed and laughed, and made me eat. Just last night I was given this food by Buddy, and beside him were my mother and my friend and a few friends of his. We were all sitting, dining. So those who believe in the inner life, the spiritual life, will immediately believe that this inner world is also a world of reality. There we talk, we eat, we do everything.

Later the children asked, “How can we talk to him?” I answered, “Here on earth, no matter how far away we are from someone, we can talk to him on the telephone. Similarly, there is another kind of telephone to speak to people in Heaven.” This other telephone is the capacity of the soul’s oneness. All of us — not only in the land of dreams or the world of spirit, but also in this world of reality — can enter into our departed ones while meditating. But unfortunately we do not do this. We live in the physical and do not go beyond the boundaries of the physical. That is why we do not feel our dearest ones after they depart. But if we go deep into our meditation, we will be able to see them concretely, right in front of our eyes.

Right now Buddy’s soul is in the world of the moon, considered to be one of the highest realms in the spiritual world. There are many, many worlds, but this world of the moon is full of purest joy, delight and tranquility. Soon Buddy will be with us again. In a few years we will see him in a different body, and I will be able to tell you that Buddy’s soul has reincarnated in a different form. I told him that his mother, sister, brother, father and all of his dear ones want to see him. He said, “See me? They will get me.” So they will get him in a different form, in a different body.

Part IV: Death and life: two inseparable brothers

Death

Nothing natural can be detrimental.

Rest is strength in disguise for a further adventure.

At the present stage of human evolution, to conquer Death may be an impossibility.

Death is normally the sign that the soul, under the particular circumstances, has exhausted the possibilities of its progress in a particular body.

When the strength of possibility loses to the strength of impossibility, it is called Death.

A useless life is a cordial invitation to Death.

Death is the hyphen between man’s growing fear and his shrinking life-energies.

He who prefers Death to Life has only to climb up the Tree.

When Death approaches a man, his psychic being says to Death, “Death, just wait, let me see what I wish to work out in the next birth.”

Sorry, you are asking a favour from the wrong person.

Death says that it is immortal.

But the truth of the matter is that we shine perpetually upon your very breast.

Life

Life is love.

