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A friend cannot remain without helping his friend. A friend cannot eat and drink when his friend suffers hunger and thirst and it cannot happen that a friend does not come to help and attend to, when his friend suffers from any malady and that a friend falls down and his friend does not lift him. Anybody who does otherwise is no friend and even if one claims to be a friend without helping, such a claim is false. It is not friendship but animosity. It is like laughing at the very concept of friendship. It is gross cruelty and it is grossly inhuman and animal conduct, which has no place in human life.
Friendship means love. Where there is love, there is no attachment and where there is attachment, there is no love. All living beings naturally like pleasure, which can be gained only through love and friendship. Attachment is a distorted form of love. In attachment there is a desire to get pleasure from others. Therefore, where there is attachment, there is enjoyment of sensory pleasures and there are feelings of inferiority, poverty and dependence. On the other hand in love and friendship there is the generous desire to give pleasure, to serve and to help. The generous feelings give rise to happiness in the heart and anyone whose heart is filled with happiness does not have to seek pleasure outside. Where there is no such necessity, the desire to get pleasure from others just does not arise. Thus, friendship is also a means to rise above sensory or worldly pleasure and to transcend such mundane thoughts. Freedom from mundane pleasures is the real freedom or liberation from the world.
Where the difference between the low status and high status remains, there can be no friendship. Friendship is possible only where there is a feeling of equality. There is equanimity in equality and equality in equanimity. These two terms are mutually inclusive. Equality or equanimity overcomes inequality. Inequality is at the root of all conflicts and pains, therefore, overcoming inequality is like overcoming conflicts, flaws and misery. This is liberation. Thus, it will not be an exaggeration to say that liberation is a gift of friendship.
In the Avaśyaka sutra, it has been said in support of friendship
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