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detachment. Where there is detachment, there is God. Therefore, where there is love, there is God. Thus, godliness is possible through universal friendship and love. This feeling of love and universal friendship is eternal, unhindered and infinite. This is the indication that one has achieved godliness.
In friendship there is a feeling of benefiting everyone. The selfishness and desire for mundane pleasure is totally absent there. The feeling of own and the other is destroyed only when the pride is destroyed. Because as long as the feeling of 'I' remains, the feeling of distinction and difference would remain and a feeling of friendship is not possible. The feeling of affection or friendship rises only when the feeling of 'I' or pride is destroyed and the feeling of nothingness - ākiñcanya comes in. Where there is no feeling of pride, there cannot be any desires, myness, desire for mundane pleasures, selfishness, delusion, etc. Therefore, friendship strengthens detachment.
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In Uttaradhyayana sūtra, Chapter 29, aphorism 17 it has been said that "Mithibhāvamuvagae yādi jive bhāvavisohi kāūņa nivvae bhavai" that is - When a living being gains the feeling of friendship he also attains purity of volition and becomes fearless. Thus, the feeling of friendship being a means of volitional purification is 'dharma'.
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