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That is - Let there be friendship for all the living beings, a feeling of praise and joy for the virtuous, kindness for the miserable and a feeling of equanimity in dealing with adversity.
In these four kinds of feelings, the main feeling is that of friendship. It is so because only a person endowed with the feeling of friendship can have a feeling of joy for the virtuous, a feeling of kindness for the miserable and a feeling of forgiveness for the flawed. Therefore, the rest three feelings follow the feeling of friendship. Where there are differences, divisions and a feeling of lesser and greater, there can be no friendship there. In friendship there is unity, equanimity, affection, love and lack of distinction between the two friends. Where there is friendship, there exist the godly feelings. Friendship and equanimity coexist and the God resides in equanimity. In other words we can say that the God lives where there is friendship. It is for this reason that in Buddhism friendship has been referred to as 'Brahma-vihāra'.
Where there is selfishness, that is, where there is a desire to get pleasure for oneself, there is no friendship there. There can be no friendship in an environment of selfishness. Friendship exists only where one feels happy in the happiness of the friend. A tendency to enjoy oneself is that of mundane pleasure. To renounce own pleasure is not bhoga - enjoyment but yoga - renunciation. Bhoga is the cause of karmic bondage whereas yoga is the cause of liberation. Bhoga is adharma whereas yoga is dharma. Therefore, where there is friendship. there is dharma. Friendship and dharma are one.
The love that is born out of friendship destroys attachment. Attachment is where there is a desire to enjoy worldly pleasures. Where there is a feeling of renouncing own pleasures and to mitigate others' misery and melancholy, and that of being happy in their happiness, there is love. Love is the manifestation of God. Therefore, where there is love there is God. The heart in which the love does not spring, the attachment grows. Where there is attachment, there is karmic bondage and worldly transmigration. Love can be gained only by overcoming attachment. Where there is no attachment, there is
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