True friendship is to find Divinity in the friend. And as you find Divinity in the friend, you will find a subtle transformation taking place in the friend as well. You will find him being uplifted, and he will not know why. He will only respond by loving you more, and he will not know why he is loving you more. Meanwhile you are creating that love in his heart for you, because you have started loving him. And that is true friendship.
You can only know a person in totality if you know your own totality.
Giving does not only mean a present, or something mundane or monetary. It is giving of oneself: it is giving of one’s entirety.
That you are me and I am thee—that is true friendship. That mergence between two people is the same as the mergence of man with God, for this is not of the body or the mind, but of the true spirit which is within. For the heaven within you is the same heaven within me.
In giving service to a friend, a sacrifice is needed. What do you really sacrifice? You sacrifice the feelings that you have in yourself and put them at his feet. In other words, you are sacrificing your personality. All that composes you, you are sacrificing at the friend’s feet; and this could be love and anger and every thing that is connected to you, every kind of emotion, positive or negative. You are sacrificing that at your friend’s feet.
When we become destructively critical, hatred wells up in our hearts instead of love. That is why in a true friendship, we say, I accept you for what you are, not for what I think you should be.
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