A little effort to pen down what we learnt in an amazing session on last Friday.
We all have friends in every walk of life. But who is our real friend and what is true friendship, was what we explored in this session under the loving friendly guidance of our Yoga teacher.
True friendship is beyond the clutches of lust, expectations, fear of losing and possessiveness. This is the material side of this beautiful relation. The spiritual side aspect of true friendship was very nicely explained using the eternal, friendly unflinching loving relation with Srimati Radha Rani and other Gopis. All the Gopis were highly elevated sages in previous births who meditated for thousands of years tirelessly to get Lord Krishna’s love. Shri Krishna fulfilled their desire in that human birth of ‘Gopis’. How merciful and pure His love is!
Shri Krishna’s friendship with his childhood friend Sudamaji highlights how much He honours even a little offering to Him with pure heart and how true friendship is beyond any give and take relationships.
Bhagwat Gita- Chapter 9- Verse 26,”patram pushpam phalam toyam, yo me bhaktya prayacchatitad aham bhakty-upahrtam, asnami prayatatmanah”
Translation: if one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, a fruit or water, I will accept it.
The day Sudamaji thought about meeting his dear friend Shri Krishna, He fascilitated everything to make Sudamaji reach DwarkaNagri. Very well said by our Guruji, “Who can enter DwarkaNagri without the consent of Dwarkadheesh!”
Lord Shiva and Mata Parvati themselves came down on mother Earth in the human form of life to guide Sudamaji to Dwarka Nagri. Shri Krishna honoured and accepted handful of rice that Sudamaji brought to Him with pure love and fulfilled all his desires without even asking for anything.
Draupadi was a true devotee of Lord Krishna and shared transcendental friendship with Him. King Yudhister lost his kingdom and wife-Maharani Draupadi in the game of gambling. When she was disrobed in the court of Kurukshetra, she cried for help but no one- even her most powerful husbands could save her. The moment she called,”Govind!” and seeked help from her Sakha, He instantly appeared and saved her honour by making her finite cloth infinite. This incident shows that how He is the only real protector in this whole world! This also professes when life tests us, we must simply surrender wholeheartedly and our Lord will come to our rescue, just the way He did for Draupadi.
The moral of this whole session is that our Lord is our best true friend and a mere sincere thought with pure consciousness to connect to Him is enough to reach Godhead.
“When we take one step towards Him, He will take thousands of steps towards us and make us free from all the miseries of material life”.
This human form of life, we have got after 8400000 forms of life and this is the only form of life in which we get a chance to pray and meditate upon His Holy Name. We, humans can also develop a friendly relationship with our Supreme Lord( Shri Krishna/Baba Nanak/ Allah/Jesus) by NaamJap. This human birth will become successful if we get His Mercy. He is all Powerful, All Merciful and Omnipresent. He knows what’s going on in our heart and mind. So remembering Him with all pure consciousness is enough to get His Merciful Eternal Unflinching friendship!
Shalini Bhatia