The Friend

Do not give up your stay
In the street of the Beloved
Till your last breath.
But mind, be faithful, be faithful.

I wish all my friends to know the import of this verse. A great principle is involved. The friend is the one in whom you can trust implicitly under any circumstances. Even if the whole world condemns you, he or she will still have confidence in you if you turn to them. The friend wants nothing of you in return for the affection given to you with undiminished intensity, who will not count the cost if he has to make a sacrifice for your good. To the friend, the afflictions you experience, even if trivial, are like a mountain in volume.

Our only friend is that loving force which has brought us into being. That force maintains our life, and has set a fixed purpose which we have to achieve in life. It is for us to stay in that street till the Friend bestows on us omniscience.

‘The street of the Beloved’ is the current of life in which our mind is tried daily. The adverse influences we experience in life are not fortuitous, occurring by chance. They come from the Friend, to strengthen our moral stamina and our interior bond with the Friend. How could we grow in moral fabric and the stature of light without these impediments and our will to overcome them?
We accept what comes from the Friend as we know it is for our good. The Friend has furnished us with the instruments of growth and self-transfiguration, and it is true that the Friend is an unfailing Friend if we are faithful.

H.P.S.