Swami Vivekananda

 

In 1895, a disciple of Swami Vivekananda, Mrs. Bull lost her father. Swamiji wrote her a very gentle letter, comforting her in his own inimitable way. His letter is  one of the most profound explanations of the mystery  of death :

‘Coming and going is all pure delusion. The soul never comes nor goes. Where is the place to which it shall go, when all space is in the soul? When shall be the time for entering and departing, when all time is in the soul?

The earth moves, causing the illusion of the movement of the sun; but the sun does not move. So Prakriti, or Maya, or Nature, is moving, changing, unfolding veil after veil, turning over leaf after leaf of this grand book- while the witnessing soul drinks in knowledge, unmoved, unchanged.

All souls that ever have been, are, or shall be, are all in the present tense…Because the idea of space does not occur in the soul, therefore all that were ours, are ours, and will be ours, are always with us. We are in them. They are in us…

…nature, body, matter moves on, creating the illusion that the soul is moving. Thus we find at last that that instinct (or inspiration?) which men of every race, whether high or low, have had to feel, viz the presence of the departed about them, is true intellectually also.

…The whole secret is, then, that your father has given up the old garment he was wearing, and is standing where he was through all eternity.  Will he manifest another such garment in this or any other world? I sincerely pray that he may not, until he does so in full consciousness. I pray that none may be dragged any whither by the unseen power of his own past actions. I pray that all may be free, that is to say, may know that they are free. And if they are to dream again, let us pray that their dreams be all of peace and bliss…’