Category:God's Friends
Theme Analysis
The philosophical essence of this category explores the profound, intimate nature of sakhya-rasa, the transcendental relationship of friendship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. God is generally perceived with awe and reverence, but the Vedic literatures reveal that He is an actual person who hungers for the spontaneous, equal-level loving exchanges found in pure friendship. In the spiritual world, and especially in Goloka Vṛndāvana, the Lord relishes the reproaches, playfulness, and shared meals of His cowherd boyfriends more than the formal Vedic hymns offered by great scholars. To become God's friend is not a cheap achievement; it requires complete purification from material desires (anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyam). Lord Kṛṣṇa spoke the supreme mysteries of the Bhagavad-gītā to Arjuna specifically because Arjuna was His unalloyed devotee and friend. Ultimately, the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is actively teaching humanity how to revive this lost relationship, inviting the conditioned souls to give up their exhausting material struggles and return to their original constitutional position as the eternal friends, servants, or parents of the Supreme Lord.
- The Platform of Spiritual Equality: In the spiritual world, the Supreme Lord and His friends exist on the same platform of pure spiritual consciousness. The friends of Kṛṣṇa interact with Him not out of fear or majestic reverence, but with deep love and equal respect.
- The Qualification for Mystery: True spiritual knowledge cannot be acquired merely through academic study. Lord Kṛṣṇa revealed the supreme secrets of the Bhagavad-gītā to Arjuna specifically because Arjuna possessed the dual qualifications of being a pure devotee and a friend.
- Relishing Spontaneous Love: The Lord derives more pleasure from the simple, spontaneous love of His friends—such as the cowherd boys offering Him simple food from home—than from the formal, official prayers offered by learned religionists.
- The Perfection of Devotional Service: Becoming a friend of the Lord (sakhya) is one of the nine primary processes of devotional service as outlined by Prahlāda Mahārāja. By perfectly executing this process, a devotee's material desires are burnt to ashes, and their material body is fully spiritualized.
- The Goal of Kṛṣṇa Consciousness: The ultimate aim of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is to educate the conditioned souls about their eternal identity. The movement provides the exact details—God's name, address, and pastimes—so people can revive their lost relationship as His friend, servant, parent, or lover.
- Explore the synthesized essence of this category in this Vanipedia article: God's Friends Relish the Highest Mellows of Sakhya Rasa.
Subcategories
This category has the following 6 subcategories, out of 6 total.
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Pages in category "God's Friends"
The following 75 pages are in this category, out of 75 total.
A
- Actually we are all followed by the tiger of nescience, but the Lord is very merciful upon living entities, especially human beings. To this end He spoke the Bhagavad-gita, making His friend Arjuna His student. BG 1972 Introduction
- All the inhabitants of Ayodhya who saw Lord Ramacandra as citizens, served Him as servants, sat and talked with Him as friends or were somehow or other present during His reign went back home, back to Godhead
- All the relatives of the Lord are His devotees only, and they are situated in different transcendental mellows as friends, parents, and lovers
- Arjuna was Krsna's friend, but He never said that "You stop your working." Rather, He engaged him in his real work. He was a fighter
- Arjuna, after hearing from Krsna about the outcome of the Battle of Kuruksetra, became an enlightened devotee of the Supreme Lord. He admitted that everything done by Krsna is quite fit. BG 1972 purports
- As a friend, the Lord is always anxious to get back His friend, the individual soul, and bring him back home, back to Godhead. As a witness He is the bestower of all benedictions, and He endows each individual with the result of his actions
- At the outset, the Personality of Godhead talked with Arjuna just as a friend talks with a friend. But such friendly discussions generally end in friendly - and fruitless - debate
B
- Balarama triumphantly reached Dvaraka, where He met with many citizens who were all His devotees & friends. When they all assembled He narrated the whole story of the marriage & they were astonished to hear how He had made the city of Hastinapura tremble
- Because one thinks constantly in this way (as the Lord's servant, friend, father, mother or conjugal lover), one's present material body and mind are fully spiritualized, and the needs of one's material body completely vanish from one's existence
- Becoming the Lord’s friend, and sarvatma-nivedana, offering oneself fully at the lotus feet of the Lord - these are the nine devotional processes
- By rendering service, becoming His friend or His servant and offering Him everything that one possesses, one is able to enter into the kingdom of God
D
- Dear cloud, O friend of Krsna’s, are you thinking of the Srivatsa symbol on Krsna’s chest like us queens engaged in loving affairs with Him? You are absorbed in meditation, remembering the association of Krsna, and thus you shed tears of misery
- Dear Lord, You have no enemies or friends. Therefore You are equal to everyone. You cannot be contaminated by sinful activities, and Your transcendental form is always beyond the material creation
G
- Garga Muni said: This child, the son of Rohini, will give all happiness to His relatives and friends by His transcendental qualities. Therefore He will be known as Rama - SB 10.8.12
