Near Death Experiences

July 31, 2013

Bad Anogast, Germany

Where is the Jeeva and the Atma before birth? What is the difference between Jeeva andAtma? How is a Jeeva born, and where does it come from?

Sri Sri: Both are same. Life comes into the body at the time of conception, and sometimes at the time of birth also. The soul enters the body at the time of conception or the time of birth. Sometimes one soul stays up to birth and another soul comes at birth. Usually, it is the same soul that stays throughout.

It is one of the 5 secrets. The secret of death, the secret of birth, and the royal secret. These are some of the 5 secrets. I’ve spoken about it in the knowledge books. Just read those books.

I know many of you have not read the seven volumes of An Intimate Note To The Sincere Seeker. Read these seven volumes. For seven years, every week I used to give one knowledge sheet. It was on Wednesdays, we used to sit and write something new. And it was all compiled as An Intimate Note To The Sincere Seeker.

Another book that you must all read is the Yoga Vasistha (a discourse of sage Vasistha to Prince Rama, during a period when the latter is in a dejected state).
You may not understand it by reading it once. Read it again and again and again. Whatever you understand, just take that. And whatever you don’t understand, just leave it. One day you’ll say, 'Oh, this is it!'

There is a doctor in USA, he’s a brain surgeon. He went into coma for seven days and people thought he’s dead, and that he will not come back to life. But suddenly something happened and he came back.
He wrote a book called The Proof Of Heaven. He’s a Christian, and had no idea about the eastern philosophy. He has never read anything about it. But when he came back to life, what he wrote is startling. He wrote what is usually taught in the Bhagavad Gita (an ancient Indian scripture).
He said when he left the body, all that he felt was the big presence, and the name of the presence is Om. He called itOm.
He also talks about the golden egg, and the core. Core means the self, the atma.
And he says the roots are above, and the shoots below. That is what the Bhagavad Gita said. There is a tree with its roots above, in the sky.
He said, when he left the body, he moved through the roots to the other side. It was a muddy, murky space through which he had to go.

This is absolutely what the puranas (Hindu religious text) speak about. It is simply the ancient puranas in the modern language; in the language of science.
It says the same thing: Communication without language. And an angel comes, a guide comes to take you through from one place to another. This is what is said.
Why do you have to have a Guru in life? Because after you die, the first person that you meet will be the Guru. The Guru will take you from that place; like a guide. It is like when you arrive at an airport and you have someone there to receive you, to take you to the car. That is why a Guru is important.

All those ancient ideas, is what this doctor experienced. It is very interesting. And many people who have had near-death experiences (NDEs), have all experienced similar things, like seeing a tunnel with a very loving light on the other side. Not going to hell or something like that.
Reading these experiences makes you understand life. So forget about the fear of hell or the temptation of heaven.

In India also, there is a gentleman who comes to the Ashram regularly. He also said that he had a very similar experience. He died for seven minutes before he was revived.
When he was revived, he explained his journey, how a few people came and took him to another place. He said there were people dressed in white, with beards, like some rishis (sages).
They said to the people who brought him, 'Why did you bring him? It the wrong person, he still has to be on the planet'.
The people who brought him said, 'No, this is the right person', and so they were having an argument. He was narrating his experience, and then he said that he was brought back and left just near the nostrils of his corpse.
He said, 'I saw myself on the operation table. I saw myself and I saw people crying. The doctor was trying to revive me but I was gone. I was connected with a thin thread. And then they attached me to the thin thread and left me near the nostrils. I breathed in gently and came back to life'.
Many people who have come back to life had similar experiences.

So life is much more than what we think it is.
I wrote a poem in Kannada when I was 17 years old. In the poem, I had written that I was everywhere and then suddenly I came like a lightning back onto this Earth. And this is exactly what this doctor has also written!

Do you think that the majority of our problems come from our relationship with our parents as the psychologists think?

Sri Sri: No, major problems come because of your own mind. Don’t cling that onto the parents, poor things.

Few years back, a young girl came to me with her parents. The girl was past her teenage, around 21-22 years old, and she had such a good relationship with her parents. Then the psychologists spoke to her that so and so problem is because of your parents, and suddenly their whole relationship fell apart. They never had any problem before.
You know, I tell you, when children see so many of these programs on the television, they start identifying themselves with the victims. There are child abuse victims, and the kids watch the television and suddenly start thinking, 'You know when I was 2 years old, my father molested me'.
Her father said, ‘I swear I would never ever do such a thing, but my kid is accusing me of having molested her'.
They were so devastated. Both parents went through hell but they never said a thing. The child had started imagining.

How can a two year old child remember anything? Can you remember as a two year old when somebody cradled you, when they put you down. If they continue from two years to four or five years, then yes, you can remember. But if someone did anything to a two year old, do you think they would remember that? Personally, I don’t think so.
Well, even if something has happened, what is the point of remembering that after 25 years or 30 years, and accusing someone who is in their late fifties and making their life miserable.
Yes, if you are a victim, definitely you should speak out. But sometimes people are not a victim yet they put themselves as victims. Superimpose a victimhood on oneself; people do this.

