“The Friend and Foe Syndrome”

[Guest guest]

OM SAI RAM

 

“The Friend and Foe Syndrome”

 

……“When in distress we seek for someone to help us. We

pray God for His divine intervention. We try to cash

on the social position of our relatives and friends

alike for that purpose. However we do not, at times,

get the desired help, all our efforts notwithstanding.

On the other hand, at times, someone unexpectedly

appears on the scene and helps us. Then we thank God

for sending such a helpful friend. Thereafter while

introducing this friend to others we address him as

“my friend.” In this context keeping in view the basic

principles of the Hindu karma theory as pronounced in

our scriptures and practiced by the spiritual masters,

a moot question need to be answered i.e. does or does

not the cause and effect dynamics operate here?

 

The karma theory would say that this helpful friend

was an associated character of a certain past life and

was to pay back the good act of rendering help as

Rinanubandh (payment of the past debts). It means that

by one’s deeds of the past life (lives), one has

earned this friend. Be that as it may, let us examine

this issue from the point of view of the sudden

appearance of an enemy at a certain distressful point

of time in life. Our immediate reaction begins from

annoyance and leads to revenge ex-anger. There after

we normally start vilifying him and address him as “my

enemy”.

 

Thus, our entire life sees the world as full of “my

friends” and “my enemies”. But if “our friends” were

created by our past deeds, which we glorify secretly

then is it not logical that “our enemies” must have

been created by certain acts committed by us in the

past life (lives). Let us therefore agree to say that

in our lives “my friends” and “my enemies” have to be

equally addressed, as both have been created by me and

are “mine”. Since both of them have been created due

to karmic bandhan (Rinanubandh) isn’t it our duty to

neutralize the effects of both in this life so that we

don’t carry forward the seeds of cause-effect to the

next life. Herein karma theory would say that a friend

returns the pleasurable experience(s) as we had given

same or similar pleasurable experiences to him in a

past life.

 

Similarly an enemy would pay back the unpleasant or

painful experience(s) because we had given him same or

similar painful experience(s) in the past. When facing

a situation of unhappiness created by the enemy we

have two options in dealing with him-either by going

through painful experience(s) we neutralize its

effects or by reacting adversely we carry forward a

chain of reaction to future lives. Here comes in the

wisdom of saints like Shri Shirdi Sai Baba.

 

The story of the frog and snake named as Chenbassapa

and Veerbhadrappa respectively as illustrated in Shri

Sai Satcharitra is a pointer towards the correct

answer to our question. Shri Sai Baba has advised His

devotees not to react sharply and adversely towards

enemies with equal and opposite negativities but to

allow negative effects of past karmas reflected

through the enemy to neutralize gradually. This highly

evolved and critical theory of Karma (cause and

effects) can perhaps be better understood through a

simple example.

 

Suppose one releases an arrow from a bow, then what

happens! The arrow at the release point will move with

the highest velocity and will gradually slow down due

to mid-air friction and take a curvaceous path due to

the gravity of earth before hitting the target.

However, the moment it hits the target or failing

which hits the earth, its force is neutralized. This

means that more the distance the arrow travels the

less momentum it creates at the impact point. Greater

distance means greater time and less impact.

 

When we assimilate the basic principles of these two

theories of metaphysics and physics, we come to the

conclusion that instead of directly reacting to an

enemy’s wrath, it is wiser to show a little tolerance

and allow time to reduce the impact of the enemy’s

conduct. When Shri Sai Baba spoke of “Saburi” it

included this aspect of handling of enemies with

patience and consideration. This message of the seers

handed over to the human society from time to time is

unfortunately lost sight of and that is the cause of

most of the social malice that we face today.

 

Let us pray Shri Sai to give us the intellect and

wisdom to make tomorrow’s world a happier place to

stay by following His principle of “Shraddha” and

“Saburi””…….