Life fulfils God through love.

```

Aspiration opens it.

Aspiration opens the door from within.

Life has an inner lamp.

And when we keep our aspiration burning, it will, without fail, transmit to God’s entire creation its effulgent glow.

Life has an inner Voice.

Life is protection, life is perfection, life is fulfilment when we open to this Light of the Supreme.

God is in Life.

Each day is the renewal of life.

The outgoing life finds nothing but trouble, torture, misery and frustration.

To illumine our life we need pure thoughts.

How to start life’s inner journey?

Where to start?

When to start?

Life is always at work.

It tries to help the soul to complete its yet unaccomplished task, the divine Mission.

Life needs the soul’s help to fulfil itself both physically and spiritually.

Brooding and despondency are the worst foes to kill Life in all its divine inspiration.

Your life shall become the beauty of a rose, the song of the dawn, the dance of the twilight.

Birth and death play.

Their game is the game of harmony.

Part V: Life after death: the higher and lower worlds

Question: Do the circumstances under which a person dies determine where he goes after he leaves the body?

Question: I have heard that seeing the relatives' and friends' tears gives great joy to the soul when parting from this life. Is this true?

The second type of person has been nice, sweet and extremely helpful to the members of his family, and when he is about to die he feels that there should be a bond of affection and attachment which lasts forever. This kind of person does not want to leave the earth-scene. He feels that it is attachment alone that can maintain the connection between this world and the other world, so he tries to draw the utmost affection and sympathy and concern from his dear and near ones. If he sees that his dear and near ones are not showing any sympathy or sorrow for his loss, or are not crying bitterly, then he gets a tremendous pang in his inner existence. He feels: “Here I want to establish something permanently, and I am not getting any help or cooperation from the members of my family.” But it is not the so-called human love, it is not human attachment, that can create an eternal divine bond between the departed soul and the souls that are in the land of the living. The love that binds human beings can never last; it is just like a rope of sand. It is only the divine love that can transcend all barriers.

Then we come to great souls, that is to say, spiritual Masters. When a Master leaves the body and sees that his disciples are crying bitterly over their loss, the Master feels sorry because the disciples do not recognise him fully as a spiritual Master. A spiritual person, one who has realised God, lives on all planes; his consciousness pervades all the worlds. So if his disciples cry bitterly for him, feeling that they will see him no more, then they are putting their Master in the same category as an ordinary person. It is like an insult. The Master knows that he will appear before the disciples who are sincerely praying to him or who are meditating and aspiring sincerely. He knows that he will be all the time guiding, shaping and moulding them. He knows that he will be able to enter into them, and they will be able to enter into him. So naturally he feels sad if his disciples take the attitude: “Now the Master is gone and we will never hear him again. Our prayers to him will be in vain, so it is useless to pray. Let us go to some other Master or let us try to find another means to make spiritual progress.” So spiritual Masters feel sorry when their dearest ones cry or shed bitter tears for them, whereas ordinary people get joy from this.

Question: Why do people keep the body for a few hours or even for a few days after the soul has departed?

Question: Even if a seeker hasn't realised God while on earth, will his soul see God or realise God after it leaves the body?

Question: Guru, will we see you at the time when we leave the body?

Question: Will we see you after _you_ leave the body?

Question: Will everyone see you in the inner world after death?

Question: A friend of mine, a lady who was very spiritual, passed away recently. Will her friends come to meet her in a beautiful Heaven?

I would like to tell you about my own mother, who happened to be a very, very spiritual woman. When my mother was leaving the body, a very close relative of mine saw in a dream that my mother’s friends were coming in a golden chariot to receive her. When my father died, one of my uncles, who was away in the city, saw another uncle of mine and a few other people coming to take my father in a golden boat. There were many to receive my father and mother because both they, and many of their friends and relatives, were very spiritual.

In the case of almost all religious and spiritual people, the relatives do come. It is easier for spiritual people to come, because they have almost a free access to this world. When ordinary people, who are not spiritual and aspiring, leave the body, they do not go immediately to God. They stay in the vital world and suffer a great deal. When one disciple’s father died, he went to the vital world where he was not treated well. He was having quite a few problems there until one of the vital beings asked him if he had known any religious or spiritual people in his life. He said, “Yes, I know my daughter’s friend,” — who happened to be me. When my name was said, immediately the vital beings knew whom he was connected with, so he was released immediately. He was then able to leave the vital world, the world of torture, and go to a very good higher world.

