Today you are here and tomorrow you are gone. When you pass over to the life after death, this whole world will become as a dream to you… How foolish it is to think that this body—the “overcoat” worn by your soul— will be permanent. It seems real now, but it will disappear. Then where will your soul go? To the astral world—the “heavenly” realm of light and indestructible life… That was an excerpt from the writings of Paramahansa Yogananda, the well known Indian yogi and guru “who introduced millions of Indians and westerners to the teachings of meditation and Kriya Yoga”. The ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’ figures in the list of “100 best spiritual books of the 20th Century” and has been described as “the book that changed the lives of millions.”
Though published many decades ago — in 1946—the autobiography has, according to Wikipedia, been an inspiration for many people including George Harrison, Ravi Shankar and Steve Jobs. In the book Steve Jobs: A Biography the author writes that Jobs first read the autobiography as a teenager. He re-read it in India and later while preparing for a trip, he downloaded it onto his iPad2 and then re-read it once a year ever since. While dealing with the subject of life after death, the website of the Himalayan Academy states that death is “the most fateful experience of each of our lives…Death for the Hindu is merely transition, simultaneously an end and a new beginning…For Hindus, death is nobly referred to as mahaprasthana, the ‘great journey’…”
The Himalayan Academy website clarifies that it is “a quick transition from the physical world to the astral plane, like walking through a door, leaving one room and entering another”. But is it really that quick? How long does it take for a soul to travel to an astral world? From written accounts, observations of yogis and others who understand death or deal with it at close quarters such as care providers to dying people, plus accounts given by those who “died” and returned, the period appears to be limited but seems to vary from soul to soul. In the case of my grandmother the interval between the period she “died” and returned was approximately two days and one night. For those who are reading about her for the first time, she remained dead, placed on ice slabs to await the arrival of relatives—this was more than half a century ago when communications were to our modern day “fast speed attuned” minds unimaginably slow—and then her lifeless, stiffened body tried to sit up suddenly while they were bathing her before taking her for cremation, causing many mourners to run away initially, thinking she had been possessed.
In brief, she narrated she had been taken away by two strange figures in black, they crossed a river, etc, and then arrived amidst a vast assembly of “thumb sized” figures, amongst whom she recognised several who had died much earlier, etc, was taken before “a figure of authority” who quickly admonished her two escorts and asked why they had brought her as her time had not yet come and directed them to take her back post haste. While she was being rushed away, she was told her actual date and time of death. They returned at terrific speed, presumably to make it before her body was cremated. Incidentally, the ‘thumb sized’ figures described by my grandmother reminded people of the “Angoosthmatr body”—similar to a thumb size—to which the soul moves after leaving the physical body.
I heard about my grandmother’s astral journey from my parents but there are several other accounts I’ve heard “first hand” from people who “died” and “returned”. In each case, two days and one night or two nights and one day seemed to be the outer limit for the to-and-fro other world journey. And in each case, the souls were brought back in the nick of time. In the case of Baba for instance, the caretaker of the Dargah of Moiluddin Chisti in Delhi, he was almost ‘thrown’ through the roof of his house to re-enter his dead body just before it was to be carried to the freshly dug grave. At Haridwar, a person’s soul was brought back , he said, at unbelievable speed, just as his funeral pyre had been lit.
The paths and journey time phases to the other world or worlds seem to vary too and so do their descriptions. Swami Savanna has been quoted as saying that the soul in its disembodied form hovers about its original and familiar places for ten days. It is in the form of a ghost during these ten days. The astral body takes shape from day to day with the formation of the head, eyes, and other limbs of the Linga Sarira, fed and nourished by the sesamum and water poured out in libation over the stones which represent the ancestors. Only on the 11th day does the soul depart to Yama Loka. The soul is fully embodied on the eleventh day. It starts on its journey to the judgement seat of Lord Yama, the God of death. It takes one full year from the time of death to reach Lord Yama’s place.
In his Commentary on the Bhagavadgita, Discourse 26: The Eighth Chapter Concludes—The Journey of the Soul After Death Swami Krishnananda explains that the Eighth Chapter of the Bhagavadgita deals with the subject of life after death. The Puranas, the Upanishads, the Yoga Vasishtha and the Bhagavadgita contain many varieties of descriptions of the condition of the soul after it leaves this body. Śuklakṛṣṇe gatī hyete jagataḥ śāśvate mate (8.26)’. “Broadly speaking, these are two paths for the soul after death. Either we go that way or we go this way, according to our karma and our spiritual status. Śuklakṛṣṇe gatī hyete jagataḥ śāśvate mate, ekayā yāty anāvṛttim anyayāvartate punaḥ: By the one path, one does not come back to this world; by the other path, one returns.”
Incidentally, it is widely believed that after death a soul does not necessarily go to only one world. “Depending upon its activities on earth, it may travel to and stay in many worlds, one after another, before returning to earth.” In one chapter – “The Law of Miracles” —of his Autobiography of a Yogi Paramahansa Yogananda presents “scientific explanations for seemingly miraculous feats”. He wrote: “the word ‘impossible’ is becoming less prominent in man’s vocabulary.” In the case of the soul, it is impossible to capture the infinite aspects of its journey to the other world. But one thing appears certain: how miserable or how blissful or peaceful that journey can be is in our own hands to a much greater extent than we realise.