As a new member of Eckankar, I was seeking answers to a fundamental question about the nature of existence, will I live after death or will I be extinct? Neither the religion I was born into or any other religion was able to give me an answer. The teachings of Eckankar seemed to hold the key to this mystery for it taught about the opportunity to experience the higher worlds even before death. It was my grandmother’s death which led me to a realisation of this divine truth.
My relationship with my grandmother was a distant one. An unhappy incident in the past had caused me to distrust her deeply and so when she was gravely ill and hospitalised in intensive care, my attitude was one of indifference. My parents tried to persuade me to visit her but to no avail. The day that I said ‘no’ to my parents, an inner voice whispered to me that I had only one opportunity to see her alive. This made me very uneasy and I decided to visit her the next day. My grandmother was dying but she still had a smile for me and gave me the traditional Hindu blessing . Seeing her at death’s door shifted my perspective somewhat and inwardly, I told her not to leave without telling me.
Early the next morning at about three, I woke up suddenly. I knew my grandmother had translated. Ten minutes later, our home phone rang. My dad answered it and confirmed what I had felt. She had come to say goodbye honouring my request. The funeral was held the next day.
About three days later, she appeared in my dream. She stood in front of me and I asked her, “You are dead and I thought you had said goodbye, why are you still here?”Then she told me that my uncle was looking for a legal document, which she had hidden under a cabinet and not in the cabinet and she wanted me to let him know. The dream experience ended. I duly informed my uncle and he was grateful. To my parents, my grandmother’s appearance in my dream was a bad omen. I allayed their fears by assuring them that I would be protected by the Mahanta.
A month later, I dreamt of my grandmother again. I was in a huge hall and it contained hundreds of doors and I was wondering what sort of place that was. An inner voice told me, “This is where they go through to their next life”. My grandmother came towards me, blessed me and said, “I don’t know what you are doing, you are fortunate, keep on practising It”. Then she went through one of the doors. I knew at that moment that it was the last time I would see her in my dreams and I never saw her after that.
These dream experiences with my grandmother were gifts from the Mahanta to me. They answered my burning question about the true nature of existence and removed all fear of death. I now know what happens after death as I was given the inner experience to validate it. Furthermore, the fact that I was able to relay my grandmother’s wish to my uncle showed me that my inner experience was real and not a figment of my imagination. There was no holding me back from then onwards. I fully embraced the reality of the inner worlds and the teachings of Eckankar.
