Who is your real friend? Who is your worst enemy?

Acharya Prashant
8 min readSep 18, 2021

Following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

Acharya Prashant (AP): (Reading, Salok Mahalla 9 Guru Teg Bahadur)

“One who is not affected by pleasure and pain, who looks upon friend and enemy alike, says Nanak, listen mind, know that such a person is liberated.”

(Hindi- “harsh, shok vyape nahin bairi meet saman”)

~ Salok Mahalla 9, Guru Teg Bahadur

AP: (Reading question) “If friendship and enmity are the results of unfulfilled desires, then the reactions towards them also come from a point of unfulfillment. Does this realization enable someone to look upon friend and enemy alike?”

These are not the matters of speculations Shubhankar, first of all, you are terming an assumption as a realization, and then you are asking me, “If I assume that I will have this realization then will I be able to look at friends and enemies alike?”

This is not how these things are done. You do not say, “If I know this or if I realize this then will my behavior become like that?” The one who looks at friends and enemies alike is a different…

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