My Many Soul Mates

I was introduced to the concept of soul mates by a senior of mine many years ago. I was doing my post graduation in English Literature. It was my first year and I was introduced to this incredible person. She was my senior and had a few months before she was passing out of the university. She had these dark piercing eyes and I felt that she was no ordinary girl. Later I found out that she and her family were very much into mediation, yoga as well as the occult. She taught me a lot about auras, out of body experiences and yes soul mates. I don’t know why but it felt like she had singled me out. She would take me out whenever she had no classes and we would sit for hours chatting. I suppose she found in me someone who was a good listener, someone who would understand her and not think her crazy. I have always been curious about the occult, life after death, reincarnation and so on. I would sit engrossed for hours listening to her. Even after she left the university and went to become a teacher she would come whenever she had leave and would make a bee-line for the university and sort of frisk me away for a coffee and long hours of talking, much to the chagrin of my friends. She had told me one day that she had already met her soul mate and that I too would someday find mine. I was thrilled, romantic that I am; the thought of finding my soul mate was the ultimate!  She also believed that she and I were connected through previous lifetimes. She had written this line for me: “I recognized you – you will understand.” Then suddenly the visits stopped and I never met her again. Many years later I heard that she had finally got married and settled and I thought “Must be to her soul mate”. Perhaps she did, perhaps not.

However the idea remained with me and I believed with all my heart that I would someday find the” one”. The very thought excited my romantic streak. I never would have believed at that time that in this lifetime there are many soul mates you come across. It can be a sister, your child, you father, your mother, a friend.  I believed that a soul mate can only be with someone with whom you fall in love, you share your life with, and only romantic love is associated with soul mates. For years I searched for the one and only. I landed with many and not one. Then I came across Brian Weiss a couple of years back and I realized that I had been wrong all these years. I was disillusioned over the years. I still hadn’t found my soul mate! But I had and so many of them! I concentrated so much on finding that one man who when (quoting Weiss), “He takes your hand for the first time, and the memory of his touch transcends time and sends a jolt through every atom of your being…..  and you see a soul companion across centuries. Your stomach turns upside down. Your arms are goose flesh. Everything outside this moment loses its importance” that I didn’t realize that I was surrounded by so many who were connected to me. “The touch that awakens may be that of your child, of a parent, of a sibling, or of a true friend…” I am so blessed with wonderful soul friends and sisters; my son too is a soul mate, my mother. So what if I haven’t yet found the one who can give me goose flesh! The others have enriched my life and have been with me through thick and thin. This is for all of them soul mates who have always held out their hand whenever I have faltered, for giving me the truth even if it hurt, for wiping my tears in my most desolate moments, for making me laugh till I have cried. To name a few: Ron Bezbaruah,  Nilanjana Purkayasstha, Inky Sen, Nirupama Paul, Sulekha Rawat, Sukhvinder Kundu, Reba Khaund, Madhuri Shukla, Arya Raha, Erika Trindade, Fiona Rodrigues, Rumu Biswas, Rupa Kathpal, Shalini Pratap Singh, Smita Chhettri, Vunu Pulapaka.

The list is endless. Love you guys!