Question: Will the soul be able to have some kinds of experiences in the worlds it goes to after it leaves the body?

Question: When the soul leaves the body after death, you said it enters into the vital sphere. What is the vital sphere?

Question: What is it like in the vital world?

Question: Is hell really a place in the vital worlds, or is it just a state of consciousness?

Part VI: Reincarnation: the great pilgrimage

Question: What is the purpose of reincarnation?

Now our dearest is God. Do you think that God will allow us to remain unfulfilled? No! God’s very purpose is to fulfil each individual and Himself through us. He will have us come back again and again to fulfil our desires. If someone is eager to become a millionaire in this incarnation, and at the end of his journey he sees that he has not become a millionaire, then if his desire is really intense, he will have to keep coming back until he really becomes a millionaire. But by becoming a millionaire, he will see that he still remains a beggar in one sense, for he will have no peace of mind. But if he enters into the world of aspiration, he may have no money, but he will have peace of mind, and this is the real wealth.

If we go through desire, we see that there is an endless procession of desires. But if we go through aspiration, we see the whole, we enter into the whole and eventually we become the whole. We know that if we can realise God, inside God we will find everything, for everything exists inside God. So eventually we leave the world of desire and enter into the world of aspiration. There we diminish our desires and think more of Peace, Bliss, divine Love. In order to get a little Peace, a drop of nectar, it may take years and years. But a spiritual person is ready to wait indefinitely for God’s Hour to fulfil his aspiration. And his aspiration to achieve this Peace, Light and Bliss will not go in vain.

Now if our aim is to enter into the Highest, the Infinite, the Eternal, the Immortal, then naturally one short span of life is not enough. But again, God will not allow us to remain unfulfilled. In our next incarnation we will continue our journey. We are eternal travellers. We have to continue, continue until we reach our Goal. Perfection is the aim of each aspirant. We are trying to perfect ourselves in an imperfect world. And this perfect perfection we can never have in one life.

It is through aspiration and evolution that the soul develops the full possibility of realising the Highest and fulfilling the Divine. First the physical, the human in us, has to aspire to become one with the Divine in us — the soul. Right now the body does not listen to the dictates of the soul; that is to say, the physical mind revolts. The workings of the physical mind cover up the soul’s divine purpose, and the soul cannot come to the fore. At the present stage of evolution, most people are unconscious and do not know what the soul wants or needs. They have desires, anxiety over success, intensity and excitement. All these stem from the vital or ego, whereas anything done with the soul’s consciousness is always all joy. At times we may hear the dictates of the soul, or the message of our conscience, but still we do not do or say the right thing. No, the physical mind is weak; we are weak. If we start aspiring, however, with the mind, and then go beyond the mind to the soul, we can easily hear and also obey the dictates of the soul.

A day will come when the soul is in a position to exercise its divine qualities and make the body, mind and heart feel that they need their self-discovery. The physical and the vital will consciously want to listen to the soul and be instructed and guided by the soul. Then, here in the physical, we will have an immortalised nature, an immortal life, for our soul will have become totally and inseparably one with the Divine on earth. At that time we will have to offer our inner wealth to the world at large and manifest our soul’s potentialities.

Question: Will the whole world eventually become a better place as a result of the evolution that takes place through reincarnation?

Question: How can a spiritual Master like yourself convince others who do not believe in reincarnation that it is really true?

One of my most devoted disciples one day asked me about his past incarnation. I told him that in his past incarnation he was a boatman in Japan. I told him he could go deep within to see it. I had not even completed my sentence when he himself saw that he was a boatman. But for those who are arrogant, for those who will not believe, and there are people who will not believe when you speak about reincarnation, we have to see if it is worthwhile to convince them about the past. For if they are satisfied with their own notion that there is no reincarnation, then let them be satisfied. After all, who is the loser?

Question: If somebody lives a good life and reaches Nirvana, does this mean he will not reincarnate again?

Nirvana is the path of negation. Those who follow the path of Nirvana want to remain in ultimate Bliss, or you can call it extinction. But we should not use the term “extinction”; it is the ultimate Bliss. These people do not want to reincarnate. When they enter into Nirvana, there the journey ends for them. The soul feels that it will not walk or run further. It does not want to involve itself with earthly activities. Nobody can compel the soul to reincarnate except the Supreme. But although the Supreme has the power to compel the soul, He does not do it. The Supreme does not compel anybody to do anything.

Question: Can the soul reincarnate in other worlds after death?

Question: Does the soul always need physical parents to reincarnate?

