Part I: The realm of death

• Question: Why is death necessary? Why can't the soul keep on progressing and evolving in the same body?
• Question: Is it possible for a man to learn what death is while still living, by actually entering into death?
• Question: Guru, would you explain the spiritual significance of this practice or the need for it?
• Question: Is death painful?
• Question: Why is it that so many linger in pain for a long time before dying?
• Question: Is it possible for a spiritual person who is dying a painful death to transform his pain into joy through meditation?
• Question: In one of your meditations from your diary you mentioned that death was an obstruction. I always thought you considered death to be a transition that just enables us to be reborn and make continuous progress.
• Question: When we die, what is the best thing to do?
• Question: Is there any special way we should meditate on a person who is dying?
• Question: What should be the attitude of the dear ones when somebody close is dying?
• Question: Guru, I had a young friend who died just six weeks ago, and the day before he died he told his father that he would die the next day, and he did. How could he know?
• Question: When a person is sick and, medically speaking, there is no hope of recovery, is it good to tell the person he is going to die and to start helping him get ready for departure?
• Question: Can you postpone with your will-power the time of death?
• Question: Can you postpone it indefinitely?
• Question: Have you ever had to actually fight the death forces to save somebody's life?
• Question: I work in a cancer hospital where people frequently die. Sometimes when people are dying I see a quality or a look on their face which is very similar to something that I see in your face. Can you tell me why?
• Question: Sometimes people burn themselves to death as a protest against war. From the spiritual point of view, what does this accomplish?
• Question: Can someone who has committed suicide realise God in a future incarnation?
• Question: Your philosophy states that the soul is always making progress, but how do you reconcile that with the fact that when someone commits suicide his soul falls?
• Question: What is the difference between cremation and a regular burial?
• Question: You have spoken about physical death. Could you say something about the kind of death and rebirth that occurs in the spiritual life?
• Question: I was actually thinking more in terms of rebirth. How can I become like a child again and accomplish this spiritual rebirth?
• Question: Can you say something about eternity and the eternal life?

Part II: Is death the end?

• Is death the end?

Part III: A tale of the Beyond

• A tale of the Beyond

Part IV: Death and life: two inseparable brothers

• Death
• Life

Part V: Life after death: the higher and lower worlds

• Question: Do the circumstances under which a person dies determine where he goes after he leaves the body?
• Question: I have heard that seeing the relatives' and friends' tears gives great joy to the soul when parting from this life. Is this true?
• Question: Why do people keep the body for a few hours or even for a few days after the soul has departed?
• Question: Even if a seeker hasn't realised God while on earth, will his soul see God or realise God after it leaves the body?
• Question: Guru, will we see you at the time when we leave the body?
• Question: Will we see you after you leave the body?
• Question: Will everyone see you in the inner world after death?
• Question: A friend of mine, a lady who was very spiritual, passed away recently. Will her friends come to meet her in a beautiful Heaven?
• Question: Will the soul be able to have some kinds of experiences in the worlds it goes to after it leaves the body?
• Question: When the soul leaves the body after death, you said it enters into the vital sphere. What is the vital sphere?
• Question: What is it like in the vital world?
• Question: Is hell really a place in the vital worlds, or is it just a state of consciousness?

Part VI: Reincarnation: the great pilgrimage

• Question: What is the purpose of reincarnation?
• Question: Will the whole world eventually become a better place as a result of the evolution that takes place through reincarnation?
• Question: How can a spiritual Master like yourself convince others who do not believe in reincarnation that it is really true?
• Question: If somebody lives a good life and reaches Nirvana, does this mean he will not reincarnate again?
• Question: Can the soul reincarnate in other worlds after death?
• Question: Does the soul always need physical parents to reincarnate?
• Question: I have read that when the soul takes incarnation in the world it is like entering a battlefield. Is this true?
• Question: When the soul reincarnates in a new body, what happens to the spiritual heart? Does it also go from one lifetime to another like the soul does?
• Question: When a child incarnates into a family, is it possible that the child's soul is less highly evolved than the parents' souls?
• Question: Does the soul have any choice as to the environment that it will come back to when it reincarnates, and the body that it will take?
• Question: Can you help me to leave the body as soon as possible, and help me to reincarnate in a place that is high and very cold, with plenty of fog and snow?
• Question: Is all suffering the result of bad karma, either from this life or from a past life?
• Question: Could you please explain how the law of karma affects us in this life and our next life?
• Question: If a disciple does not realise God while his Guru is in the body, how would the Guru be able to help the disciple in that person's next incarnation if there were no other living Guru through whom he could work?
• Question: How will you keep contact with us after you leave the body?
• Question: If one is a spiritual person, will his next incarnation be different from that of an ordinary person?
• Question: You said before that each incarnation is a stepping-stone towards our God-realisation. Does that mean that we can't reach God in this life?
• Question: If a seeker dies, do all his responsibilities and work cease in the period between his death and his rebirth? Or is he able to work consciously, or in some way continue the work that he started, before he comes back to earth?
• Question: Is the length of time the soul remains in the soul's world between incarnations determined by the aspiration of the previous incarnation? If it is an elevated soul, will it incarnate sooner?
• Question: If someone is gifted in one area, does this mean that his soul was originally given this potentiality, or did he try to achieve this for many lives and then finally achieve it?
• Question: Sometimes my cousin and I meditate by looking into each other's eyes, and when we do sometimes we see one another's faces change and even the hair turns a different colour. I was wondering what this means.
• Question: Does it help you to know what kind of animal you were in your past incarnations, or what kind of person you were?
• Question: If a person is a very advanced seeker and develops the ability to see his past incarnations, will this actually hinder his progress? In other words, is it always harmful if you discover you were a thief or something in the past?
• Question: If a man dies and he is very fond of a dog or other animal, and if he has compassion for that animal, will this cause him to reincarnate as an animal? I understand that in India while a great sage was meditating in the woods something happened to a small lamb. He took care of it and became very fond of it and, as a result, in his next incarnation he was a lamb.
• Question: Can the soul of a person take an animal form in its next incarnation after it has been a human being in this incarnation?