The Light that Binds Us

For several years when I was younger, an image often came to mind of small girl, about 3 years old, with blond hair in pigtails. I didn’t give it much thought at the time, as all of us probably have images and memories that occasionally float through our minds. Some years later I married Jayaji and we had a daughter. When she was almost 3 years old I realized that she was the child in the image in my mind from years before.

Experiences of meeting old friends from past lives are common. Yoganandaji said that we’ve all been mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers and friends to one another, and that we meet them again and again. Many people say that when they found Ananda they felt that they were coming home to their spiritual family. It’s a wonderful blessing on the spiritual path to have the company of soul friends, travelling the path together.

When you meet a friend from past lives it’s important to nurture this relationship. Serving one another is beneficial for us – good for ourselves and for others. In the first years of Ananda Village we had an extensive garden and grew lots of vegetables in the summers. Quite a large number of us worked there, trained by a very experienced gardener whose name was Haanel. One day Haanel and I were looking at a row of peas which had recently come up out of the ground. He turned to me and said, “You know, in just a few days these plants are going to reach out, hold hands, and pull each other up!” It’s been almost 50 years since that time, and Haanel long ago passed into the astral world, but I still remember our conversation. It reminds me of our bonds with one another, holding hands and pulling each other up toward the light. It’s a bit like having a Guru’s representative in each of us.

Something Very Strong and Elastic

A few years ago I received an email from a friend in India while I was in America. At the end of the mail, he wrote, “in the light that binds us”, and his name. The image it brought to mind was of all of us connected by light in a very solid way, not something that could easily be broken or disappear, but something very strong and elastic. So that, no matter where we go physically that light is always there, bonding us. We can also call it the sound of Aum, or love — any of the qualities of God, but whatever it is, if we choose to join it we will be connected by it. Even if we turn away from it, the light goes with us. And when we leave our bodies, the light goes with us as well. Just as my daughter was with me before her birth, our friends and loved ones are with us after their death.

As Yoganandaji said, “Through perfected divine friendship, mutually seeking spiritual perfection, you will find the one Great Friend. Friendship is God’s trumpet call, bidding the soul destroy the walls which separate it from all other souls and from Him.”

In Divine Friendship,

Nayaswami Sadhana Devi