Question: I have read that when the soul takes incarnation in the world it is like entering a battlefield. Is this true?

Question: When the soul reincarnates in a new body, what happens to the spiritual heart? Does it also go from one lifetime to another like the soul does?

Question: When a child incarnates into a family, is it possible that the child's soul is less highly evolved than the parents' souls?

Question: Does the soul have any choice as to the environment that it will come back to when it reincarnates, and the body that it will take?

Question: Can you help me to leave the body as soon as possible, and help me to reincarnate in a place that is high and very cold, with plenty of fog and snow?

Tagore, our greatest poet, used to write six or eight poems daily. He once thought that if he could retire to a solitary place he could write much better poetry. So he left his house and confined himself to a solitary place in the mountains. While there, he was not able to write a single piece of poetry. He discovered that it is not the environment that is most important, but the inner inspiration.

God has chosen the conditions under which you are living your present life. It is like a play. The stage is set and the curtain has been raised for you to perform your part and advance in the spiritual path. Your present conditions are the best possible ones for your advancement. Now you want to leave the body and enter into a new body in a future incarnation so you can have an environment that you think will suit you best. But this kind of life would be worse than your present one because it is chosen by you, whereas your present life was chosen by God.

Question: Is all suffering the result of bad karma, either from this life or from a past life?

Many times we do wrong things and we get the results sooner or later. But again, there are times when we suffer because of the cosmic forces. Sometimes sincere, very devoted parents have children who are absolutely unspiritual, undivine and worthless. Now you will say that perhaps in their past incarnation the parents were also unspiritual and did many wrong things. In some cases the parents were bad in their previous lives, but in other cases this may not be true. Sometimes sincere seekers are affected by hostile, animal-like forces that are operating in the world. When these undivine, hostile forces that are hovering around behave like mad elephants or enter into a person, then the person suffers. It is like this: around us are animals fighting, quarrelling and destroying each other. A mad elephant, no matter how nice and sincere you are, will simply destroy you. You never know when these animals are moving around. So when a sincere seeker suffers, we cannot immediately come to the conclusion that in his past incarnation he did something wrong.

Question: Could you please explain how the law of karma affects us in this life and our next life?

In the case of an ordinary, unaspiring person, karmic dispensation is unavoidable, inevitable. The law of karma is always binding; like a snake it will coil around him. He has to pay the toll, the tax; the law of karma is merciless. But again, there is something called Divine Grace. I was ignorant and I did a few things wrong. But if I shed bitter tears and cry for forgiveness, then naturally God’s Compassion will dawn on me. When a person enters into the spiritual life, his karma can easily be nullified if it is the Will of God operating through a spiritual Master. Slowly God’s infinite Grace can nullify the results of his bad karma and expedite the results of his good karma. If a seeker not only wants the spiritual life but also sincerely practises the spiritual life every day, then he can stand above the law of karma, for God is bound to shower His boundless Grace on the devoted head and heart of the aspirant. Of course, I cannot go on doing some undivine thing and feel that God will always forgive me. No. But if God sees a soulful cry looming large from within, if He sees that I am sincere and aspiring and want to be free from the meshes of ignorance, He will not only forgive me but He will also give me the necessary strength not to make the same mistake again.

Question: If a disciple does not realise God while his Guru is in the body, how would the Guru be able to help the disciple in that person's next incarnation if there were no other living Guru through whom he could work?

How can a spiritual Master help his disciples if they do not go to some other Guru? He can do it through his conscious will, his soul’s will. I am here on earth, and although I am not in England or Puerto Rico, through my conscious will, early in the morning after 2 am I concentrate on all those who are my disciples there. To concentrate for a fleeting second is enough, but I use more than that to know what the soul is doing, and how far the soul has gone. So even while remaining in the physical, which is real bondage, a spiritual Master can help his disciples in different parts of the world. Then when he leaves the body, he is totally free. From the other shore the spiritual Master works through the soul’s Light or Willpower. The soul’s Light can be offered from any plane of consciousness, from the highest plane right down to the earth plane. So from the higher worlds the Master can easily connect with the disciple’s aspiring soul, and the disciple can respond to the Master’s Light. It is in this way that the Master can and does and must help the disciple.

