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his breathing was labored. His wife, Victoria, was by his side holding his hand.
I looked around the room for a tape player to play devotional songs that might bring the sense of Swami’s presence more strongly to us. The tape player was broken, so I began to soly chant “Om.” I knew that at times like this, there are prescribed mantras and prayers. I did not know any of them, but I did know that Om held everything within its holy vibration. So, inwardly, I spoke to Swami and offered the Om to him. As soon as I started chanting, others joined, and we stood around Jack’s bed united in this sacred vibration.
Then something unusual happened. Even though Jack was in a coma, it was apparent to all of us that he recognized this holy sound. His personal mantra was “Om Sai Ram,” and it was clear that Jack had become deeply immersed in his mantra. It was as if his whole being recognized the Om; his body perceptibly relaxed, released, and became absorbed in the Om. All of us saw this sudden change and felt an upliing vitality energize the united chanting of the holy mantra. We could see Jack
merging into his mantra and felt a oneness with him. Within two minutes of our beginning the chant, we felt Jack pass from his body into the Om. In awe, we felt subtly transformed into a transcendental
oneness with Jack in the Om.
This experience was the most powerful one
I have ever had with Om and our oneness with all. Swami tells us that we are not the body and we are not the mind, that we are Om itself. Although Jack did not have a visitation from Swami in physical form during the process of his dying, we experienced his becoming one with Swami in
the Om at the time of death.
A few months later, Sharon and I went to Swami to return
some of the articles that Swami had materialized for Jack. As we sat with Swami, he told us that Jack was steady in his spiritual life, that he was a good man, and that “He is now with me.” Dear Jack had merged into the ocean of sublime peace and love.
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