PAST ENCOUNTERS

"Haven’t we met before?”  This is the question a guru asked Richard Alpert, a Harvard professor, when Alpert was seeking a spiritual teacher in India.   

Alpert, who went on to become the spiritual teacher Ram Dass, recounted the occasion in his 1971 book, Be Here Now.  The line suggested that the guru had encountered Alpert in a past life.

But now didn’t we all encounter Alpert in a past life and everyone else in the world, only we don’t remember it particularly?

Our not remembering it especially is because of the “sheaths,” or koshas, as they are called in Vedanta, which are located one within the other, and which envelope the Atman in us. 
 
These sheaths, which are the physical body, the life force, the mind, the intellect, and the conditioned consciousness, create the relative self we know ourselves as.

It is our relative self that believes that this current life is the only one we live.   Our relative self cannot see past itself.

Alpert did not say in his book how he responded to the guru's question.  It does not appear that he did.  Then again the guru did not expect him to respond.  Not yet at least.