When a Master accepts someone as a real disciple, a true disciple, he makes a promise to God, the Supreme, and to the soul of the individual seeker that he will be eternally responsible for that soul. But there are many, many who will come to our path — hundreds of thousands. They may stay with us for ten, twenty, thirty or even forty years, but never really accept us. When a Master leaves the body, he is not responsible for these so-called disciples. The Master will leave them to their own fate.

Now some may say, “How is it that we have been coming to the Centre and you have not accepted us as true disciples?” The simple reason is that they have not accepted me wholeheartedly. Only someone who has really accepted our path can be considered a real disciple. Acceptance has to be mutual; nobody can force it. Human parents force, but spiritual parents cannot.

Outwardly I have not personally told all those who are my real disciples, but inwardly I have told them, and they can rest assured that when I leave the body they will not be lost. They will never be lost, neither in this incarnation nor in their future incarnations. The real disciples — those who have taken me as their own and whom I have taken as my very own — are going to be fulfilled and realised in this incarnation or in their next incarnation or in a very few incarnations. Some disciples may take twenty incarnations or more because of their very poor start. Some who have come to me in their first or second human incarnation may take hundreds of incarnations. The first or second human incarnation is a half-animal incarnation. The animal is still there as the predominating factor, so how can they achieve God-realisation? Even in the New York Centre there are many disciples who have had only six or seven human incarnations.

Question: How will you keep contact with us after you leave the body?

I said, “Look here, I am using my telephone. Now I am going to bring a message from you to your mother. Then I will get a message from her and it will come to you directly as the answer. I will ask your mother a question on your behalf, but the answer you will get.” I asked three questions. The answers came and he received them, and he was deeply moved. First I sent his soul and then my soul to his mother’s soul. Then they had a conversation and from there he got the messages.

Now when Jyotish was about twenty-five years old, five ladies fell in love with him, but he never married any of them.

Because of their previous karma, they all died together in a boat accident. He was in Burma at the time of the accident. So these five ladies were also in the soul’s world with his mother.

When I told him that I would bring a message from his girlfriends too, he said, “How will you know who they are if I don’t tell you their names?” I said to him, “I will enter through your soul and I will bring you their names. Now in silence you repeat the names of the girls. From each I will ask a question and you will get the answer.” He was so clever; he thought he would trick me. For three he thought of the real names, but for the other two he thought of totally false names. I was about to say these false names when immediately his soul stood in front of me and told me the truth. His soul protected me. I said, “Oh, you are trying to deceive me with these last two names!” and he fell flat at my feet.

Then the ashram gossip started. From where to where we descended on that day! The next day Jyotish told a close mutual friend about this experience and asked, “Do you believe it?” The friend said, “Perhaps you were drunk. He is always drunk. Only drunkards can do this kind of thing! By knowing about your friends, what benefit do you get?” Inwardly the friend believed it, but outwardly he pretended not to.

Question: If one is a spiritual person, will his next incarnation be different from that of an ordinary person?

Question: You said before that each incarnation is a stepping-stone towards our God-realisation. Does that mean that we can't reach God in this life?

Question: If a seeker dies, do all his responsibilities and work cease in the period between his death and his rebirth? Or is he able to work consciously, or in some way continue the work that he started, before he comes back to earth?

Question: Is the length of time the soul remains in the soul's world between incarnations determined by the aspiration of the previous incarnation? If it is an elevated soul, will it incarnate sooner?

Some souls reincarnate almost immediately, without even going to the soul’s region. Suppose somebody dies prematurely in an accident. At that time his soul may go only up to the vital sheath and from there, if a spiritual figure or the Divine Grace intervenes, in seven or eight months it will take incarnation in a new family.

Question: If someone is gifted in one area, does this mean that his soul was originally given this potentiality, or did he try to achieve this for many lives and then finally achieve it?

Question: Sometimes my cousin and I meditate by looking into each other's eyes, and when we do sometimes we see one another's faces change and even the hair turns a different colour. I was wondering what this means.

Question: Does it help you to know what kind of animal you were in your past incarnations, or what kind of person you were?

Now suppose we know that we were a deer in our last animal incarnation. The only advantage is that we can think of our speed and say: “In the animal incarnation I ran so fast, and at that time I did not have the advanced soul which I now have. In this incarnation let me run even faster!” As soon as we remember that we ran fast in a previous incarnation, we feel inspired to run fast in this incarnation. If we know our past incarnation, then we can utilise it positively; at that time inspiration comes forward very quickly. If somebody knows that he was a seeker, then he gets a little joy and confidence. “I started my journey in my past incarnation, but it was a very long and arduous road. In this incarnation I am still walking along the same path, but I don’t have as far to go this time. Also, it is easier because I have a little help. I have the capacity. I have the willingness. I have the experience. With a spiritual Master guiding me, I shall easily reach my goal.”

