Teachings

Auras & what happens after we die

Guru Sri Subramanium explains what constitutes an aura and what happens to it after death.
Guru Sri Subramanium with Valli - Skanda Vale's temple elephant

What is an aura?

Divine friends, from birth to the consciousness of death, the human being creates many ripples. Impulses from the brain; anger, hatred, love, viciousness, greed… all these impulses surround the human being.

These are the credentials you present to me. These impulses and the vibration that surrounds you form your personality. That personality is picked up, not only by me, but your fellow men as well. People react to that personality.

The person who has got immense love, compassion and warmth… you immediately will respond to them, because without even the person saying anything to you, you have got a rapport with that individual. You are able to speak more or less the same language, because of the aura that surrounds you.

Husbands and wives blend into one aura.
 If there is any disturbance in that aura then the other feels it.

You try to create harmony, but if there is even the slightest disharmony, or doubt, or fear, you immediately send out impulses and add to the aura which surrounds you.

You are adding to the aura all the time, and like a vortex, this aura stretches out to the akashic records. That is the real akashic record, which you have set in motion from the minutest life-force that you have had, to the person you have evolved into now.

Depending on what you have created, you can be the recipient of grace and help from Divine forces. The more you create harmony within yourself and others, the more you build up this immense force around you that attracts grace, and dispels any force that is negative with you.

Your house, your home is the register of all the impulses that you generate, and is your dwelling place. How many homes you have been to and felt most unwelcome? Why? Because the people in that house are constantly fighting and creating disharmony. As soon as a receptive person enters that house, he picks the feeling up, and will feel unwelcome.

Your home is an expansion of your aura. 
Your vibration enters into the fabric of your living place.

That is why, when you contemplate, when you meditate, when you sing, when you are chanting, when you are praying – these vibrations create a conducive atmosphere, they create an opportunity for you to integrate with the highest consciousness, in spiritual terms.

Relationships

Now, when young people meet each other in the modern world it doesn’t take very much for them to interact physically, emotionally, and get involved on a high level. But you have no idea what you are picking up from the other person whom you have only just encountered.

You have no consideration for the consequences of your involvement with this person, whether on a physical level or on a spiritual level. The interaction of that aura is going to create many disturbances within you.

Professional therapy / healing

A number of you are doing professional therapies. It is very important to be aware that when you are trying to help other people with disturbed auras, that you are going to be involved in their disturbances – you’ll absorb some part of that nature into yourself.

So, change your garments. Make sure you have a bath – shed those negative vibrations by having a shower because water will neutralise them for you.

Kirlian photograph showing aura of a hand

What happens to the aura / life force when we die?

Now I am going to take three categories of human beings. First, a human being who has grown old through time and age, and is ready to die. Naturally, all their faculties are slowly becoming redundant and unusable. Slowly they can come to terms with their life and are ready to go.

In other words, there is a contraction of their aura. There is an area of the aura that stops functioning because the brain impulses are weak, the physical desires are weak… and so you become like me!

Slowly, but steadily, without any inducement, you are withdrawing out of your physical body. The amount of energy and vibration that you are setting in motion through your brain and body diminishes. As the breath becomes still, the aura just leaves the physical body – until there is no contact with the body.

The death of an old person after the age of 70 is a very great privilege from the Lord because you can die gracefully. There is no stress. There's a real chance to slowly come to terms with your life.

There is very little demand from that person – he is reconciled within that he or she is going to die. Though the body may cease to function at that old age, and the breath has just left it, it is still pulsating. It needs time to cool down and settle, and then the aura will move away.

Tibetan traditions around death

Question: That reminds me of a Tibetan tradition of not disturbing a corpse for a specified period after a person dies…

Guru: Yes, fortunately, the Tibetans have appropriate conditions in which to keep the body to allow the aura to cool off. But in the West, it’s more difficult to keep someone’s body in the place where they die. If you die in a hospital, within a few hours, they move you into the mortuary.

Questioner: Tibetans would say that this would disturb the aura, disturb that process.

Guru: Yes, but you tell that to the hospital authorities! They’ll say, ‘But it’s not a practical proposition, because it costs money to keep that room empty with a dead body when there is a mortuary available.’ And so it’s a different ball game.

