Southern Methodist University; Dallas, Texas, USA

Student Center
7 March 1974

Dear sisters and brothers, dear seekers of the Transcendental Truth, I wish to
give a talk on friendship, which is the motto of Texas. Friendship is extremely
significant in all phases of our life. Friendship is the bridge between two human
beings. Friendship is the bridge between earth and Heaven. Friendship is the
bridge between the known and the unknown.
Here on earth we try to establish friendship with our fellow human beings.
Sometimes we are successful, sometimes we are not. But even when we are
successful, this friendship does not satisfy us completely. Then we go deep within
and discover our Eternal Friend, God, the Inner Pilot. God and each individual
on earth are eternal friends. But only when we begin to aspire do we come to
realise this truth.
There are three types of friendship: animal friendship, human friendship and
divine friendship. The friendship that exploits us is animal friendship. The
friendship that mutually helps two persons is human friendship. The friendship
that unconditionally gives, that gives with no expectation whatsoever, is divine
friendship.
Friendship can arise out of necessity and also out of generosity. If two human
beings are in the desiring world, their friendship is founded upon necessity. But
if one is in the desiring world and the other is in the aspiring world, then we have
to know that the friendship of the aspirant is founded upon generosity, while the
friendship of the desiring person is based upon necessity.
Desire makes unending demands; its hunger can never be appeased. No matter
how much experience or possession is accumulated, still satisfaction does not
dawn in the heart of a desiring individual. Aspiration also has an eternal hunger,
but when aspiration achieves an iota of peace, light and bliss, it feels a kind of
satisfaction. Although an aspirant aims to reach the Highest, the Absolute
Pinnacle, although he longs for infinite Peace, Light and Bliss, an iota of peace,
light and bliss satisfies his grateful heart. But he knows that today’s achievement
is not complete. If he looks forward, or dives deep within, or climbs high, higher,
highest, he knows he is bound to be inundated with Peace, Light and Bliss in
boundless measure. At God’s choice Hour, God will give the aspirant infinite
Peace, Light and Bliss.
In our ordinary human life we have two friends: fear and doubt. Fear tells us,
“Stay inside your body-cage where you are safe. If you come out, the ferocious
world-tiger will devour you, so do not come out of the cage of your body.” Doubt
tells us that our real friend is our physical mind, the mind that cautions us, that
warns us, that tells us that the outer world is a real stranger. Doubt says, “If you
allow the outer world to enter into you, it is like dealing with a stranger. At any
moment you may be exploited, deserted and destroyed for good. Have no faith in
anybody on earth. Expect nothing good from anyone on earth. You are your own
saviour, you are your own salvation—you and nobody else. Exist for yourself.”
Here we are all seekers, so we shall have faith in God. If it is impossible for
us to establish divine faith today, we can start with faith in ourselves. In spite of
knowing that we are limited and bound, let us have faith in ourselves. Then this
limitation and bondage of ours can be transcended on the strength of our inner
cry. But if we have faith in an undivine force, a force that destroys, then in
addition to destroying others, we ourselves will be destroyed. A similar thing
happens when we have faith only in ourselves. We try to possess others, but
before we can actually possess them, we ourselves are possessed. It is only in
divine faith that we do not possess. There we just expand—expand our
consciousness, expand our reality, expand what we have and what we are. Let us
start, if necessary, with faith in ourselves, and then go beyond and attain divine
faith. In divine faith we see that there is no end to our journey and achievement.
We are in the flow of an ever-transcending, ever-illumining Reality, which is
perfection.
Friendship is harmony, friendship is peace, friendship is bliss. Friendship is
harmony. Mutual harmony removes all dark conflicts. Each individual has
opinions of his own, but when friendship becomes the connecting link between
two persons, all conflicts are removed and they become one.
Friendship is peace. Here, peace means confidence. I have confidence in you
and you have confidence in me; our mutual confidence is peace. I shall not speak
ill of you or try to ruin you; you will not speak ill of me or try to ruin me. On the
contrary, I shall give you what I have: my love, my sympathy, my concern, my
compassion, my total support of your cause, and you will do the same for me.
Friendship is bliss. When friendship lasts, it offers bliss. The Kingdom of
Heaven is established when love inundates our beings, when the feeling of
oneness reigns supreme and there is no sense of separativity. At that time
illumining, fulfilling and perfect Perfection dawns in our life of aspiration.
