AVATAR ADI DA SAMRAJ: People typically use what is usually called a "funeral", or what devotees refer to as a "vigil", as a time for relations and friends and so forth to view the bodily remains. Often it is a situation of mourning, and there are inevitably feelings of sorrow — but that is not the right purpose of the vigil time. Not that there should be suppression of feelings of sorrow — it is just that people should have a right understanding of the purpose of the vigil, participating rightly and fully in the process. If they do so, it heals their sorrow and mourning.

The true, necessary, and practical purpose of the vigil time is to serve the person who is passing. It is a process. It is an individual matter, of course, for each person who dies, relative to the exact play and what the person is aware of in the course of the death process. All of that differs from person to person.

The reason for the three-day vigil is that initially the etheric entity [the vital-energy dimension of the person which is conformed, during the lifetime, to the bodily entity] may linger after separating from the body. The person notices that and starts looking at what is going on, sees the body and sees others and feels what others feel.

There is a certain mobility to the etheric entity. After death, the etheric separates from the form of the physical, but it is the same person with that personality. Depending on the person, he or she can become attached or confused, or have difficulty realizing that he or she has died, or feel reluctance, or suddenly have great feelings of attachment to place or to feelings of the body or to the body itself.

If a person has been preparing for death and has relinquished much of his or her attachments and is being served by others, then such difficulties need not represent any significant obstruction during the death process. I am describing the natural state that occurs immediately after death. The real purpose of the vigil is to help the person to relinquish. It is like a second death. The etheric entity must die. It is not a suffering death.

The continuing existence of the etheric is the temporary status of the entity after death. The condition of the individual determines what goes on in the process of relinquishing the etheric. A ghost is simply an etheric entity that cannot relinquish people or places or whatnot, so it remains associated with the physical plane. But that is not desirable — that should not happen. Merely to have a funeral allows people to indulge in their attachment. That is the western notion of a funeral — dramatizing attachment. So people do not do what they should be doing. They fail to serve the individual, which leads to confusion.

Initially, a person will be very aware of the environment. So it is important to tell the person what is happening. The person should be told when the body is going to be moved, and everything that is going to happen should be described so that the person is aware of it all. So, in this case with Robyn Lee, when her body is about to be moved, tell her that she is being moved to another place, and give her My Love and Blessings and tell her My Instruction.

My Instruction is this: Relinquish attachment to the body and to all relations and to this gross world, and turn up, above the head, above the mind, to the Light Above. That is My Divine Form. Allow yourself to pass into the Light without reluctance. Other kinds of entities may be seen during this part of the process.

The etheric is attached to the gross, but when the etheric dies, it loosens and returns to the etheric domain — ceasing to take the form of the individual personal entity and effectively disintegrating. Then the higher (or astral) subtle entity passes into the Pure White Light Above, the "Brightness" Above.

This should all be spoken directly into Robyn's ear, and My already given formal Instruction to those going through the death process should also be continued. Enabling the person to pass into the Pure White Light Above, the "Brightness" Above, is the purpose of the vigil. It is a real purpose — not just a ceremony. The vigil should not be about a lot of strong attachment and continuing to want to live and wanting to do more things in life.

Even when a person has had time to let go, there are lingering tendencies that need to be directly addressed. Robyn should be spoken to about turning up, passing upward. She should simply feel the heart-fullness of being, and allow herself to be Attracted to the Light Above.

So the purpose of the vigil time is not to dramatize mourning or doubts or gross-mindedness. The vigil is about serving the person who has passed — and also serving everyone else's relinquishment of the person and letting the person go into My Divine Domain.

Robyn and everyone should be reminded (by means of recitation of My Word, and by means of the Instruction I am now Giving) to magnify that relinquishment, rather than invoking the person to stay behind. Everyone should express their feelings of devotion to Me and their relinquishment of any demands for Robyn to remain or return. She must pass into the Light. It is not merely a ceremony. What I am Calling everyone to do in this vigil is real practice, as practical as anything that was done while Robyn was lying ill. That is what should be done during the vigil time. That is the point of the vigil.

Some who are sensitive to the etheric being may be able to feel it loosening and passing. It does not make any difference to the process whether a person with such sensitivity is present or not, but some people may be able to feel what is happening in that regard. Then, after three days, the body should be cremated.

The same thing will happen to everyone some day. This is what the process is about. As I said, as a person passes through the process, he or she relinquishes etheric concentration and starts approaching the Illumination Above. This is the point at which a person may see a tunnel with a light at the end, or he or she may see familiar people who have died. In fact, the person may see anything.

