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Metaphysics, Ethics and Spiritual Development
161
his act of robbery, if we give him shelter and offer him food, then we are no doubt a party to his sinful act or share the sin committed by him through his act of robbery.
Cultivation of Four attitudes or feelings (Bhāvanā) Friendship flourish among men of similar conduct and character, habits and hobbies. (Samanaśīlavyasaneșu sakhyam). All worldly embodied soulsfrom those at the lowest scale of evolution to those at the highest oneare uniform in nature; in other words, all worldly beings are identical when viewed from the standpoint of their original pure state. And keeping in view this uniform and perfectly identical nature of these beings, there may arise in one's mind a delighting conception of their mutual friendship. Animal beings are without any power of discrimination, discretion and judgement; and blinded as they are by ignorance there cannot flourish friendship among them; we can easily understand this. But human beings are endowed with understanding and special power of discrimination. Hence, there is high possibility of friendship thriving among them. Yet instead of seeing them behaving friendly, when we see them caught in the violent hurricane of jealousy, cruelty, enmity, blind selfishness—all of which proper in animals, we naturally deduce that they have not risen breaking open the various hard shells of perverse desires and inclinations proper for animals. But power of discrimination and judgement being the very nature of human mind, if man coolly and placidly uses this power and thinks rightly, then he can at once realise the unity of all beings and consequently in consonance with this realisation certainly there arises in his heart the feeling of friendship towards all beings; this is quite possible. The Vedānta philosophy views all beings as sparks of the Supreme Soul called Brahman. Thinkers of the Jaina, the Vaiseșika, the Samkhya and the Yoga philosophies maintain that all beings are independent impartite primary substances and at the same time hold that they are uniform in their pure original nature. Thus all Indian philosophers propound that all beings are uniformly of the nature of light and consequently declare that one should not bear any ill-will towards any being, instead should cultivate a feeling of friendliness towards all beings and be compassionate towards the miserable and the poor.' We should consider all living beings as our friends and not as our enemies
1. adveștā sarvabhūtānām maitraḥ karuna eva ca /
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