I believe facing death is one of life’s greatest acts of faith.

Letting go before we sleep every night is a practice of letting go in preparation for the ultimate sleep – dying. When we bring faith and devotion to the practice of reciting Soheila at bedtime, we can learn to face death without dread and fear.

This Bani (daily prayer or sound current) of Soheila is not only beautiful in the words and harmonious in the naad, but the message is comforting, powerful and protective.  The Gurus remind us that we are always taken care of by the Creator.

Death is described as the ‘Day of Marriage of the Soul Bride with her Lord.’ The concept of death as a celebration, a part of life that is inevitable and something that we can practice each night to prepare ourselves for our ‘Day of Marriage,’ perhaps even look forward to it is a powerful and comforting gift.

Soheila is a tool to help us live each day fully, fear free, protected and as if it was our last!  Thus we can live each new day in gratitude for the gift of life, live in remembrance of where we come from and the home we have to ultimately go to.

Soheila speaks the Gurus’ wisdom, presenting itself as both an art and a science: art, as the beautiful poetry and music that vibrates the Divine as it soothes the unsettled mind and our human body. And science as the sound current presented in the unique language of Gurmukhi (meaning from the mouth of the Guru) that is in complete synchronicity with the Universe.

In the original Gurmukhi, the rhythm and melodies penetrate deep within our being, allowing the Guru’s words to heal our mind, body and spirit. If done properly, the recitation of the Bani (prayer) relaxes the mind and touches the spirit. Even as a passive listener, important benefits are obtained. Sung from one’s own breath, it delivers a further embodiment of wisdom deep within. By deeply listening, a shield of protection envelops your soul.

With faith, we allow the spirit to be brought alive by the Guru’s words. With these words we can relax into a deeper comfort. This special comfort emanates from our true nature, which is Akal, or deathless. The Gurus teach us that all worldly entanglements can be resolved when we accept deathlessness as our true nature. To that end we must release our attachments to all that is temporary, before they are painfully taken from us. Becoming free from these bonds brings us to the state of Akal.

To embody deathlessness is the highest of human aspirations. This is the real aim of a proper yoga practice – to achieve the state of Jivan Mukti, or liberated being – liberation from the comings and goings of birth and death.

To achieve this state of Akal we must be willing to sanctify our souls. To sanctify means to remove impurities. Sanctification is a partnership between God, Guru and you. We cannot achieve purity by ourselves, but we must do our part. For this we have our spiritual practices, the purpose of which is to free us from the five obstacles or challenges of lust, anger, greed, pride and attachment. The five passions disturb our peace, and leave us in pieces.

This is why I recite Soheila. It has been a healing process to bring freedom from my own thoughts – conscious or sub-conscious. I want to redirect my bedtime thoughts to the Guru’s words and thereby relieve my mental stress and redirect my mind.

I realized how much of my life was about running from death by seeking the often distorted pleasures from my emotions and feelings. Changing how I felt through the many pleasures of the senses was my way of forgetting that my time on Earth is temporary. False pleasures temporarily eased my pains of regrets, guilt, lack of discipline and all my other weakness, but continued to distance me from my true destiny. That destiny is Akal Purkh, Deathlessness. To succeed at becoming deathless I continue to try to surrender my attachment to the temporary. With all the temptations of the material world, this is the only way to achieve real peace and comfort.

Often we chase pleasures to distance ourselves from the reality of death. The pursuit of pleasures, while ignoring the One who gave us our ability to enjoy them, keeps us in fear. Fearing the world while ignoring God keeps us in a constant state of anxiety. To fear God in the correct sense provides freedom from the fear of the outer world. Everything that exists goes through its cycles and ultimately dies. Death remains constant, and for many this is a painful reality. With faith we can accept that mind and matter die, but the soul remains.

As we distance ourselves from our destiny we are also creating separation from God’s Love. Not experiencing God’s love is a loneliness that brings suffering. And this suffering creates emotional and physical pains that result in false comfort seeking behavior.

Pleasures are part of life, but pleasures taken without gratitude give distance to the ease of life. True comfort rests in the comfortable seat of our immortal souls. Life has its pleasures and pains. Our relationship to the Guru provides us with the strength and guidance to face life’s pains and the grace to receive life’s pleasures.

Our emotional attachments to this body-mind and the feelings that ensue, separate and dull us from recognizing our own souls. Soheila teaches us how to exalt our spirit and thus defeat death. We need to touch our spirits and this is possible by reciting God’s praises.

In the second pauri of Soheila we are called to find a path where God’s praises are sung. That is where we are honored and exalted, ending the fear of death.

At bedtime we want to be able to surrender to sleep. So we need to learn the science of how to relax unnecessary tensions in order to fall and stay asleep.

With God and Guru we drop our shell of separation, our false identity and enter the true and immortal world of Akal, the undying truth, and can relax and sleep with ease, Sahej.