Talks 693 to 696 inclusive. Swamiji talks about being ready for the body to die.

From Mother Radha’s recordings of Swamiji.

Excerpt 693:
When you die, you must die consciously, not unconsciously; otherwise next time you take a birth without a proper motive. You have to be prepared and know how to die. Try to visualise death. Then when it happens, there will be no pain because this is a natural thing.

If you open the [air] bladder of a football what happens? It makes a noise. It is making a noise but it is not feeling the pain; the air has to go out, it is natural. Beautiful. That is nature. Hindus have the secret but they are keeping it. The story about Nachiketa is beautiful. Go and read it.

Actually they say that man has not learned to take birth and he has not yet learned to die. We cannot learn how to take birth because we have already taken birth; but at least be wise enough to learn how to die in the right way. That is a yogi.

When Swami Brahmananda was dying he said, ‘Ah, Krishna has come! I am going. Krishna has come. Once more the shepherd is calling me.’ How beautiful.

The great ones know how to die. They say, ‘Good-bye, good-bye.’ But you say, ‘Stay here.’ [laughter] You make it worse. What do you know about death? Death is a beautiful thing – wonderful. I praise it, I worship it. It is a beautiful thing if you know death.

To know something other than the Real, is maya. We are thinking that death is something else; meanwhile it is God. Sri Krishna says very openly in the [Bhagavad] Gita, ‘I am Death, the all-devourer.’ But when He comes in that form, you throw Him out; He laughs at you.

Excerpt 694:
Death is a beautiful thing. To old people especially I say: ‘Throw away your desires, go to Death. Go like Nachiketa. Become a Nachiketa.’

Ramana Maharshi actually realised God through death. Ramana Maharshi became stiff, he would not breathe. He said, ‘I am dead.’ Suddenly it dawned on him. By force he induced death and found only Consciousness remaining. No other yogi has done that. He discovered that.

Actually if you know how to die you have God-realisation. I am not talking about taking your own life, I am talking about how to die.

If you die unknowingly, you will be born unknowingly. If you die knowingly then you can refuse to be born again. If I hit you on the head what happens to you while you are unconscious? You know nothing. And when you come to? Are you a wise man? No. You are the same ignorant person. So it is like that when you die in an accident – you come back again.

Learn to die, my friends, learn to die. That is actually what you start doing when you start controlling the senses. Transcend the senses, then slowly you can withdraw.

Devotee: How can I understand the things I see in the world? Swamiji: But you do not see, that is what I am saying. Exactly what you are seeing, you are not seeing. You are only ‘apparently’ seeing. If you put a yellow glass in front of your eyes, what colour is the world? Yellow. So you are looking through the eyes of maya. Remove the glass and then you will see that, whatever you are seeing, you are not seeing the right thing. It is like seeing the snake in the rope. This world does not exist. Brahman alone exists.

Excerpt 695:
Devotee: Is that why when we lose somebody we cry? Swamiji: Yes. You are crying because of ignorance. YOU are actually the Atman, which never takes birth, nor does IT die. This world is like a dream. It is not real. The only Reality is Brahman. In the dream your mother dies and you are crying. And when you wake up, you see that mum is fine. When you awake in GOD, you realise that this world is a dream.

Let us do it the other way. When you dream, what happens to this world? Devotee: It is not there. Swamiji: When you get up, what happens to the dream world? Devotee: It goes. Swamiji: When you are in deep sleep, when there is no dream, what happens to the dream world and this world? Devotee: It is not there, Swamiji.

Swamiji: Yes. When you get in samadhi it is also not there. When you get up in the Spirit, all this is not there – it is only the Spirit. That is why I say: See through the eyes of the Spirit, not through the eyes of Maya [Maya being only partial truth as Swamiji used to explain it to us].

Have you seen the sun rise? Have you seen it set? But do you think that the sun ever moves? No, we know that the sun does not move. That is the nature of Maya, the illusive power of God.

Sadhana – reading the scriptures, being in holy company, meditation – these help us to realise that the world is unreal. It is here today, gone tomorrow.

Devotee: You say we must learn to die . . . Swamiji: Arjuna was taught how to die. Sri Ramakrishna was taught how to die. All of us should learn how to die, because we cannot control birth until we know how to die. We must go beyond birth and death.

Excerpt 696:
Only when you know what death is, can you go beyond death. That is why Sri Krishna says, ‘I am never born, I never die.’ He knows that only the body dies, the Soul is eternal.  Sri Ramakrishna said to [Holy Mother] Sri Sarada Devi, ‘I have only moved from one room to another.’  In other words, from one state of consciousness to another.

Devotee: Swamiji, how did fear come to be associated with death? Swamiji: We are fearful of everything unknown. When you had to go to a new school, how fearful were you? You say you love to study, but when the day comes, there is fear of the unknown. If you know it, then there is no fear. And if you know it is dangerous, then you will avoid it.

We must start loving God in whatever we do. As long as we love God, we want God, we yearn for God, so our minds and our lives are blessed. But how to get there?

Concentration occurs when the five senses become united and think about God one-pointedly. In unity and purity there is almighty strength. When your whole being thinks and wants that One thing, it is called will-power. Without this one-pointed concentration and yearning, you will not get God.

The free-to-read or download, 396-page Flipbook version of Swamiji’s biography, ‘A Life Lived For Others‘, is available by clicking HERE. If you’d prefer the PDF version, please click HERE.

For our gurubhai Atmaprakash Kramer’s beautiful pictorial booklet, ‘Memories of my Ashram Days‘, at the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa Avoca Ashram, please click HERE.

These recordings or the excerpts from them, were made from the early 1970s onward, by Mother Radha, a close devotee of Swamiji’s and edited for uploading here by our gurubhai and her son, Brother Tim. Please be mindful that what Swamiji was saying may have been specific to an individual or a group who may have been with him at that time.