March 07, 2014: At the time of death a whole storehouse of impressions and desires is churned out and the most cherished and deep-rooted desire comes to the mind’s surface.  This cherished desire occupies the dying man’s mind for immediate gratification. If the desire is not gratified, his mind gets permeated with it and it is said to be reborn and seeks gratification in the next birth. The desire will manifest prominently in his next birth. The last thought thus determines the nature or character of the body to be attained next. The Gita says, “Whatever thoughts predominate at the time of death as a result of the way you have lived your life, those thoughts determine your after-death state....”..

 According to Paramhansa Yogananda, it would be futile to depend upon death to liberate you from your imperfections. You are exactly the same after death as you were before. Nothing in fact changes; you only discard your body. If you were a trickster or liar before death, you don’t become a saint merely by dying. Whatever you have made of yourself thus far, so will you be hereafter. And when you reincarnate, you will carry the same traits with you. To bring about a change in your character, huge effort is required.

 The question that arises is: What type of effort should one make to ensure that thoughts of the Divine occupy our mind in our last moments so that we are   able to depart peacefully from the world?

 To begin with, Yogananda suggests that the seeker should adopt an attitude of  dispassion  by constantlyremaining aware of the transitory nature of life and the fact that the great sleep of death can take him away any moment from the world. Then, through regular meditation, the seeker should endeavour to rise above the delusion of body-consciousness in order that he is prepared mentally to depart from this world  with an unruffled mind.

 In meditation the seeker does consciously what he does unconsciously every night in deep sleep.  Every night you lose awareness of your physical existence and the world, with its concomitant pains and tribulations, as these get obliterated from the screen of your consciousness. This points to the fact that you are not a mere body of flesh and bones. And what is unconsciously experienced  in the state of deep sleep, can also be experienced consciously in mediation by reconnecting our identity with our true Self, the inner Witness that both sustains and transcends the three lower states of consciousness.

 The more you meditate, the more you will realise that there is something divine behind the kingdom of ordinary consciousness where supreme peace and happiness reign. By the practice of ever deeper meditation, the seeker can gain access to the supra-causal state of consciousness where he loses his separate entity and his ego gets dissolved in Pure Consciousness.

 Paramhansa Yogananda calls this state as ‘dying to the world without dying’-- a state where no duality of consciousness is experienced and all painful experiences of life and death give way to the bliss of eternal consciousness. A conspicuous feature of this state is that even while performing his worldly activities, the seeker continues to remain established in the super-conscious state of inner realisation.

 Yogananda would say:  “Never go to bed   without   making the effort to meditate. What of it if you lose a little sleep? But it would be worthwhile if you can reach the deathless state before the Grim Reaper catches you”.