- Gold is natural, and similarly God is natural. In His childhood pastimes, in the lap of His mother, He is God; while He is playing with His boyfriends, He is God; while He is dancing, He is God; while He is fighting at Kuruksetra
I
- In course of time, the same instruction (which was given to sun-god), being wrongly handled and being broken, was again instructed to Arjuna because he was His perfect devotee and friend
- In the capacity of servitor, friend, parent or conjugal lover of the Lord (the devotee of God desires to associate with the Lord), either in one of the innumerable Vaikuntha planets or in Goloka Vrndavana, the planet of Lord Sri Krsna
- In the development of becoming either the father or friend of the Lord, there are two varieties
- In the spiritual world God and God's son or God's friend or God's lover, anyone is the... They're in the same platform, spiritual. Therefore they are identical
- In the Srimad-Bhagavatam (SB 7.5.23), Prahlada Maharaja very clearly states what the essential activities of devotional service are: (7) thinking oneself His (God's) eternal servant, (8) becoming His friend, and (9) surrendering everything to Him
- In these spiritual planets the Supreme Lord as Narayana predominates, and the healthy, unconditioned living beings live there by rendering loving service to the Lord in the capacity of servant, friend, parents and fiancee
- It is also confirmed in Bhagavad-gita that the Lord is equal to everyone; no one is His enemy and no one is His friend. But to one who surrenders unto Him, He is especially inclined
- It so appeared that Arjuna and the Lord were engaged in the Battle of Kuruksetra as the other party was also engaged, but factually the Lord was executing His mission of incarnation and association with His eternal friend Arjuna
K
- Kalindi said, "My dear Draupadi, I was engaged in great austerities and penances to get Lord Krsna as my husband. When He became aware of this fact, He very kindly came to me with His friend Arjuna and accepted me as His wife"
- Krsna declared, "If one takes a bath in the Kaliya lake, where My cowherd boyfriends and I have bathed, or if one fasts for a day & offers oblations to the forefathers from the water of this lake, he will be relieved from all kinds of sinful reactions"
- Krsna freely moves amongst His friends as a cowherd boy in Vrndavana, and when He plays His flute, all living creatures, mobile and immobile, become overwhelmed with ecstasy. They quiver, and tears flow from their eyes
- Krsna said, "My dear friends, I can understand that you have left your homes without the permission of your guardians"
- Krsna said, "My dear friends, you know that Lord Balarama and I left Vrndavana just to please Our relatives and family members. Thus We were long engaged in fighting with Our enemies and were obliged to forget you, who were so much attached to Me"
L
- Lord Caitanya, preaching as an acarya, a great teacher, taught that we can enter into a relationship with God and actually become God's friend, parent or lover - CC Intro
- Lord Krsna instructed Arjuna in the Bhagavad-gita because He found Arjuna to be a devotee and friend. Without such qualifications, one cannot enter into the mystery of the Bhagavad-gita
N
- Nine basic processes of devotional service - hearing & chanting about the Supreme Lord, remembering Him, serving His lotus feet, worshiping Him, offering prayers to the Lord, acting as His servant, becoming His friend, & surrendering everything to Him
- Nitya-siddha-bhakta indicates the eternally liberated associates of the Lord. Such devotees enjoy the company of the Lord in four relationships - as servant, friend, parent or conjugal lover
O
- O my dear lord, you are the friend of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is the friend of all living entities. You are therefore equal to everyone, and you are free from the bodily conception
- Of course, any devotee in any capacity, either as servant, friend or conjugal lover, always has direct association with the Lord. But according to his different individual taste, a person desires for just one of these relationships
- One should glorify God in the adoration of santa-rasa or revive his eternal relationship with Visnu as a servant in dasya-rasa, a friend in sakhya-rasa, a parent in vatsalya-rasa or a conjugal lover in madhurya-rasa. All these are on the platform of love
- Others, who were in the marginal position, being neither friends nor enemies but slightly in love of Godhead by appreciating the beauty of His face, were at once promoted to the spiritual planets, the Vaikunthas
S
- Srimati Radharani continued: Lord Ramacandra, as a ksatriya, should have fought with Vali face to face, but, instigated by His friend, He killed him from behind a tree. Thus He deviated from the religious principles of a ksatriya
- Sukadeva Gosvami said, "When He (Krsna) would thus sit amongst His friends, it would appear that He was the whorl of a lotus flower and that the friends surrounding Him were petals"
T
- That very ancient science of the relationship with the Supreme is today told by Me to you (Arjuna) because you are My devotee as well as My friend; therefore you can understand the transcendental mystery of this science
- The aim of life is God realization, God realization, that "There is God, His name is Krsna, His address is Vaikuntha, His number is this, He has got so many friends, He has got so many lovers." Everything we are giving. But still, the rascal will not take
- The cowherd boys brought simple foodstuffs from home, and the Lord, who is constantly served by hundreds and thousands of goddesses of fortune, is always glad to accept such simple foodstuffs from His devotee friends
