Of Friends and Enemies

Prahlada Maharaja replied: Let me offer my respectful obeisances unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead, whose external energy has created the distinctions of "my friend" and "my enemy" by deluding the intelligence of men. Indeed, I am now actually experiencing this, although I have previously heard of it from authoritative sources.

PURPORT
As stated in Bhagavad-gita (5.18):

vidya-vinaya-sampanne
brahmane gavi hastini
shuni chaiva shvapake cha
panditah sama-darshinah

Will the Real Terrorists Please Stand Up

Who are the Terrorists? by Hansadutta das

Those who are in the bodily conception of life are terrorists. Those who keep us from making progress to freedom are terrorists. Those who keep us in bondage of the cycle of birth and death are terrorists. There is no fear more terrifying than birth, old age, disease and death. The government leaders, the educators, the scientists and pseudo-religionists who perpetuate by conventional habit the bodily concept—all of them are terrorists. more

"The humble sage, by virtue of true knowledge, sees with equal vision a learned and gentle brahmana, a cow, an elephant, a dog and a dog-eater [outcaste]." Panditah, those who are actually learned—the equipoised, advanced devotees who have full knowledge of everything—do not see any living entity as an enemy or friend. Instead, with broader vision, they see that everyone is part of Krishna, as confirmed by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (jivera 'svarupa' haya-krishnera 'nitya-dasa' [Chaitanya-charitamrita Madhya 20.108]). Every living entity, being part of the Supreme Lord, is meant to serve the Lord, just as every part of the body is meant to serve the whole body.

As servants of the Supreme Lord, all living entities are one, but a Vaishnava [devotee of the Supreme Personality of Godhead], because of his natural humility, addresses every other living entity as prabhu [master]. A Vaishnava sees other servants to be so advanced that he has much to learn from them. Thus he accepts all other devotees of the Lord as prabhus, masters. Although everyone is a servant of the Lord, one Vaishnava servant, because of humility, sees another servant as his master. Understanding of the master begins from understanding of the spiritual master.

yasya prasadad bhagavat-prasado
yasyaprasadan na gatih kuto 'pi

"By the mercy of the spiritual master one receives the benediction of Krishna. Without the grace of the spiritual master, one cannot make any advancement."

sakshad-dharitvena samasta-shastrair
uktas tatha bhavyata eva sadbhih
kintu prabhor yah priya eva tasya
vande guroh sri-charanaravindam

"The spiritual master is to be honored as much as the Supreme Lord because he is the most confidential servitor of the Lord. This is acknowledged in all revealed scriptures and followed by all authorities. Therefore I offer my respectful obeisances unto the lotus feet of such a spiritual master, who is a bona fide representative of Sri Hari [Krishna]."

The spiritual master, the servant of God, is engaged in the most confidential service of the Lord, namely delivering all the conditioned souls from the clutches of maya [illusion], in which one thinks, "This person is my enemy, and that one is my friend." Actually the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the friend of all living entities, and all living entities are eternal servants of the Supreme Lord. Oneness is possible through this understanding, not through artificially thinking that every one of us is God or equal to God. The true understanding is that God is the supreme master and that all of us are servants of the Supreme Lord and are therefore on the same platform. This had already been taught to Prahlada Maharaja by his spiritual master, Narada, but Prahlada was nonetheless surprised by how a bewildered soul thinks one person his enemy and another his friend.

As long as one adheres to the philosophy of duality, thinking one person a friend and another an enemy, he should be understood to be in the clutches of maya. The Mayavadi philosopher who thinks that all living entities are God and are therefore one is also mistaken. No one is equal to God. The servant cannot be equal to the master. According to the Vaishnava philosophy, the master is one, and the servants are also one, but the distinction between the master and servant must continue even in the liberated stage. In the conditioned stage we think that some living beings are our friends whereas others are enemies, and thus we are in duality. In the liberated stage, however, the conception is that God is the master and that all living entities, being servants of God, are one.