Stay centred in dealing with friends and enemies

WHAT do we get upset with? We don’t get upset with the birds, or the clouds, or with nature. We don’t get upset with the environment. So, what do we get upset with? We get upset with the people around us. Our enemies upset us and our friends upset us as well. Our mind gets stuck either in our friends or in our enemies.

We either think about our friends or we think about our enemies the entire day.

People become our enemies even when we have not done them any wrong. Many people have had this experience. We did not do any wrong to them; neither did we misbehave and still they became our enemies. We think, “Oh! Why has he become my enemy? Until yesterday he was my friend.” In the same way, we do not do any special favours for some people, yet they become our close friends.

That is why I tell you, this is some astonishing and mysterious karma – how some people become our enemies and some our friends.

So what should we do? We should place both our friends and enemies in one basket, and just become empty from within and be joyful. All these happenings (people becoming friends and enemies) are run by some law and we do not know how and where it comes from. We just cannot predict when someone’s feelings towards us will change and whether it will be in our favour or not. That is why we should place absolute faith in our selves, on God, and not on friendship and enmity.

We should not waste our time thinking about friends and enemies. This does not mean you distance yourself from your friends, or that you stop making new friends. That is not what I am saying. Friendliness should be in our nature; love should be in our very nature. We are love after all!

When someone comes and sits beside us, we do smile at them and exchange a few words. This does not mean you say, “Anyway, who is a friend or who is an enemy?

There is nothing to share with anyone,” and you walk around with a gloomy face being angry with everyone – this is not a sign of wisdom. This is ignorance and foolishness. We must interact with everyone around us, but at the same time be centered from within.

Do you understand this? When we are centered, then we will not feel sad, angry or possessive. Then we will not have disappointment of any kind. Otherwise many times what happens,

we become sad. “Oh! Look, I made him such a good friend and today he does not even talk to me. I did him so many favours and he has turned against me.” By thinking like this, we waste the time that we have in the present. We should not do this. It is futile to search for a true friend in the world. Befriend the Truth (Divine) and the world is yours.