Reawakening: A Tale of Death, the Afterlife & a Mission

By Kobina Amissah-Fynn

My very profound near-death experience (and the lessons I learnt in the heavenly realm in a brief span hovering between life and death) it is that constitutes my reawakening. That supernatural experience gave me insights into the meaning and deeper lessons of life; it kindled in me sentiments of loving-kindness towards all men. But most importantly, it set me on a quest for that enigmatic "Universal Cause" which, I could vaguely recall from my otherworldly adventure, would be the ultimate panacea for the ills afflicting the human race and which was destined to gradually lead men, through an unprecedented period of turmoil and worldwide commotion, into a glorious new Age of World Unity, Sublime Peace and the Brotherhood of Man. What was this Universal Cause? Was it an idea, a concept, an agenda, a plan, a movement, a Christian sect, or even a new religion? I could not remember…

A stimulating story of some 140 pages long.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hope Books
• Release date: Mar 2, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393130444

Book preview

REAWAKENING

A Tale of Death, the Afterlife & a Mission

Kobina Amissah-Fynn

REAWAKENING: A TALE OF DEATH, THE AFTERLIFE & A MISSION

Copyright © K. Amissah-Fynn 2019

All Rights Reserved

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First published 2019

This publication 2020

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This is a work of fiction.  While true-life religious and historical figures and events do feature in the narrative, the book’s characters are nevertheless fictional and the resemblance of any of them to any persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. THE WEDDING

II. MY ENGAGEMENT

III. FAMILY FOCUS

IV. LIKE A PHOENIX

V. BEYOND THE VEIL

The Transition Point

VI. THE LIFE REVIEW

Small Acts

Fault-finding

Love

VII. THE HEAVEN OF OUR CREATION

The Nether Regions

Animals & Pets

Reincarnation

Infinite Worlds

Christian Communes

VIII. THE HUMAN CONDITION

The Ancestors

Creatures in Other Planets

Catastrophe & Renewal

IX. THE DEEPEST QUESTIONS

The Purpose of Life

The Role of Religion

The Second Coming

X. THE GOD ENCOUNTER

XI. THE RETURN JOURNEY

The Room Upstairs

The Reawakening

Sequence of Events

XII. A UNIVERSAL CAUSE

Reflections

The Mission

EPILOGUE

I. THE WEDDING

Our wedding in Panaji, in the Indian state of Goa, on that sunny Sunday in November 2013, was one of the most exciting earthly events of my entire life. Our two families were there in their numbers—from as far away as Brazil, Portugal, the US, and from different states of India. We had two marriage ceremonies that day, a Buddhist ceremony in the morning to conform to my groom’s religious background and a Christian one later in the afternoon of the same day as required by my Catholic upbringing. For the Buddhist wedding, which was colourful but simple, I was gorgeously attired in green—a full-length sarong-like dress with a sleeved blouse over which I had a special jacket. Covering my hair was a scarf. Bhadrapala, my husband-to-be, had on an elegant brown-coloured sherwani suit.

For the Catholic wedding—which was much less colourful but more elaborate—my man was immaculate in a western-type dark blue suit and I changed into a well-designed white western-type wedding gown with a veil, and my arms and neck were liberally bedecked with jewellery.

After the second of the two ceremonies was over, and the Catholic priest had declared us husband and wife, we all—family members, friends, invited guests and well-wishers—moved over to a spacious rented facility for the reception. There, in the well-decorated hall, in the midst of abundant bouquets of flowers, the wedding cake was cut; food and drinks were in abundance, and we had music, dance and general merrymaking (as was of course to be expected).

A Hindu relative of mine, Uncle Arjun, the 63-year-old much-loved first cousin of my mother, rose to raise the toast for the happiness and prosperity of the newly-married. In his inimitable way, and drawing heavily on Hindu philosophical thoughts, he gave his take on what life for a married couple should be.

Life is a love, he chirped cheerily, enjoy it to the full. He spoke some more, in the course of which he boomed a warning to the newly-married about the inevitability of challenges, saying, Life is a challenge; meet it squarely and move forward unitedly. And before closing his short address he stressed that marriages need not be all physical. Allowing a spiritual atmosphere to nourish the relationship notwithstanding the obvious religious differences, he averred, would make it full, complete and filled with harmony.

Life is a spirit, were his closing words, realize it in your marriage.

And then he raised the toast, which was enthusiastically responded to by all present. His simple message was well received judging by the response of all present.  I was happy and saw from the face of my new husband that he was as well.

