Inner Awareness : The soul never forgets

Posted 07:13pm (Mla time) Feb 21, 2005
By Jaime Licauco
Inquirer News Service

Editor's Note: Published on page C3 of the February
22, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

WHEN she was only 5 years old, Shanti Devi of India
told her mother she had another name, that she had
several children, that she died giving birth to her
baby in a town some 50 miles from their own and that
her husband was still alive.

Her mother dismissed her daughter's claims to be mere
products of a child's fertile imagination. When Shanti
was 9 years old, a man from that town where she said
she lived in a previous life visited her family. The
mother asked if he knew the woman Shanti mentioned who
died during childbirth.

The visitor said there was such a woman and he knew
the family very well. A subsequent trip to that town,
together with scientific investigators, like Dr. Ian
Stevenson, confirmed every detail of what the child
told her mother, details no one could have known
except somebody who experienced them.

Ghandi was reported to have sought an audience with
the woman who remembered completely her past life.

The story of Shanti Devi has filled many books on
reincarnation because of the richness of her memory of
details of her past life that have been verified.

Glimpses of the past
But everyone of us has, to a certain extent, glimpses
of our past life. For example, how many of us have had
dreams of being in a foreign country, wearing a
certain costume and talking in a strange language? How
many of us visited a place for the first time and got
a distinct feeling that we had been there before? We
can even give details of what we will find inside that
place.

And how many of us, though seeing a person for the
very first time, have the feeling we knew that person
before? Sometimes the feeling is instant attraction,
at other times instant repulsion. What accounts for
that seemingly irrational reaction on our part? We
have often heard cases of "instant love" or "love at
first sight." What accounts for these emotions?

These can be explained by the fact that the soul never
forgets. Our subconscious mind holds the memory of all
our past incarnations on earth, and even of those
lifetimes we may have spent in some other galaxies or
planetary systems.

But because we are so focused on the earth plane, we
seldom pay attention to inner voices from the very
depths of our souls.

Past connections

The reason two people get attracted to each other in
this lifetime is because they have had similar
encounters in their past incarnations on earth. Your
spouse or lover may have been your sister, or mother
or child in the past. Your child may have been your
lover in the past, and your enemy may have been
somebody who betrayed you in the past, etc.

You meet each other again now because you have to work
out your karma with that person. Until that karma is
fulfilled or exhausted, until you have learned to
forgive and let go, you will meet that person again
and again in future lifetimes.

Remember that both great love and great hatred will
bind you to another person. So if you don't want to
meet your enemy again in a future life, you have to
learn to forgive and release that person.

It is the same with selfish or possessive love. You
have to learn to let go and allow your loved one to
grow by interacting with other people. Love must be
unconditional or unselfish so as not to have karmic
repercussions.

Each encounter we may have with people from our past
lives affords us the golden opportunity to work out
our karma with them, pay our debts, or learn a lesson
in love or forgiveness, patience or selflessness.

Sometimes the lessons we get are difficult and painful
but they have to be regarded as opportunities for
growth in spirituality and understanding.

So, in this month of love, let us learn to go deeper
and discover what binds you to another. Usually it is
a past life experience you had with that person.

Without an understanding of past life connections we
have with others, we will not be able to work out our
karma with that person and will be condemned to live
life over and over again with that person in a vicious
cycle until both of us learn what we are supposed to
learn in this lifetime.

Address letters to this column to Prince Plaza I, 106
Legazpi St., Legazpi Village, Makati City. Call
8107245 or 8926806 for information on seminars I
conduct. E-mail: jlicauco@edsamail.com.ph. Visit my
website at http://jlicauco.shorturl.com. Listen to my
dzMM radio program 7-8 p.m. every Sunday.

From: http://news.inq7.net/lifestyle/index.php?index=2&story_id=28258&col=3