You cannot know a friend without encountering adversity. It may even happen that someone you never considered a friend loves you more than many you hold dear. Nothing serves as a measure of friendship quite like adversity. Just as the purity of gold is revealed in the trial of fire, so the purity of friendship is known in the trial of hardship. The friend who remains steadfast and immovable in adversity—he alone is illumined with the divine radiance of love, dwelling beyond the realm of self-interest, established in the paradise of selflessness. He is truly worthy of worship, truly deserving of praise. But such friends are exceedingly rare in this world.
The Hitopadesh says: "He who is a friend at the king's court, at the cremation ground, and in times of famine—he alone is a true friend." When a person is accused of grave crimes at the king's court, everyone abandons him one by one. At the cremation ground—that is, at the hour of death—when all forsake their attachments, only a true friend remains near. And in sorrow and poverty? Hardly anyone in this world wishes to share in suffering. The person who stays close even in such circumstances, who takes on a share of the pain—him we know to be a true kinsman.
In spring, the cuckoo calls with sweet voice; in winter's harsh days, the cuckoo falls silent. When the sweet breeze of prosperity's spring flows around you, you will find hundreds of flatterers and friends nearby, intoxicated with constant joy; but when the bitter adversity of sorrow and poverty arrives at your door, you will see that in this world you are alone! No one is near, no one comes to see you anymore. Everyone who has faced life's trials has witnessed this firsthand. In this world, many friends can be found to maintain the honor of invitation parties, but very few companions are found to share in hunger and hardship. Only self-interest, only self-interest, only self-interest—humanity is constructed entirely of this! What do you call friendship, and what do you call love!
But this is not all. The very person who would have felt blessed to get an opportunity to flatter you in days of wealth and prosperity—today, when you fall into adversity, that same person will strike and wound you grievously. The one for whom you sacrificed your life's blood, in your day of trouble he will repay your kindness by striking you with gleeful retaliation! Even if you nourish a venomous snake with milk and bananas, given the chance, it will still bite you! Gratitude seems drowned in this world's ocean of self-interest; the people of this world, given the opportunity, will suck the blood from your heart.
O humanity! What do you call kinship, what do you call friendship? You might evade an enemy's sharp knife, but no matter how intelligent you are, escaping the secret sharpened weapon of a friend is never within your power. Among those for whom Christ suffered endless torments was Judas Iscariot. Among those with whom Caesar took pride was Brutus. The world is a marketplace of infamy—what do you call love, what do you call friendship! Leaving aside the tales recorded in history, let me give examples of four direct incidents from ordinary life. You will understand how deceitful and treacherous people can be. You will see how they bring ruin under the pretense of friendship.
An elderly gentleman once worked in a high government position. He received a good salary. During that time, the city's lawyers, barristers, judges, doctors and other established people considered him a friend; they cherished him, showed him respect, danced with joy around him. They had such intimate relationships. Great men's mouths seemed unable to contain their praise of his benevolence! By chance, at everyone's instigation, he resigned from his job. Everyone promised to make him a great man. But after leaving his job, gradually, one by one, his friends' cheerful countenances became rare.
When the wheel of time brought severe poverty, no one could be seen at his house anymore. One day one of his sons died, another fell seriously ill. Gradually his own hope for life was extinguished. In this terrible crisis, he said to someone one day with deep regret—"I had so many great friends in this city; in my days of wealth, their carriages couldn't fit at my door; and today in this dark hour, brother, I see no one but you; given the chance, they now spare no effort to harm me. What more can I say—I saw you then, I see you now in this time of trouble. You are my father, brother, friend, everything!" As he spoke these words, tears fell drop by drop from the old man's eyes. The one who heard this heart-rending, sorrowful lament also had his eyes fill with tears.
Let me tell the second story. A man had a friend. He had raised him by giving him work under his supervision. At one time he fell seriously ill. The benefited friend began to serve him day and night at his deathbed. No food, no sleep—continuously toiling for the patient, even cleaning the patient's excrement! Seeing this example, everyone was amazed. The patient ascended to heaven in due time. The patient had considerable wealth. Seizing the opportunity, the caretaker friend, in order to appropriate the deceased's riches, took the dead man's widowed wife for himself. Ignoring all relatives' protests, he finally married her. This union of old man and old woman established everlasting fame in the world, shame and disgrace bowed their heads! People became distressed thinking where in this world such trustworthy friends could be found!
