In the Bhagavad Gita Chapter 8, verse 5, Krishna tells Arjuna that “He who, at the hour of death, thinks only of Me enters unquestionably into My Being.” This advice is all but universal throughout the ages. But woe to anyone who thinks by this shortcut to erase a lifetime of misdeeds. One might be unconscious at the time of death; or, death might be sudden and unexpected! It is far safer to expect that one’s death will have a relationship to how one has lived.  

I recently stumbled upon the following poem: 

Do Not Stand At My Grave and Weep 

Do not stand at my grave and weep; 
I am not there. I do not sleep. 
I am a thousand winds that blow. 
I am the diamond glints on snow. 
I am the sunlight on ripened grain. 
I am the gentle autumn rain. 
When you awaken in the morning’s hush 
I am the swift uplifting rush 
Of quiet birds in circled flight. 
I am the soft stars that shine at night. 
Do not stand at my grave and cry; 
I am not there. 
I did not die. 

By Clare Harner though previously attributed to Mary Elizabeth Frye 

We typically speak of the departed as merely disembodied but otherwise still possessing their personality, memory and interests. Paramhansa Yogananda described the after-death state for most people as one which is more akin to a dream and to dreamless sleep than a conscious foray into a new land.  

Ask yourself this: if I no longer have a body, nervous system and brain, how consciously functional am I apt to be? The soul knows all, it is true, but if you’ve never contacted your eternal, deathless soul during your life, do you imagine yourself becoming suddenly enlightened just because you’ve shed your mortal coil? (I am not subscribing to the scientific materialism that says the brain produces consciousness. I am saying that for most people, thought and awareness are greatly impeded after death, contrary to the popular image of after-death states.) 

Yogananda explained that people of deep concentration, including artists, inventors, scientists, meditators and devotees, can more successfully function in the airless, formless world of the heavens (astral world) than those whose life on earth was totally sense and body-bound, having rarely entertained abstract, deep thoughts on any subject. Witness, moreover, the epidemic of memory loss and lack of concentration in today’s world. 

This is one reason that prayers and positive thoughts directed to those who have departed this world are universally encouraged. The disembodied soul is often not capable of acting for their own benefit for being caught up in a dreamlike existence. (When we dream, we generally have no control over the dream.) 

So, to prepare for death, develop your concentration skills. For devotees, there is no greater way to do this than through prayer and deep, silent meditation. As the poem above suggests, although perhaps to an extreme, the disembodied state is not necessarily an integrated or conscious state for those whose minds and hearts have never roamed the ether of space, explored the limitless realms of imagination, or experienced the thrill of expanding consciousness embracing all people and things as their very Self. 

“As above, so below” goes the Hermetic counsel. So too, “As we live, so shall we depart!” The process of deep meditation follows the same inner pathway that the Spirit travels as it exits the body at the time of death. Meditation, therefore, is practice for the Final Exam.