If a person dies naturally in his bed, you should give time for that person to cool down. But you must also remember that when all the faculties of the body are relaxed – there is an emission out of the body that has to be arrested, or cleaned and put right. This is very important – you have to make consideration for this.

Unexpected / accidental death

Now, if a person were to die prematurely because of some violence, or an act of their own volition, the life force stands still. Because of the impact of the traumatic experience, the life force and energies are held in stasis for quite a while.

The disturbances in the mind and the body of the deceased prevail. The person may have died, the breath has gone, but the energies are there, and they retain a sense of identity there. They hang around there for a long time, often till that entire span of life has been cleared.

When that happens, people come to us and say ‘Please help, so that we can make it conducive for the person to leave and make it possible for their rebirth.’

Lots of people whose lives were taken in Auschwitz and in various parts of Europe – it took a while for them to realise that their life was terminated and that they had to go on their journey.

Fortunately, all the traditions of faith, religion, worship and prayer will help move them on to rebirth. I know a number of people who died in Auschwitz, who are reborn, are now living in various stages of life and will be liberated.

The violent deaths and problems that people go through, in themselves, are not too bad. You believe these traumas to be a permanent feature, but they aren’t; it’s all a continuation.

We have come to pay our karmic debt – not everybody has a nice comfortable bed, sleeps in it and dies peacefully.

Preparation for death

What we are interested in is the preparation of the mind. Doing the groundwork so that we are ready to die, and in a very short time have the opportunity to be reincarnated again. It’s about learning to let go whilst you are living… not being too attached to the world of illusion.

Religion has an invaluable part to play in preparing us for death. You can anchor yourself to the faith that you are born to, or the beliefs that you have. This will help move your mind away from the world of illusion so that you will have a peaceful state of mind when you die.

Suffering

Now, I spoke to you about three aspects of death; so far I’ve dealt with two. The third one is very important because not everybody dies without suffering.

You have different types of diseases; often you have to go through a lot of pain and stress before death. Some people feel let down when they are suffering. They feel they’re the only people who are suffering, and they think ‘Why should God punish me, and give me this suffering?’

When I look at all of you here today, your experiences of life are comparatively calm and collected. There’s nothing so traumatic and dramatic. You don’t go around causing injury, killing life, taking life and causing unhappiness to people. But having said that, you have a backlog of karma that you have brought with you.

Giving blessings & shakti

Often when people come to me and say ‘Guruji, please bless me’ or ‘Give me Shakti’ the person may look very angelic, very beautiful and glamorous and whatever, but as soon as I put my hand on the forehead of the person and give them Shakti, I look inside them and I say ‘Oh My God!’ [laughter] It is amazing!

The purpose of giving Shakti to such a person, as instructed by Mother, is to begin to change and remove the obstacles to liberation for that human being. Slowly transforming the ugliness in that human being into something acceptable and conducive for spiritual consciousness.

You have often heard people say ‘Oh! This person was such a kind person, so beautiful in their life, and I can’t understand why they suffer…’

It’s difficult for a Guru (or somebody who can see the background aura of any individual) when someone believes very firmly that some angelic person has suffered for no reason whatsoever.

So I’ve insulated myself from answering such questions by saying to the person ‘Don’t worry, I’ll pray for him.’ Because it would disturb that person if I were to say ‘Oh! What on earth are you talking about?’

You all have a pretty good idea what skulduggery you were up to in your last many incarnations! Now… you may be that knight in armour, riding a pure white stallion saying ‘I’ve come to liberate the world!’ You go on convincing yourself – not me!

Dying in the presence of God

I have talked about three different ways of dying. But there is a whole other aspect to death. When you are involved with spiritual work, you constantly learn to offer yourself in death to the Divine, whilst you’re still alive.

You have to learn to die in the presence of God. All the time saying to the Lord, ‘Consciously, I offer myself to You in my death. At any moment I may die. I may not have my mind fully conscious, but now that my mind is conscious, I die in Your presence my Lord. I free myself to You, for You are the architect of my life. My tomorrow depends on You.’

This must be the way for the human being to totally free himself. Die each night before you put your head on the pillow. Then you will let go. You will let go of all the illusions that you have created in your life.

Learning to die must be a way of life for every human being. Don't be afraid of death. Withdraw out of your body. In the night, when you are going to sleep, say 'Here I am my Lord. Free of all baggage.

We have to do learn to do that. It’s very important.

Switzerland 1997.

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