I come to the third story. A benevolent person had borrowed ten thousand rupees from a moneylender. This person had once done much good for that moneylender—one could say he had made him prosperous with money and support. When this person was on his deathbed, the moneylender, seeing that ten thousand rupees might disappear, appeared beside his benefactor friend's deathbed even in such a dire hour and demanded that money. The old debtor, seeing no other way in the approaching crisis, put his hand to his forehead and said, "Fate! So I die carrying the burden of debt." Hearing this sad tale, some householder gave ten thousand rupees to the dying man's son and freed the old man from debt.
Another story. A man would help others whenever he got the chance. He had raised many people by giving them financial assistance. Some of them have now become very prosperous. He had helped one person with ten thousand initially, then thirty, even forty thousand rupees. With this money's strength, that person was conducting large business. This benefactor at one time became seriously ill. When he didn't recover, he finally went to change air. At this time, suddenly that prosperous friend, to advance some work of his own, greeted the sick man with the help of a lawyer's notice! The benefactor friend was amazed to see such ways of the world. At this time, some of the remaining friends began laughing with delight during this terrible crisis, some took the opportunity to criticize unnecessarily. None of those friends whom he had helped all his life came to see him even by mistake; rather, some, understanding the opportunity, began scheming to collect money through tricks and cunning; some began telling the man fabricated stories about where and what work had gone wrong! Some money that was deposited with others, someone tried to embezzle! Someone, showing their true face, began sucking that sick man's blood! They tried to make him drink poison under the pretense of helping him! Seeing and hearing all this, the patient was stunned with amazement!
Man learns when he suffers. One day someone told Vidyasagar, "So-and-so has criticized you." Vidyasagar thought for a moment and replied, "Strange, I don't recall doing him any favor, so why would he criticize me!" That if you help someone, they will harm you or criticize you—this was Vidyasagar's final conclusion from this statement.
This is an extremely harsh conclusion. Such conclusions arise from disbelief and disgust. But every person tormented by life's cruel circumstances acknowledges that the divine quality called 'gratitude' has been sacrificed in the great ocean of self-interest. Whom shall you trust, when humanity is immersed in the eternal darkness of selfishness's ugly stain!
If no one can be trusted, how will this world become fit for habitation? Living without trusting people is very difficult. Not a day, not a moment passes without trust, yet experienced people say, trust no one—the person who today keeps you in comfort and serves you may tomorrow plunge a knife into your chest. Experience too proves this constantly. Unreasonable behavior toward those whose praise floods the world, when you examine the events all around, makes you not want to trust anyone anymore. There is nothing that people, enchanted by self-interest's spell, cannot do. Yet with these very slaves of self-interest we must constantly conduct our household affairs. How can we manage without trust?
You are wise, so you tell me to choose people carefully before proceeding. But I see that if all my time is spent in choosing, when will I do any work? You say, don't trust your wife, don't trust your husband, don't trust your brother, don't trust your friend, don't trust your son, don't trust your daughter; no, no, trust no one at all. You say, don't trust the one to whom you give charity; don't trust the one for whose benefit you pour out your heart's blood. Without trust, household life cannot continue for a moment; one must sit quietly idle. I don't know people well, you are wise, you keep saying such things; you who know and understand have now somewhat retired from the world of action, making the maxim that no one can be trusted—this hatred of humanity—the essence of life, sitting on the accomplished seat of an aged minister. If I follow your words, I must roll up the mat of this worldly office and go to the deep forest.
I am being deceived, brother, yet I cannot let go of this world's enchantment. Deceived ten times over, I ready myself to be deceived a hundred times more. I drown in the very webs of intrigue I myself have spun. A moth burns to death in flame—no matter how hard others try, they cannot save it. You too, despite all your efforts, cannot save me. Hundreds of counsels, hundreds of well-meant words go to waste; even vast experience teaches like a sage—trust no one; yet I cannot forget the bonds of affection, cannot abandon my vow of service to others. I could not do it—and among the rest... how many have managed to renounce this world's enchantment? The great play of the Great Illusion, the great wheel of the Great Deceiver. There is no escape from its grasp for anyone.
Love is humanity's natural disposition. Without loving, humans cannot exist. What celestial light shines forth from human faces; humans, like moths drawn to flame, are lured by that radiance. They cannot remain without seeking its touch. Serving humanity, loving humanity—this seems to be human nature itself. At love's root lies trust. Humans cannot live without believing. Human love is like a moth's flame. The world loses itself in love's beauty. Humans may practice restraint in other spheres, but when they fall under love's spell and are lost in its magic, all restraint proves futile; vows and devotion—all are defeated.
