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friendship with all living beings, we will avoid bad karma. Human nature is such that people always want to be ever at the receiving ending but reluctant to part with anything. Even otherwise, friendship that is developed purely for selfish reasons may get snapped at anytime. The only way to give up this attitude is to first purify the mind and thus remain balanced under all circumstances.
In Jainism friendship is enumerated under four cardinal virtues - Maitri (Amity or Love), Pramoda (joy), Kārunya (Compassion) and Mādhyasthya (tolerance).1
1. Maitri - According to Pūjyapāda, the desire that others should be free from suffering and
pain is benevolence (maitrī). Hemacandra maintains that, I shall be friendly even with
those who have harmed me, is the first principle of amity... love (maitrī). 2. Pramoda (joy) is the experience of serenity within. Fervent affection as well as
veneration in the presence of the virtuous is joy (pramoda). A person will enjoy peace and tranquility if he serves saintly souls who possess right knowledge, faith and conduct. Pramoda envisages the respect, appreciation and admiration shown towards righteous men. When cultivated, such an attitude will make people behave courteously towards all
any pride they may harbor. 3. Kārunya (compassion): The disposition to render assistance to the afflicted, to the
distressed is compassion. 4. Madhyasthya: Tolerance or unconcern is freedom from attachment and repulsion based
on desire and aversion is mādhyasthya-bhāva. It is a kind of indifference to be shown to people who are found incorrigible, who denigrate God, who show scant courtesy to his messengers and who, out of arrogance, commit cruel acts. Attachment unites us with someone but simultaneously separates us from others. It is the attachment which emerges from mineness and we cling to the notions such as my nation, my province, my region, my caste, my race etc. which are born of attachment and aversion. From attachment follows 'mine' and from aversion follows 'alien' and this single concept of mine and alien is solely responsible for communal and religious rivalries. So unconcern from freedom from attachment is tolerance.
1 Tattvārthasūtra VII. 11 2 S. A. Jain's translation of Sarvarthasiddhi, Calcutta, 1960, p. 195 3 Uttaradhyayana-sūtra XXXII.38 4 Uttaradhyayana-sutra XXXII.89
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