Thousands of years ago the Vedic Seers offered us the message of bliss:
Anandaddhyeva khalvimani bhutani jayante.…
From Delight we came into existence.
In Delight we grow.
At the end of our journey’s close, into Delight we retire.
Friendship is sweet when it is all harmony. Friendship is sweeter when it is
all peace. Friendship is sweetest when it is all bliss.
The moment we are awakened, the moment our inner light comes to the fore
and awakens us from our ignorance-sleep of millennia, we discover that fear and
doubt are not our friends at all. Our true friends are courage, indomitable
courage, and faith, boundless faith. Our inner courage tells us, “Go out, look
around at the rest of the world; all of earth’s inhabitants are your friends, your
brothers and sisters. If you stay in your physical consciousness, you are binding
yourself, you are limiting your possibilities and potentialities. Go out. The world
is eagerly awaiting your arrival.” Our dear friend, faith, tells us, “We are all of the
same Source and for the same Source, so how can we be afraid of others? The
Source is one, but the One wanted to play the game of many. The tree is the
Source, and the branches, flowers, leaves and fruits are the many. From the same
root we all came into existence, so let us consciously establish our inseparable
oneness with all human beings. Let us sing together, dance together and play
together. In this way we will please and fulfil the Absolute Supreme with our
universal oneness.”
Each individual has faith in something or in someone. We cannot say that
someone has no faith at all. This moment he has faith in God, another moment
he may have faith in himself and a third moment he may have faith in somebody
or in something else. Now, when an individual has faith in God, he is in the
world of aspiration and vastness, in the world of Infinity, Eternity and Immor-
tality. When he has faith in himself, he is in the world of desire, in the world of
possession, limitation, bondage and death. When he has faith in neither God nor
himself, then he has faith in destruction—in world-destruction or in selfdestruction.
But he always has faith either in God or in himself or in some
undivine force.
Friendship is service, the dedicated service we offer to Mother Earth and
Father Heaven. When we want to offer our dedicated service to Mother Earth, we
pray to the Lord Supreme to grant us a life of ceaseless duration. When we want
to offer our dedicated service to Father Heaven, we pray to the Lord Supreme to
grant us a life of selfless contribution. With our service, Heaven gets the
opportunity to manifest itself here on earth, and earth gets the opportunity to
realise the Highest, the Absolute.
In the spiritual life friendship is founded on inner acceptance. A spiritual
Teacher and a seeker become one on the strength of their inner friendship. The
seeker goes to a Master and says, “Master, I love you, I trust you, I give you my
life.”
The Master immediately says, “My son, I love you, I trust you and I give you
my life and also God’s Life.”
The disciple says, “Master, I offer you my solemn promise that I shall serve
the Supreme in you.”
The Master says, “Son, I offer you my solemn promise that unless and until
I have taken you to our Father, the Absolute Supreme, I shall not rest. Your
promise is just to me, but my promise is to two persons. Here on earth I am
promising you that I shall carry you and guide you to the Golden Shores of the
Beyond, and the same promise I am making to the Inner Pilot, who is your
Master, my Master, the Eternal Master; to Him I am giving the same promise.
With your friendship you will give me what you have: ignorance. With my
friendship I will give you what I have and what I am: Wisdom-Light. This
Wisdom-Light the Supreme has granted me out of His infinite Bounty, and this
I offer to you. If you think that you are a beggar, then you must know that I am
more of a beggar than you. You have to go begging only to one place, but my
condition is more deplorable; I have to go to two places. I go to you with folded
hands and beg you to give me your ignorance. Then I go to God with folded hands
and beg Him to give me His Compassion-Light for you. I am the messenger
between you and God. This is the friendship that I have established with earth
and Heaven. Earth’s pangs and penuries I take to Heaven, to the Eternal Father
in Heaven, and from Heaven I bring down Peace, Light and Bliss in abundant
measure for sincere seekers.” This is the eternal friendship between the Master
and the disciple.
The Master also says something else to his disciples. He says, “Your real
Master is not and can never be myself. The real Master is somebody else—the
Supreme, the Absolute Supreme.” A spiritual Teacher is only an elder brother to
humanity. When seekers are aspiring for the Highest, the Teacher shows them
where the Father is. Once he leads them to the Father, his role is over. And the
seeker of today becomes the leader, the Teacher of mankind tomorrow. When his
time comes, he shows aspiring humanity, his younger brothers and sisters, the
same God, the same eternal Friend, the same Transcendental Supreme, that his
own Teacher once showed him.