The friend who sharpens a knife to plunge into one's heart—humans will embrace him with love; the woman who would strip a man of virtue, entangle him in sin's dark web of enchantment—to her humans will surrender their very lives! Humans forget their own duties; they abandon virtuous affection; religious duties, spiritual practice, teachings—all are forgotten in love's spell. Those who have not been caught in love's magic are rarely seen on this earth. When caught, humans scorn everyone's words, everyone's advice. Good or evil, all people are lost in love. Deceived by love's magic were Christ, Sri Chaitanya, Prophet Muhammad, Mahavira, Buddha. Those who are dear ones become, when the time comes, the greatest devils. Who has not been deceived through love by these devil-like people—I know not! Deceived by love are all the world's great souls.
The good one, the noble one, the wise one, the human deity—he too is deceived; the fool, the evil one, the wicked one—he too is deceived. Deception knows no communal distinctions—deception is a non-sectarian force. Nothing else on earth can drown humanity so! Yet nothing else can lift humanity to heaven either. Through love people reach paradise—through love people go to hell as well! O love, blessed be your bewitching power! The world is charmed, stunned, self-lost in your magic!
Why the Creator's play is filled with such contradictory schemes, no one can resolve. Why there are seats of sin and virtue, why there is conflict between gods and demons on earth—no one can say. The complex talk of diversity does not resolve all problems. Light beside darkness, virtue beside sin, sattva beside rajas, good sense beside ill sense, the beneficial beside the pleasant, thorns beside flowers, stone beside springs, salt in the ocean's gentle waters, blemishes on the moon, danger beside prosperity, disease beside health, crematoriums in the world's lap, death in life's embrace, bad days beside good ones—why nature is so contradictory and diverse, no philosopher, no scientist has been able to fully explain to this day. No seeker of truth has been able to resolve why illness and suffering, old age and death, sin and temptation disturb humanity. Even with years of practice on the banks of the Nairanjana, Buddha could not resolve this question; the unrivaled emperor Muhammad, with all his valor and courage, could not resolve it even with love and sword combined. The knowledge of the wise, the philosophy of philosophers, the penance of the devout, the achievements of doers—all have remained unsuccessful in resolving this deep and complex question!
Why the world became thus, why nature became full of hardness and softness, sin and virtue, righteousness and unrighteousness—there is no resolution anywhere. There is no resolution in the question of the soul's freedom, nor in the matter of the soul's bondage. Whether the soul is free or bound—what difference does it make? Why deception in the Creator's realm, why sin, why oppression, why darkness, why distrust? Why—who can say? On the other hand, why do people forget even when they know everything, why do they become absorbed, why do they fall, why do they drown? Why—who can say? All scriptures are silent here. All scriptures say only this much—"This is the great play of the Great Illusion!"—and then lay down their arms. You don't know, I don't know either—why nature is thus, why humanity is thus!
Perhaps without becoming a believer in Maya, there is no happiness or peace anywhere in the world! The Maya-vadis say everything is play. Matter is not matter; humans are not human—everything is an illusion of the eyes or bubbles of that power which exists behind the great universe, its very manifestation. Whether it be Shankara or Berkeley, Huxley or Hume—no matter how much you argue, no one is capable of blowing away matter; nor can anyone make Maya or ignorance disappear from the world. Matter and Maya—one is the body, the other the shadow. In the harmony of these two different natures lies the manifestation of one conscious power. Where and how that one conscious power exists, humanity does not know. Here arises agnosticism.
Human power is negligible, utterly insignificant; humans know nothing, understand nothing. Humans cannot understand a single atom, cannot conceive of a single molecule. So insignificant a being is humanity! Does it mean atoms and molecules don't exist because we don't understand them? No, that's not how it works. When the world exists, the Creator also exists. Just because you and I don't know doesn't prove He doesn't exist. Creation exists—no one among created humans denies this; going as far back as possible behind creation to the smallest first cause, from cause to the cause of causes... Yes, you must reach the first cause. No matter how vastly learned you may be, you must arrive at the first cause.
On the other hand, can you tell why the world is so agitated for Him whom you say you don't know? From creation's beginning, why have all civilized and uncivilized peoples shed so many tears for the Creator—can you answer this? Humans don't know the first cause, yet they seem to sacrifice everything for Him. There is nothing humans haven't done for religion. Temple after temple, church after church, mosque after mosque—how much wealth humans have poured out for religion! Again, for religion they have abandoned family life, left relatives, forgotten comfort and luxury, finally even sacrificing their lives. Why all these deeds? Why all this self-sacrifice?