- The degree of intimacy shared by Krsna and Subala can be understood by the fact that the talks between them were so confidential that no one else could understand what they were saying
- The devotees, therefore, following their constitutional instincts, achieve the desired goal of becoming servitors, friends, fathers, mothers or conjugal lovers of the Lord
- The friends of Krsna wanted to eat the fruit from the forest trees, but they could not go because of fear of the demon. Thus they requested Krsna to go there and kill Gardabhasura
- The Lord clearly told Arjuna (4.3) that it was because Arjuna was His devotee and friend that he could understand the principles of the Bhagavad-gita. In other words, only the Lord's devotee and friend can understand the Gita
- The Lord enjoyed His pastimes, both in this world and in other worlds (higher planets), specifically in the association of the Yadu dynasty. At leisure hours offered by night, He enjoyed the friendship of conjugal love with women
- The Lord instructs His friend, the individual soul, who is also His son, to give up all other engagements and simply surrender unto Him for perpetual bliss and an eternal life full of knowledge
- The Lord relishes the reproaches of friends, parents or fiancees more than the Vedic hymns offered to Him by great learned scholars and religionists in an official fashion
- The relationship between the Lord and His devotee is reciprocal, as He clearly says in the Bhagavad-gita (9.29): Whoever renders service unto Me in devotion is a friend - is in Me - and I am also a friend to him
- The servant of the Lord is engaged in the service of the Lord as a servant, friend, father, mother or conjugal lover, all of whom are equally as opulent as the Lord. This is acintya-bhedabheda-tattva
- The sixty-four regulative principles (of devotional service) are as follows: (26) To pray to Him (God). (27) To think of oneself as the Lord's eternal servant. (28) To become the Lord's friend. (29) To offer everything to the Lord
- The third stage in the development of transcendental love is called sakhya-rati. In this stage one associates with the Supreme as a friend on an equal level, with love and respect
- Then (when one has a relationship with Him (Vasudeva) as a servant, friend, parent or conjugal lover) one automatically feels transcendental bliss, just as one becomes happy seeing the shining of the moon
- There are also special flavors experienced in friendship with the Supreme Lord, and these are manifested by friends such as Subala, whose devotion increases up to the point of bhava
- They (Krsna and Balarama) also learned how to splash water in the rivers or lakes while taking a bath among friends
- They (Krsna's friends) used to sit together and advise one another what to do, sometimes inducing one another to be engaged in welfare work
- Thus Krsna is eternally engaged in His transcendental activities in Vrndavana with His friends, the cowherd boys and gopis, but sometimes He exhibits the extraordinary prowess of the Supreme Personality of Godhead by killing different types of demons
- To offer prayers to Him (Visnu), to become His servant and His friend, to sacrifice everything for His service - all these are varieties of devotional service. One who is engaged in such activities is understood to be educated to the topmost perfection
U
- Under the heading of regulative devotional service, there are sixteen meanings based on understanding the word atmarama to mean (1) a servant of the Lord as His personal associate, (2) a personal friend, (3) personal parents or similar superiors
- Under the heading of regulative devotional service, there are sixteen meanings based on understanding the word atmarama to mean (13) an immature devotee as a servant, (14) an immature devotee as a friend
- Under the heading of regulative devotional service, there are sixteen meanings based on understanding the word atmarama to mean (6) a friend by spiritual cultivation, (7) parents and superior devotees by cultivation of devotional service
- Under the heading of regulative devotional service, there are sixteen meanings based on understanding the word atmarama to mean (8) a beloved wife or female friend by cultivation of devotional service, (9) a mature devotee as a servant
W
- We shall engage ourselves as Krsna's servants (dasyam), we shall become Krsna's friends (sakhyam), and we shall surrender everything to Krsna (atma-nivedanam). This is the process of Krsna consciousness
- What is to be said of one who is related to the Supreme Personality of Godhead as a servant, friend, father, mother or conjugal lover
- When a devotee is completely purified, he becomes anyabhilasita-sunya. In other words, all of his material desires become zero, being burnt to ashes, and he exists either as the Lord's servant, friend, father, mother or conjugal lover
- When Jatayu died, Lord Ramacandra did the duty of a son by performing the funeral ceremony, and then He made friends with the monkeys to deliver Sitadevi
- When one advances through impersonal Brahman and localized Paramatma to approach the Supreme Personality of Godhead in relationship with Him as a servant, friend, parent or conjugal lover, one's happiness becomes all-pervading
- When one realizes something of his constitutional relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he understands his original position and wants to be reinstated in this position, either as friend, servant, parent or conjugal lover of Krsna
- With Balarama, He (Krsna) triumphantly entered Vrndavana village, and the inhabitants glorified Him and Balarama with great jubilation. When a person performs some wonderful feat, his kinsmen and relatives and friends naturally become jubilant