What Happens When We Die?

Tuesday, 01 December 2009 15:28 Written by Nirmala

Another question came in my email:

If I feel oneness with the great Essence, will I still have the sense of oneness after my death?    Do Buddha, Ramana or Jesus still feel the Oneness as they would have felt it individually when they were alive?

And here is my response:

This a good question, although ultimately no one can really answer it until they actually die. There are some mysteries that are meant to be mysteries. It can even be very rich and exciting to not know something. And when it comes to something like death, what we do not know will always be more than what we do know.

Based on all of my experience so far in living, my guess is that there is no formula for what happens when we die. So just as everyone's experience of life is unique, so it seems likely that everyone's experience of death would also be unique. So some people might just dissolve back into the Oneness without any trace of individuality remaining. Others might have a very expanded sense of their true nature with still just a little bit of a sense of identity as someone who is experiencing the vastness of Being. And of course others will still have a strong sense of individual existence which might suggest that they would choose to reincarnate again to satisfy their remaining karma or individual desires and conditioning.

Some good news is that we all eventually get to find out what happens when we die. And even better is the mystery of what is going to happen next. Will I live or die today? Will I fall in love today? Will I be happy or sad today? There are endless small mysteries to be discovered everyday, and even sometimes big mysteries that appear in our daily life. Your question is a good one because it shows curiosity. Since life and death are so unpredictable, your curiosity can serve you much better than any answer to your questions. It can be very surprising to discover that questions are almost always more satisfying than answers.

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