By Jonker Tomasoa, The Netherlands
Years ago, my wife and I paid a visit to a dear friend and her family in Kenya. It was our first time in that country. When my friend married four years earlier, I was her best man. Although we are not related, she called me Abang, which means brother in the Malay language.
While visiting her, we took a three-day safari to the Maasai Mara wildlife reserve. Although I’d never been there before, I felt a strong bond with the endless African plains and the animals that roamed there. I also felt close to the red-robed Maasai people who live in parts of Tanzania and Kenya. Wild beasts—lions, elephants, Thomson’s gazelles, wildebeests, buffalo, and giraffes—roamed the expansive, dry grassland as far as the eye could see.
As I watched a herd of heavily muscled buffalo grazing in the tall, swaying grass one day, I was struck by how at peace I felt. In that contemplative state, I began to wonder if I’d had a past life in Kenya. That would certainly have provided an explanation for my strong and instant connection to that place.
When I returned from my holiday, I experienced a feeling of homesickness. I longed deeply for that connection I had felt with the land and the wild animals in Kenya. When thinking of the Maasai Mara plains, I experienced an emotional attachment that brought tears to my eyes. For me, it was not a normal feeling. It haunted me for months.
One day, I did a spiritual exercise to find out why I cried. At first I chanted HU, our love song to God, several times and went into silent contemplation. Inwardly, I asked the Mahanta, the Inner Master, “Please show me why I have this emotional attachment. And why Kenya?
Suddenly I saw myself, as Soul, walking up to and into the Temple of ECK in Chanhassen, Minnesota. That is our spiritual center on this planet, like the Vatican for the Roman Catholic religion. I saw an H and U on the two glass doors. Once inside, I wandered around until I ended up in an inner sanctuary. There the Mahanta, the Inner Master, was waiting for me. I sensed other spiritual beings, like angels, in the room, but they remained invisible for me.
Next, the Mahanta showed me a past life on a big screen. I saw myself as a wandering medicine man with three lions as my companions. That wonderful, peaceful life is what caused my longing for the Maasai Mara plains and the wild animals. After many years in that life, I had to leave my lion friends behind, which greatly pained my heart.
When I asked the Mahanta, “How do I free myself from this emotional sadness and homesickness?” he gently, graciously, touched my heart.
Returning from this spiritual experience, I felt different. My emotional sadness and homesickness were gone. No more emotional heaviness. As Soul, I found my spiritual freedom again.
Anyone is capable of gaining deep insights into life and of healing the heart with the tools that are available on the path of Eckankar and with the help of the Mahanta.
It works! Ask the Mahanta to help you, whatever it is.
—lllustration by Richard S. McDiarmid
—Excerpted from the 2021 Eckankar Journal
—
Contemplation Seed
You are invited to reflect on the spiritual messages in this story by contemplating on this passage from Past Lives, Dreams, and Soul Travel, by Harold Klemp:
As you travel to new places, dreams may reveal some past lives you spent there. Such dreams shed light on habits, likes, or fears. They show things gained or lost ages ago. Travel is thus a chance to revisit the foundation of what helped make you who and what you are today.
So take a trip and be aware.
I too have a past life connection to lions. A pride protected me and shared space in a cave. And your story brought tears and longing for their loving companionship. I shall seek to see them again in a contemplative state as I have focussed on other aspects of that lifetime and neglected to nurture that relationship. Baraka bashed. And thank you for sharing Jonker.
Ah, my dear Brother, Jonker, you write so well, words tugging at the heart, the threads of love weaving themselves into inner visions where the connectedness to all of life remains so strong. Thank you for this glimpse into the lion’s heart, your heart, and the heart of the Inner Master.
It is such a beautiful gift for the reader, like myself, to now envision the Mahanta touching my heart, not once but a thousand times, and even my touching his heart. I often imagine that this is what occurs when I bring a Seeker to the door of his House of Consciousness and he opens it and welcomes them in.
After all, what is healing but the transmutation of consciousness, the extraction of the true essence of everything, love, and the placing it once again purely into our heart? Is it not so, that when Wah Z does this what was before misunderstood as the past now becomes realized as the present and all the love once regretted as gone, now again coexists with us, inseparable from our heart?
Nice blogs posted
I really enjoyed hearing this story. Thank you!
Wonderful experience and this story carries so
much light and sound in it’s meaning.
Het blijft een prachtige ervaring Jonker, heerlijk om te lezen. Een echte diamant!! Dankjewel dat je het met ons hebt gedeeld.
GrHUtjes, Amanda
Such a heart-opening past-life story. Thank you for sharing, Jonker.
Such a wonderful story of a profound healing of a saddened heart. The Mahanta’s love heals all.
Jonker, thank you for sharing this past life memory.
Wonderful story! Thanks so much for sharing! We can all (any of us) experience part of our own rich lives by singing HU.
I’ve heard this story a couple of times. It’s still beautiful heartwarming and touching. Thanks for sharing it online.
It’s a beautiful story, Jonker, and richly told.
I wonder if your lion companions in that lifetime have joined you again in any subsequent ones? It doesn’t seem out of the question to me.
Thanks, Peter.
Yes, it is a good question. I donot know yet, but I met my lion friends afterwards in a contemplative state.
When time is there, we will meet with the help of the Mahanta.
Much love in ECK,
Jonker
Dear Joanne,
Thank you for your comment.
Yes, singing HU is a doorway to open your heart to the Mahanta.
Wishing you wonderful spiritual journeys.
Much love in ECK,
Jonker
Thanks, Farah, for your beautiful comment.
Much love in ECK,
Jonker
La demande au Mahanta sur une situation peut nous protégés en nous ouvrant la porte de la conscience à la compréhension tranquille Divine. Baraka Bashad
Thank you for sharing my story. I hope the readers like my past life story. I still have goosebumps when I reenlive the scenery of Kenya again.
Anyway, I am forever grateful for the love and guidance of the Mahanta in every affair of my past, present and future life. Thank you, Mahanta.