This is a big problem. Modern psychology has a lot to learn from ancient wisdom. They shouldn't tell people that there is pain deep inside them. If you go deep inside, there is no pain, there is only bliss. You have never gone deeper inside.

I learnt a lot of good principles here. How to implement this in my everyday life? To be in business I need to be a little aggressive and active. Just meditation won't do.

Sri Sri: Correct! There is no need for mood making. When you’re sitting here, you’re sitting like this (cross legged). When you go to your office, you don’t have to sit like this! When you are in business, you do business.
You don’t put on your winter coat all the time. Just imagine yourself walking around with your winter coat now, in this weather! You can’t survive. Put your winter coat on only in winter. Also you can’t walk around in your summer dress in winter.
Like you change your coats, you have the ability to change your moods, your behavior. You don’t need to be stuck in one behavior. You don’t need to be goody-goody all the time. When you are in business, be in the business mood. You have to be active, you don’t have to go slow motion.

You can do the slow meditation in motion (a technique of meditation taught at The Art of Living) here in this hall, not in the dining hall. If you sit in the dining hall and do meditation in motion, your lunch will become your dinner.

All that you learnt here is something that brings inner transformation. It is not a concept in the mind. It’s all part of you. In fact you don’t try to implement this in your day to day life. You just be a normal, natural person. This knowledge will automatically come into play in your life. That is the duty of knowledge. There is no effort to implement it. It is spontaneous, it automatically reflects.

How to deal with wishes? I wish to have a child, which after many tries is still unfulfilled.

Sri Sri: Whether a desire is fulfilled or not, just be happy. Don’t cling onto a desire. Because whenever a desire is fulfilled, it leaves you in the same place that you were before the desire arose. Not all desires can be fulfilled. Some get fulfilled, some don’t.

But you should take one stance. You know what that stance is? Come what may, I’m going to be happy. Whether single or married, I’m going to be happy. There are more chances for you to be married, if you want to. And when you’re already married, then that’s fine. Still be happy. Whether you have a child or not, just be happy.
The one decision that you need to make in life is 'I will not allow any situation to bog down my happiness'. Got it? You have to take that decision, nobody else can take it for you.

In your opinion, what is there after death? Do you believe in reincarnation?

Sri Sri: I don’t believe in reincarnation. I know it’s there. You only have to believe something which you don’t know. When I know it exists then why do I have to believe?
You don’t say, 'I believe my car is outside'. When you've parked your car outside, you say, 'My car is outside'. Got it?
This life is only a small portion of the vast life that we all have. This life is only one small bit.

I’m a follower of your twitter account, do you write your tweets on your own?

Sri Sri: Yes, just this morning I've tweeted three times. I do my own tweets. A couple of times I ask my secretary or someone else to do it, but 95% of the time I tweet on my own.
Are you all on my twitter account? How many of you are not on my twitter account? Get down to it, right away, without delay! And tell all your friends also. It is good to read some knowledge regularly.

I was on anti-depressants for many years. I've been off anti-depressants for 2 years. I do my Sudarshan Kriya every day, but my concentration and sleep are not normal, and this affects my work. Sometimes I feel that I was better off on anti-depressants. Is it okay to take them on doctor’s advice if my job is at stake, or should I resist at all cost.

Sri Sri: I wouldn't say resist at all cost, but resist it. And do Yoga. Spend one hour in the morning stretching and balancing your body.
It was good today (morning yoga session), wasn't it? How many of you enjoyed that? When you do it, concentration improves. That’s why I gave you open eye meditation. I know many times when your eyes are closed you start to drift away, and you start building castles in the air. And then I have to remind you to keep your eyes open!

So, a few minutes of meditations like this and you’re back to your power of concentration. Just look at me, people ask me so many questions every day, you know you've no idea.
Ours is a small course, but there are 3000 people in Canada, and 3000 people in USA, and everyone asks me while coming and going the same question five times, and I give the same answer every time. And I know they are asking me five times, and I have to be very alert!
I make sure I see everybody, if I don’t see one person then that person writes, 'You ignored me, you don’t like me. You don’t love me'.
In fact, I don’t miss them. When I see them they are looking somewhere else! But they say, 'You never smiled at me'.
See I attend to everybody, 100% percent. You can do that also.

Dear Gurudev, in the last few years many people have spoken about the planet’s entry into the fourth dimension. What can you say about this?

Sri Sri: Until you know any dimension right here, don’t be swayed away by all this talk. It is just a way to create a thrill.
It is like when people asked me several hundred thousand times about the Earth coming to an end in Dec 2012. Oh god! Wherever I went, I heard the Earth is going to come to an end.
I said, 'Not really, everything will be as usual'.
People started storing milk powder and groceries for 6-months in their basement, thinking that everything will shut down.

These are little thrills that people like to have, and so they bring out such fantasies time and again. Know that all dimensions are right here, don’t worry and be happy.