Can you imagine being dead for 20 years of your life? Yogis call sleep the “sister of death” because we are unconscious during this time. In fact, we are very close to samadhi while we are in dreamless sleep—the problem is that we don’t remember it when we wake up! But yogis know how to sleep consciously through techniques of deep meditation and yoga nidra, giving the body and mind full rest while a part of themselves remains awake.

That is the difference between accomplished yogis and the rest of us. We live and die much like other creatures in the world, without mastery over themselves. Yogis, on the other hand, are born as we are, yet they live with purpose. They realize what their essential nature is, and know how to transform themselves and polish their ego to achieve moksha—liberation. They also understand the secret of secrets: how to skillfully drop their body when the time is right.

In this never-before-released video from 1987’s Path of Fire & Light seminars, Swami Rama insightfully explains how yogis have mastery over life’s great transitions: between non-meditative and meditative states (all the way to samadhi); between sleeping and waking states; and eventually, between life, death, and rebirth.

Source: Path of Fire & Light lectures (Honesdale, 1987)

Related Content