Celebrating the Mahasamadhi (conscious exit from the body) of Paramhansa Yogananda and Sri Yukteshwar
“What happens when we die?” is one of those “ultimate” questions that all religions and philosophies seek to answer. Answers range from you go to hell (or, on the off chance that you did everything right, to heaven), to you dissolve into nothingness. But Paramhansa Yogananda gave a different answer; in his poem Samadhi, he wrote: past, present, future, no more for me. But ever present, all flowing, I, I everywhere.
We are each as old as God – that is, our soul is. But, identified with our bodies, we think we are 30, 40, 50, etc. years old; and, we spend much of life either actively resisting, or resolutely ignoring, the inevitable death of the body. But a self-realized Master, whose consciousness is already one with God, can exit the body complete awareness of his Divine identity, and time ceases to have any meaning for him.
The message of Mahasamadhi is this: when we learn to surrender to God in mind and in understanding, death can be a transition into eternal freedom from the body. The Masters in their unconditional love, are eternally available guide us on this path.