It must be said though that this wedding, with all the fun, the joy, the emotions and the satisfaction it brought to so many of our acquaintances, was not supposed to have happened—not merely because of the racial, cultural and religious differences that had blinded me and kept Bhadrapala and me apart for so long, but of something much more profound: I was supposed to have been dead!

It may seem bizarre but a vision of my just-concluded wedding had been shown me during a near-death experience, in the land of the dead, just a couple of months before. I was unaware, at the time of my resuscitation, that what I had experienced, in that afterlife setting, was well-known to the scientific community and even had a name. The only thing I could swear to was that it was not a dream. It was much too vivid to be called a dream, so I simply referred to it as the Vision. Only later, when I came in contact with websites dealing with the subject, was I able to more fully embrace it and allow the many lessons and wisdoms I had gained from it to further shape my reawakening in this earthly plane.

I remember how overnight the experience brought about a deep and lasting change to my personality: I felt chastened, humbled, filled with gratitude and with a heart brimming with love for every living soul. Animals, plants, all creation in general, began to have a special place in my heart. I felt it a great bounty to be alive, to have a life to live and to live it for a purpose, or at least to understand that there is a purpose to the riddle of life. The experience instilled in me a new zest for living. I became more interested in benevolent endeavours and always eagerly looked for opportunities to be of service to others.

All these changes to my personality were brought about by the lessons I had received on the other side of the veil. Of these lessons, however, there was one that I knew was of even more critical importance to my life’s purpose on earth; but what this lesson was I could not remember.

I had been hoping to have some clarity on this prior to my marriage—to help me shape the type of lifestyle I needed to adopt in our home from the very inception of my married life—but, alas, I was nowhere near discovering what this missing info was. Then after our marriage, I began to entertain the hope that the married life itself would provide the stimulation, the occasion or even the key, to finding it.

As expected, the wonderful wedding came to an end and was immediately followed by an unforgettable honeymoon—in neighbouring Sri Lanka. The honeymoon brought my joy and happiness to a deserving climax. And yet all through our fortnight in that beautiful island country, this question kept popping up in my head: If this enchanting occasion doesn’t furnish me with the missing info, what else will? My husband noticed and commented that I seemed to be distracted some of the time by, and in deep thought about, something. What was the matter?

He was left confused when I responded with a quote from dear Uncle Arjun, Life is a puzzle; and we have to solve it.

Meaning what? he asked.

I had by then broached on the subject of my near-death experience only once to him, soon after my release from hospital; and although he appeared sympathetic then, I did not detect much curiosity and interest in his demeanour to give him more than the briefest outline. So on this occasion, I purposefully refrained from saying anything more about that otherworldly experience and its aftereffects; instead I surprised him by asking him to teach me Buddhism, and in particular the practice of meditation. So our honeymoon turned out to be both a material and a spiritual encounter for us both, as we freely traded spiritual teachings drawn from both the Buddhist and Christian traditions.

We are already living the lesson of my uncle, I smilingly remarked one morning to my dear husband. Life is a spirit... do you remember he said that? And we are realizing it right now, in our religious discussions, in combination with the physical.

Bhadrapala nodded and chuckled knowingly.

Buddhism is of course the state religion of Sri Lanka, so there were many opportunities for me to be engrossed in the religion while we were on the island. I was particularly struck by how much of practices and traditions Buddhists share in common with Catholics—practices and traditions such as the monastic life, celibacy of priests, special garbs, effigies of saints, the use of incense, of holy water and rosary, etc.

I did learn a lot about the theory and practice of meditation during those days, which was great. I began to meditate no less than 15 minutes each day, sometimes in the company of my husband but most times by myself. Those meditative sessions gave me the presence of mind and helped me, when we got back home, to determine a course for my personal and married life more in keeping with the lessons of my near-death experience.

The core lesson of my near-death experience is that nothing matters more in this life and the next than the practice of love—unconditional, disinterested love—wherever we are and in everything we do, which is why I vowed from the onset to be a truly loving wife to my husband and to do all in my power to make my marriage a truly rewarding experience for both of us. I also felt it necessary to involve him as much as possible in charitable causes, in humanitarian services, and in endeavours aimed at spreading love and wellbeing in the wider community.

But I did also decide to write a book, to share with the world my experiences of life in the other realm, the marvellous lessons I was exposed to in the world of the spirit. This book, Reawakening, is the result of almost four years of that monumental endeavour. I call it monumental because I had never thought myself capable of the authorship of a book.  

But writing this book was not only about sharing those heavenly lessons with others: There was an even more urgent and insistent reason for it, and this was to do with the need to recover information that had been erased from my memory. I was warned before my return from the other side that crucial aspects of the experiences I had had and lessons I had received would recede deep into hidden recesses of my consciousness and be forgotten, and that I would succeed in recalling bits and pieces of this information only as I pressed heroically on with my lifelong endeavours and expanded the range of my activities to accomplish my life’s mission on earth—that this was the only way to gradually bring back to memory what had been erased from my conscious mind.

