Life After Death After Life

Paramahansa Yogananda

In chapter 43 of his spiritual classic, Autobiography of a Yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda recalls the miraculous day when his guru, Swami Sri Yukteswar, revealed to him the details of the afterlife.

I found this chapter both thrilling and uplifting. I love the idea that we continue to learn and grow and improve ourselves through countless lifetimes, whether we are incarnated or not.

So which would you prefer, an eternity of playing the harp on fluffy clouds or the worlds within worlds described by Yogananda’s guru?

Here is a long excerpt from that chapter.

“As prophets are sent on earth to help men work out their physical karma, so I have been directed by God to serve on an astral planet as a savior,” Sri Yukteswar explained. “It is called Hiranyaloka or ‘Illumined Astral Planet.’ There I am aiding advanced beings to rid themselves of astral karma and thus attain liberation from astral rebirths. The dwellers on Hiranyaloka are highly developed spiritually; all of them had acquired, in their last earth-incarnation, the meditation-given power of consciously leaving their physical bodies at death. No one can enter Hiranyaloka unless