But no matter what is seen or experienced, the person should simply concentrate above the head and mind, and above altogether — not to the left or the right. What lies to the left and the right are states that are less than the Light Itself. One should simply pass into the Light — Above everything that is seen to appear, everything that arises as the process takes place. In this manner, the Divine Sphere becomes the destiny. In such a case, what occurs is still a form of rebirth, but there are higher and lower forms of rebirth.

To the maximum Robyn is capable of in her disposition, she should release into the Light Above, the Pure "Brightness" directly Above, rather than to the right or the left. What appears to be a bright tunnel, and entities of one kind or another in astral planes, is just the content of the astral planes. Robyn should simply be directed to release into the White "Brightness" Above, to relinquish all those subtler apparitions and be Drawn to Me in My "Bright" Form, Drawn to the Divine Form Itself (Beyond all conditional appearances).

This is a summary of the process that takes place after death and what that process serves. Everyone at the vigil should know that this is the purpose of coming there.

AVATAR ADI DA SAMRAJ: The person who has passed should hear My Instruction. He or she should be encouraged to be drawn upwards to the "Bright" White Light Above (Above the head, and Above life altogether), and not to be distracted by whatever appears to the left or the right. There are other signs that help that drawing-upward. If the Light is not being seen immediately, there is a strong Attraction felt upwards — it is an Attractive upward Force.

There is also Sound, an upward-moving Sound. It can have any number of qualities. There is no point in describing it. It is an intense vibration that can be heard and that moves high above and attracts the being upward by that. She should be moved by that. And the Light is eventually seen. Even if, at the moment, the Sound is not heard or the Light seen, there is a profound Bliss felt Above.

Without any sensory signs (such as Sound or Light at the moment), this profound Bliss (felt Above) likewise Attracts upward. These signs should be followed: the Attractive Bliss Above, the Attractive Sound Above, the Attractive Light Above — but particularly the Brilliant White Clear Circle of Light, the Brilliant White Light.

Recently, Robyn remembered a remark I made to another devotee who was dying: "Fly to Me like an arrow." This is what I mean. These three — the Bliss, the Sound, and the Light — are the Arrow that Leads to the Center, Above conditionality.

The White "Brightness" is Brilliant, but completely Attractive and not disturbing to the view. It can be looked at. Its Brilliance is Infinite, and yet It is completely discrete from the surrounding black. There is no blurry edge. Its edge is absolutely clear, against the dark field.

When the White "Brightness" is approached most closely, a kind of "tunnel" may be perceived, and apparitions of various kinds may be seen (entities from the astral plane — often, helpful relations who have passed). She should hold to the center, hold to the upward attraction. She may see My Form in some manner or another in the Light, the Form she is used to here. Or she may simply see the Light, the Sphere, the Circle of Light. That is My Form, the Divine Form.

Let go of everything. Relinquish everything, distracted and Drawn — straight, like an arrow — into That White "Brightness", That Bliss, That Vibratory Force (or Sound). These characteristics may be felt. The Fullness of Bliss may be felt, the Vibratory Force may be heard, the White "Brightness" may be seen. Allow all sense of separateness and otherness to be dissolved Above, in the Unconditional Force of Being Itself, the Divine Domain.

It is not that death is some kind of panacea, or some kind of "straight shot" for the Ultimate. What happens in the death-transition depends on all kinds of factors. In summary, you could say that it depends on Divine Blessing-Grace and on the sadhana the individual has done and the individual's disposition altogether.

The death-process is a time of sadhana. In Robyn's case, there is Blessing-Grace, there is a life of sadhana lived as fully as she has — and she had this last full year of intensive sadhana. So all these things are auspicious. [July 15, 2001]

Beloved Adi Da Samraj,

I was feeling simple and happy that Robyn was in Your most direct Embrace. Then, unexpectedly, I felt my father in the room. He had died in 1995 in Australia, while I was living at The Mountain Of Attention, and I had not been present at his funeral.

Beloved, I felt my father take my hands in his — I could "see" the little dark hairs on the backs of his fingers — and felt him clearly ask for my forgiveness for certain events of the past. There was no movement in me to do anything other than tell him that, of course, he was entirely forgiven, that all was fine between us, and that I loved him.

My heart was overflowing with joy — it was clear my father had not left this realm after his death, and, it seemed, had not been able to contact me before this moment. After our "conversation", I saw my father ascend in a stream of golden light. I was left ecstatic with happiness at this incredible completion, which I knew was Given by Your Grace and Blessing, my Beloved Master.

I Am What the dead know.
I Am Who they are.
It is not dead.
This Body is Transfigured by the Divine Light.
The "Bright" Is My Only Existence.
The "Bright" is the Divine Condition, Coinciding here.
This Coincidence is horrific to Me.
It destroys the heart — it would extinguish the heart.
And I am Working to prevent that — in the case of all.

Avatar Adi Da Samraj, March 21, 2001