For some unseen object, merely for falseness or pure emptiness, humans cannot do so much. Humans have seen something and felt it, that's why they are so absorbed. Humans have reached the shore of some great truth, that's why they act thus. That's why humans endure such suffering. Without tasting some true substance, humans wouldn't remain in this world just to drink poison. In the first part of this writing I have shown there is no happiness, no peace in this world. When there is only selfishness all around, only distrust, where is happiness then?
There is no happiness in self-interest, only the growth of one thirst after another; there is no peace in distrust, only the unrestrained inner burning of human hatred. In this world-kingdom filled with great selfishness, filled with distrust, filled with unrest, filled with unhappiness—by what enchantment do humans sustain life? The person who is repeatedly deceived by love's magic rushes to get entangled in that very love again. Before one friend finishes betraying and fleeing, humans dance embracing another to their heart! Having cremated one son, they rejoice at the prospect of seeing another son's face!
Without some hope, some thought of consequence, humans wouldn't build homes on this shore of a world turbulent with terrible waves of danger. They would die right after birth, after gaining knowledge; if death didn't come naturally, they would kill themselves and die. Some great knowledge, great thought, great purpose lies eternally imprinted, eternally awakened, eternally supportive in the human soul, for which humans love to remain in this world even when deceived—or rather, it could be said, humans lack the power to go against it. That knowledge, that thought, that purpose—God—He is the unknowable, hard to know, unresolved, complex, infinite, unwritten primal power. Humans don't find God in science and some philosophy, it's true; but in the depths of life, in His clear commands, in His words, they find Him very intimately.
If you ask me, why do you exist? After being deceived so many times... why do you exist? I say, I exist by His will—He whom I see without seeing, whom I find without finding, whom I understand without understanding. I exist for Him who intoxicates me without revealing Himself, who sustains me by giving just a drop-glimpse of His infinite, endless nature; who speaks to this life every moment and reassures me. He is a friend in good times, a friend in bad times too. He is a friend in health, a friend in illness too. He is a friend in life, a friend in death too. I am deceived, criticized, tormented, made sinful, abandoned—even after all this, that I remain is only at His word, in His enchantment.
For the unseen vision, the unknown meeting, the unspoken form and that unwritten beauty, my soul is always enraptured. I live in the world—for Him alone. Ask anyone you wish, every believer will give you such an answer. In bad times and good, in sickness and sorrow, in life and death, in light and darkness—He is in all conditions. He, He, He—eternally He. He protects, He also destroys—we are merely mechanical dolls. Without attaining this absorbed knowledge, no one could have lived happily, comfortably, peacefully on this dangerous, diverse, and deceptive shore of existence. God is here—in the depths of this inner self; only when self-knowledge is born can He be known in His Brahman form. To find Him, one must first find oneself.
The final word, then, is this: human deception exists—to warn humanity; a friend's ingratitude—to help us recognize true friends in dark times; human illness—to establish humanity forever on the path of health; sin and temptation—to make humanity steadfast in righteousness; death—to attain eternal (spiritual) life; darkness—to behold the great light. This nature, full of variety and disparity, exists precisely to carry humanity from progress to greater progress, from good to better, from virtue to greater virtue. All these conditions, events, and diversities are merely steps on the stairway of advancement—meant to propel travelers forward.
Those who do not understand this meaning and do not proceed by recognizing the essence, making the essential their support and goal, remaining neutral to favorable and unfavorable events—they become entangled in futile webs of argument; in the end, they become either nonbelievers or great sinners, concluding life's play in terrible sorrow and suffering. One must become worldly-minded, a believer in disbelief—if one interprets nature's profound mysteries in this manner. Hatred of humanity becomes such people's destiny; misanthropy becomes their flesh and bone; condemnation of others becomes their daily bread. No matter how ungrateful humanity may be, one must not focus on that, must not expect reciprocal kindness from people, but understanding only the Creator's benevolent intention, one must proceed, must labor, must serve humanity.
Within humanity's restless nature, within various conditions, within diverse and wondrous events, one singular conscious power is smiling, one incomparable light is blooming. Those who fail to see this—naturally they will drown in the poison of doubt, disbelief, lovelessness, false knowledge, slander of others. In humanity's dark days, He alone is the friend—eternally unwavering, eternally unchanging. Though perpetually neglected, He manifests constantly before humanity in truth, in justice, in knowledge, in love, in virtue. May He, having made humanity understand the essence within the inessential and true friendship, having established in every heart the meaning of good times emerging from bad times, protect the world and ourselves forever from misanthropy, disbelief and skepticism—may His will be fulfilled in His way according to His design.