Is there a test to determine which friends are true friends from the past? Yes, I will explain. What a wonderful experience it is to recognize and meet somebody you knew before, a person with whom you have journeyed the same roadmap of life within previous incarnations. So, in one way we are all strangers traveling by ourselves through this life. Isn’t it true? No one who you think is yours is yours. No one can be owned by someone and no one can control or own anybody else. We each have our own individual karmic destinies with its own course. But in another way we are not alone in this life. There are some strong relationships that endure that’s why family members are recognizable from past lives, but every once in a while we meet others with whom we knew from prior lives, such as childhood friends.
Even though they have nothing in common with our current incarnations, they are just souls we have known before so be aware that there are many true friends from past lives that you will meet again and to one of them you could say “at last we have found each other again” this is why there is love at first sight or finding your soul mate at long last, or the faithful guru disciple relationship or finding past best friends. Who are these people who are so close to us? The spiritual master tells us there are some cherished relationships that remain and from which we draw protection, strength and happiness.
These souls are not always born into our family, but with whom we have an inner closeness of an unending friendship. Many lives are needed to build a foundation of friendship, it is never secured in one life but many lives are needed to develop a pillar of friendship.
Every now and then there is one whom you know at first glance when you first meet that you have known from the past long ago, with whom you feel instantly an immense closeness as you first meet. It’s nothing physical; it is a rekindled memory of the past. The friendship was not finished in the last incarnation so it had to continue now to grow stronger and picks up where you left off to evolve in this life.
In a crowd of strangers how do you recognize those you knew before? Be watchful whenever you first meet someone and notice your initial reaction. This can tell you a great deal whether or not you knew those people before. If you have the feeling of deep harmony in your heart with another individual then you know. Looking again deeply in that large crowd, you instantaneously like some faces; however the others do not particularly attract your liking. The immediate attraction you feel in your mind to the likeable inner and outer features of the face that attracted you is the first indication you have found a past friend. Your dear ones with whom you were with and loved in the past will be pulled toward you by a pre-natal sense of past friendship. In that crowd you noticed a fat, distorted body but that person may harbor a real friend. Sometimes a lack of exercise and overeating will distort the facial features of a friend, and may escape your recognition.
Make sure your eyes have not deceived you because of the physical characteristics of your supposed past friend, see whether you are spiritually and mentally congenial. Guard yourself from prejudice against small peculiarities by delving deep into your mind in order to find out whether your inclination and tastes largely agree. There is a prayer to attract true friends from the past “Let those that are our own come unto us and finding them may we find friendship with all.”
Try this little test to determine whether or not your friends are true friends from the past. There are a lot of so-called friends you may have; and will say to you how amazing you are never disagreeing with anything you say. These individuals want something from you for their own advantage. Friends that are true want nothing from you except the pleasure of your company. A test of friends is to see how they react toward you when you have done something to contradict or rouse them. True friends from other lives though there may be disagreements will never be vengeful or forsake you no matter what you do and will love you unconditionally and always be your friend. Any friend who loves you this way is a friend you knew before.
When analyzing who your friends were form the past you can know as well by the harmony you experience with each other. With the attunement you share you begin to know how that person will respond or feel before he even reacts. Try to be a friend to all but by no means expect all to be your friends unless they have passed these tests with flying colors. And to those so-called friends who fail, give them your consideration, however they are not yet ready to be your friend. Never allow your feelings or heart to be harmed by them. If you lose their friendship because you think differently, that is how you can tell they were not really your friends
The majority of people is found to be self-centered and want to charm and convince others for what they can self-gain from them. These types of people are “yes” men, never compromise or give up your will-power to them. Hold tight to your principals. At all times beware of flattery and never mix with friends who flatter you. You will have wasted your time with them. People who give flattery cannot give love and people who love will not give flattery. In order to attract those whom you knew before mix with those with thoughtfulness, love and sincerity. Otherwise you will never attract your true friends from the past.
You can also meet some enemies from the past as well. When an individual is inimical to you or tries to hurt you they can even become more treacherous then in the past. Remember forgiveness is stronger than revenge. The one’s that do evil putrefy and fester in their own evil. Unless you let them they can’t really hurt you. If an evil person is trying to persecute you, for sure he has in all probability tried to hurt you in one way or another in the past. Be careful not to hate because hate attracts and you don’t want to draw your enemies near you by being a magnet of hate. We are all tested in life and our enemies are part of the tests. Keep in mind you were sent to this earth to destroy your bad habits and tendencies you have brought with you from previous incarnations, and to resist creating any more in your present life.
There is no higher relationship than friendship, because friendship is of free choice, it is born of the heart. Some in this world find true friends but not many. Real friends are not to be confused with mere acquaintances. True friendship is not founded in selfish human love with attachments but an unconditional relationship between two souls. It is best formed between those who are on a spiritual path, or else friendships grow into attachment and continue on the plain of worldly love.
Real friend ship can be developed between two woman, two men or a man and a woman but it must be based upon the qualities of the soul not attractions of the body or worldly qualities. However this will not come until you free yourself from the consciousness of being a man or a woman. What does that mean?
We have convinced ourselves by conceited egotistic habits into amnesia of who we really are and have forgotten our divine nature or soul ever since early childhood. You are not a woman or a man. Through karmic inclinations the soul is forced to incarnate not as a male or female but either with the body of a woman or a man. If you live in a boarding house you don’t call yourself a border. The body identified ego succumbs to the hypnosis of what your bodily house labels you to be. We are nothing else but pure spirit. With open eyes we identify our consciousness with our body and all its limitations and moods. We have forgotten our true self. If you close your eyes and don’t see your body any longer you will feel the invisible consciousness residing in that form.
If you are looking for such friends there is a short prayer you can use after your meditation, pray to the Lord: God, guide me to those who are my true friends from the past, to continue with them the interrupted companionship from being separated by death. However the truth is all your earthly friends who are so real to you will pass away and seem unreal someday and the only one who seemed intangible will ultimately prove to be your real true lasting friend. For all your life’s labor not to be spent in vain it’s valuable to know God now. From the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda.