But only on very rare occasions do we utilise the knowledge of our past incarnations properly. Most of the time it does not give us any encouragement at all. If we know that in our past incarnation we were a thief or something undivine, will this give us any inspiration or aspiration? No! Immediately we will think: “Oh, I was a thief and in this incarnation I am trying to become a saint. Impossible! It is hopeless to try to become spiritual in this life.” Even in this incarnation if we do a few things wrong it takes us a long time to come out of despair. We think: “I was so bad. I did this. I did that. Now how am I going to become pure? How am I going to realise God?” Even if we did something wrong four years ago it may still bother us.

On the other hand, suppose we know that in our past incarnation we were someone very great and in this incarnation we see that we are nothing. Then we will feel miserable. We will curse God and we will curse ourselves. We will say: “If I was so great, how is it that in this incarnation I am so useless? What unthinkable thing have I done to deserve this fate? God is harsh; He does not care for me.” But we misunderstand God. God wants to have a different experience through us in this incarnation, and we think that God is just being unkind.

An aspirant wants inner joy, the joy that fulfils him and fulfils God. This he will never get from his past incarnations. If he enters into some past incarnation and sees that he was the President of the United States, still he will get no satisfaction. He will see that as President his life was full of misery, frustration and all kinds of suffering. For real joy, an aspirant has to go forward in the spiritual life with his own aspiration and inner cry, with his own concentration and meditation.

The best thing for us is not to think of the past. Our Goal is not behind us; it is ahead of us. Our direction is forward, not backward. For a spiritual person I always say: “Past is dust.” I say this because the past has not given us what we want. What we want is God-realisation. Knowing our previous incarnations does not help our God-realisation. God-realisation depends entirely on our inner cry. The important thing is not the past, but the present. We must say: “I have no past. I am beginning here and now with God’s Grace and my own aspiration. Now let me start to run. How far I have run in the past is immaterial. Let me think only of how far I am going to run in this life.”

Right now we have to see the past as something totally different from the present, and the present as something totally different from the future. Once we realise God, at that time the past, present and future become all one. They form a circle, which is our own inner being, our entire life. At that time we can easily see back to our previous incarnations and know what we were.

If you want to know about your past incarnations, certainly God will give you the capacity. But the most important thing is not past incarnations or future incarnations, but what you want here and now. You want God, and if you meditate soulfully, God is bound to grant you that boon. You will possess Him and you will claim Him as your very own.

Question: If a person is a very advanced seeker and develops the ability to see his past incarnations, will this actually hinder his progress? In other words, is it always harmful if you discover you were a thief or something in the past?

Question: If a man dies and he is very fond of a dog or other animal, and if he has compassion for that animal, will this cause him to reincarnate as an animal? I understand that in India while a great sage was meditating in the woods something happened to a small lamb. He took care of it and became very fond of it and, as a result, in his next incarnation he was a lamb.

Question: Can the soul of a person take an animal form in its next incarnation after it has been a human being in this incarnation?

If a person has just entered into the human life, if it is his first or second incarnation as a human being, and if his propensity towards the animal life is still very strong, that is to say, if his impure desires were not fulfilled in his past incarnations in the animal life itself, then that human being may go back to the animal life. What happens is that the time comes when a part of his animal life becomes fully awakened and wants to enter into the human life. But there is some part of him which is not fully prepared for the human life. Still, the soul comes to the human life in spite of being imperfect, in spite of not being fully prepared for it, and then is later compelled to return to the animal life because the unillumined part in him has not been transformed and has most powerful animal tendencies and desires.

Another reason is that when the lower vital — the unsatisfied, unfulfilled vital — of an ordinary human being is causing him unbearable suffering and pain, if he feels that in the animal kingdom there is more opportunity to enjoy the lowest vital, the gross physical enjoyment, then that particular soul enters into the animal kingdom for a few months so that it can have the grossest enjoyment very freely. It is not for a year or two, but only for a very short period. When the enjoyment is over, when the necessary experience is over, the soul enters into the human world again.