Who Has Gone Where: Bali's Last Counsel and the Soul That Is Never Lost
In the morning satsanga of October 11, 2026, Swami Jyotirmayananda read Bali's last counsel to Angada as divine wisdom spoken at the dying stage, and taught that the departed soul is enfolded in God's love and never separated from those who remain.
The satsanga opened with invocations to Lord Ganesha, Goddess Saraswati, Goddess Durga, Goddess Lakshmi and the Guru, and with the meditation verse on Lord Rama: the Lord of the Raghu dynasty, whose complexion is like a blue lotus, tender and delightful in appearance, with Sita seated at His left side and a powerful bow and arrow in His hands. After the Hare Rama mantra, Swamiji read one of his poems, a song of taking shelter in the cave of the heart, where creation vanishes in transcendence sublime and the light within is forever vibrant and bright. Then the reading of the Ramayana continued.
Wisdom at the Dying Stage
Swamiji called this a profound episode and repeated an insight he had given before. Here the higher self has conquered the lower self, and the lower self is no longer obstructive. The lower self, he explained, means the mind and senses that constantly operate in the world. One continues to work and live in the world, but is no longer deluded by it.
Bali, he said, had been the lower self, highlighted by egoism, and he is now about to be sublimated and united with Rama. In the days of his egoism, the best advice had been given to him by Tara. Now, at the dying stage, Bali expresses a gracious power. He tells Sugriva that he must do things listening to Tara's advice.
Angada, Bali's son, has great spiritual potency. Yet, obedient to his father, he had ignored all the best advice and gone on helping Bali. Now Bali himself points out that Angada should not follow his father's egoistic counsel, but should always follow Tara.
Faith Free From Rust
Swamiji then gave a subtler meaning. Hanuman's strength is shraddha, faith, and alongside it stands vishwas, trust. When one is under the domination of the lower self, trust is placed in how to gain popularity, fame, name and power in a world that is perishable. Even the virtuous karma one performs requires trust, but that trust has a rust in it. After the victory of the higher self, trust becomes free from rust. It becomes divine trust.
Swamiji recited the verse that honors Bhavani and Shankara as the very forms of shraddha and vishwas. Shiva and Parvati, he explained, are the divine power behind faith and trust. Shiva, as Rudra, is the source of Hanuman, and Angada had the support of the Mother. When both come into divine order, the result is an amazing faith, "the faith that cannot be shaken," like the Himalayas with every storm breaking against them. Such a one becomes dhir, vir and gambhir: steady, heroic and profound.
Angada's strength, Swamiji said, is of another kind, an ocean type of strength. The Himalaya is one type and the ocean another, and Rama stands behind all of it. Rama, Hanuman and Angada are now joined together in the divine movement, in the cause of dharma.
The Divine Father
Young people, Swamiji observed, always look to a father for support, and they see that father as a biological father. That support is not the real one. So divine wisdom is given to Angada, and it comes through Bali's own mouth: never view Sugriva as a biological father; view him as the absolute father, the Divine Father. There is a great difference, Swamiji said, between following the footsteps of a biological father and "following the footsteps of Divine Father."
The Soul Is Alone
Swamiji then turned to what he called very profound insight. After death, the soul is led by its own karma. In other words, "your soul is alone." The sun has countless reflections, and a reflection gains nothing by staying joined with other reflections; its source is the sun. With the victory of the higher self, the soul realizes Aham Brahmasmi, I am Brahman. That is Advaita. Of being alone, Swamiji said, "It's the most glorious thing." That is called Vedanta.
The same holds for every relation. One may wish to take a brother, a sister, a son or a daughter along. But each one has the potentiality to realize Aham Brahmasmi, and one is not the person who is going to help them. The real help, Swamiji said, comes through the divine movement, and it operates through one's conscience.
When a Dear One Departs
How should one deal with the departure of a dear relative, a father or a mother? To view the one who has departed only as a biological relation, Swamiji taught, is to insult the soul. "Soul is not biologically related." In one's own body, the soul that was there in the little baby, the pocket edition, is the same soul; the baby's body went away, and then the youthful body went away too. The body is constantly perishing, and all that perishing is like old clothes being torn away. Do not cry over the loss of old cloth.
Instead, turn to God, and see that the departed soul has been enfolded by God's love. In this way one gives great glory to the departed. And the God in whose arms one's relative has been enfolded is ever in one's very heart. "So who has gone where?"
When the mind turns again to a departed father, Swamiji counseled, turn to God in saranagati, surrender, and God gives insight. The departed soul of one's dearest relative has not gone anywhere; it has been enfolded by God's love, and that divine love of God is ever present in one's very heart. "You are never separated," he said, by anybody's death. Grieving over the departed soul, he said, insults one's own spiritual movement.
Real Vairagya
At such a stage, Swamiji noted, people are often powered by moha, delusion. In a time of loss they may develop great vairagya, dispassion, but a few days later it goes away completely. That is not real vairagya. Real vairagya implies seeing God in all, the realization "I am Brahman." If you are Brahman, all souls are your brothers. The more that vairagya develops, the more one's life is dedicated to goodwill for all, in the spirit of the prayer sarve bhavantu sukhinah, sarve santu niramayah, sarve bhadrani pashyantu: may all be happy, may all be free from illness, may all see what is auspicious.
The satsanga closed with a prayer for the shower of God's grace over all, that by its blessing each may become dhir, vir and gambhir, and with the Tryambakam mantra.
Terms in This Satsanga
- shraddha — faith; the strength of Hanuman.
- vishwas — trust; free from rust once the higher self has won.
- dhir, vir, gambhir — steady, heroic and profound; the qualities grace bestows.
- saranagati — surrender to God, the way through grief.
- moha — delusion; the power behind passing dispassion.
- vairagya — dispassion; in its real form, seeing God in all.
- Aham Brahmasmi — "I am Brahman," the realization of the soul.
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