How did our rishis know for sure that life continues after death? They knew based on their own personal experience. God-realized rishis possess the ability to detach their consciousness from their physical body at will, and travel clothed in their subtle or astral body. These rishis can visit places and relate scenes with terrific accuracy. In the enclosed excerpt the great rishi Paramahansa Yogananda details precisely such a travel experience. This account has been excerpted from his book: Man’s Eternal Quest.
Once a man in New York came to me and assured me that he could travel astrally. “I don’t think you can,” I said. “You are only imagining you can do so.” Still he insisted that I test him.
“All right,” I agreed, “go downstairs astrally and tell me what is in the restaurant there.” He was quiet for a moment; then he told me, “there is a big piano in the right-hand corner.”
I knew he was imagining it, for I had observed that his breathing was normal and so was his pulse. “On the contrary,” I said, “I think you will find there two women sitting at a table.”
He laughed at me. Then we both went down into the restaurant. No piano stood in the corner, but two women were seated at a table there. At last he understood that he had been fooled by his own imagination.
Often I see with the inner astral vision happenings in the war in Europe, but it seems like a picture show. The world was meant to entertain us, not to torture us. God has made His motion picture of creation very complex, full of contrasts of good and evil.
When you go to a movie you like to see lots of excitement. Think how many times you have gone to view a murder mystery; and when the movie ended you said to yourself, “That was good show!” Learn to look upon this movie of life with the same sense of detachment and enjoyment.
Part 1: At Death We Are Still Encased in the Astral and Causal Bodies – After death, our loved ones are not lost. They continue to live on, clothed in the subtle (astral) and causal bodies.