In particular there was that one piece of information earlier referred to, which, as I could vaguely recall, held the ultimate key to the happiness and wellbeing of the entire human race. This was the missing info I had been hoping to recover. What this missing info was about I could not even remember.

Thankfully, when I intensified my services to the life of my community and started writing my book, many of the forgotten lessons of the heavenly realm began to re-emerge in my consciousness, just as I had been promised. And the outline of the missing info then began to take shape in my mind as my writing steadily expanded in the natural evolution of time.

Life is a promise, I recalled my uncle’s words. And by pursuing this most important of assignments, that of completing my book, I felt confident I was fulfilling my promise.

II. MY ENGAGEMENT

Bhadrapala Kamal was and still is a second-generation Buddhist, his parents having converted to Buddhism, from Hinduism on his mother’s side and Islam on his father’s side. Though born and bred in India, he did spend some time in the US pursuing a higher university education before returning to lecture in mathematics at a university in Mumbai. He is brown-skinned, clean-shaven and bespectacled.

He is two years younger than me, and is taller than me though not by very much. I am of average height, slightly darker than my mother who is light brown skin, my hair is more curly that straight (and looks quite bushy). I am a proud Catholic but not the very religious type, in the sense that I do skip the Sunday Mass every now and then.

The first time I met Bhadrapala was at a large gathering of about forty of my extended family in early 2012. He was there very briefly (for perhaps no more than 15 or 20 minutes) during one of the breaks, and his presence there was at the invitation of one of my aunts. The gathering itself was a one-off event that was held to bring relatives together from far and near. It had no religious objective and was more cultural and social in nature. Relatives had come from inside and outside Goa and a few had even come from overseas. That was how important the gathering had been to the extended family.

It was marked with festivities and cultural interactions, and there were occasions for discussions on family plans and projects. The festivities went on for an entire weekend and continued at a lower scale for the best part of a week to cater for those who had come from far and were staying for a while. The cuisine was an interesting mix of Indian, Portuguese and traditional Goan treats for the main dishes, the drinks, deserts as well as the snacks.

Before coming face to face with Bhadrapala at this meeting, my Buddhist aunt, Auntie Achara, had told me, on more than a few occasions, that if I would do away with my religious prejudices and be prepared to marry a Buddhist, she would be able to connect me with a very fine, handsome man. Just the guy for you, she would always stress; very good character. She told me that she had known him for a long time, the son of respected family friends.

She continued mentioning this to me over the years. I fiercely resisted her plan on two main grounds: First and foremost was the religious aspect. I indeed had my religious preferences and prejudices concerning who to or not to marry. I yearned to marry a Catholic man, but was not averse to marrying a Christian from another denomination if the worst came to the worst. Marrying outside the Christian fold, marrying a Buddhist, was going a bit too far in my estimation, and I could not bring my head round the idea.

My second objection was that I was fiercely opposed to arranged marriages (having seen a few of such marriages ending up in smoke) and I did not want to contemplate any interferences in the choice of my spouse. My parents knew about this and grudgingly kept their distance.

This was my position in 2012 when Auntie Achara came in that evening, during a break in our family gathering, accompanied by the man who, according to her, was the one who had transported her from Mumbai, in his car, while on his way to our city for a week-long vacation. Our state is well-known of course as a place of both domestic and international tourism. I had no way of knowing at the time if he had freely come on his own or was persuaded by Auntie Achara to do so—but whatever the case, Auntie Achara did directly introduce him to me as Bhadrapala; and this was the first time I set my eyes on him and came to know him as the man she had been trying to match me to over a period of some three years. Much later, during our courtship, I learnt from him that my aunt had spoken to him at length about me and she had even given him a picture of me, and he had, much to my amusement, taken a liking to me right from the start. All I can say is that on that initial encounter I did not dislike him, but I tried not to think of anything beyond that. 

I had had the hope all along, from my teenage years in fact, that Mr. Right would appear from within our Catholic congregation sooner or later. I prayed for that outcome regularly—to God the Father, to Jesus, to Mary the mother of Jesus, to any number of our Catholic saints—but as the months of promise turned to years of bitter disappointment and I watched my youthful years slip gradually away, the bells of alarm began to ring clamorously in my ears. In desperation I consulted my local priest one day, who could offer no more than a verbal promise to remember me in his prayers. He had no other advice for me!

So, as valuable time continued to pass rapidly by and the