“I come not to entertain you with worldly festivities but to arouse your sleeping memory of Immortality.” ~ Paramahansa Yogananda

In her book about her own experiences with her guru, Yogananda, and his teachings, Priceless Precepts, Kamala (Silva) wrote the following about the above quote: “Inner assurance of Immortality is an important need of the soul. To know that Self is not dependent for its existence upon the form in which it resides is one part of the need; and the other is the heart’s longing that the Self will remain a ‘conscious’ part of the whole.”

I think Kamala beautifully expresses the essence of how most of us feel, especially as we approach the end of this life, or, if you believe in reincarnation, the end of this particular incarnation. And the first part of that essence is knowing the soul, knowing who we are without the body we’ve come to identify with, because the majority of us are not conscious of our soul; we’re conscious of our ego. While we can intellectually know and understand that our soul is immortal, in a seeming paradox, it’s only by actually experiencing the soul, the spirit, that we truly know for ourself that it continues on after the container it’s in has been cast aside.

Just as there’s more than one way to God, Goddess, the Source, there are many ways to experience the soul, to know it at an emotional, not just intellectual, level. There are many forms of meditation and prayer, for example, that lead to direct knowledge of the soul and God/dess itself. And once we experience the soul this way, again, we know it’s immortal.

Another way we can experience the soul and its immortality happens as we make our transition, as our spirit leaves the body. Most of us have read or heard stories of near death experiences in which this very thing happened as a person witnessed his or her own “dying” process, only to be brought back to this lifetime to finish it. All who have had this kind of experience know for themselves that the soul continues and so no longer fears death.

And there are many stories of people, who in the process of “dying” are able to tell those around them about what they’re seeing and experiencing—relatives who have gone before them and visions of whatever spiritual personage they relate to, be it Jesus, or Krishna, or Buddha, or Mary, the Divine Mother, etc.

But I have found through experience that, although quite rare, sometimes (for reasons perhaps not known until the soul actually makes its transition) we can have these transition experiences without yet actually making the transition. It’s kind of a “preview of a coming attraction,” if you will.