No permanent friend or enemy (Part3)

After sufficiently relishing the great relief & joy that one feels after finding that his life has ben saved from the jaws of death, the cat called the mouse, who was staying within his hole

Lomasa said: My friend, why you ran away without even having the courtesy to exchange parting words? I hope you don’t suspiciously think that I have any evil intentions. Because our friendship has been firmly established, come out of your hole so that we can savour the sweetness of fraternal love. As you have saved my life, I remain eternally grateful & will worship you like my guru. From now on, pls consider my house & my possessions to be your own

After hearing this, Palita, being well aware of his self-interest replied with similar sweet words: According to learned authorities, friends & enemies should be very carefully examined. To discriminate between the two requires acute intelligence. Sometimes friends appear to be more like enemies & sometimes enemies act in a very friendly manner. When a friendship has been contracted, it is very difficult to determine whether that relationship has been established for good purposes, or out of lust, anger or greed

Actually, no one is intrinsically a friend or enemy. Enmity & love are created according to circumstances. When one sees that his welfare is dependent upon another, he regards that person as a friend & considers him as such for as long as their self-interests do not clash. Due to this, there is nothing called permanent friendship or enmity. In fact, one inevitably transforms into the other in due course of time. Therefore, one should never implicitly place his trust in his friends without having first adjusted conditions as per the science of diplomacy

One who desires to have an affectionate relationship with other person, without considering that he must act diplomatically, should be considered a first-class fool. Even if a person is genuinely deserving of trust, he should never be relied upon implicitly. What to speak of others, one’s near & dear relatives act in that relationship out of self-interest

Dear Lomasa, everyone considers his own self-interest first. Even though you have assured me with your sweet words that I’m very dear to you, I can understand that there must be a motive behind. Even the love between husband & wife or brothers, is created due to some adequate cause. Of course, because of natural affection, a husband or wife or brothers may reunite after quarrelling, but our relationship is not like that. There are instances that a person is endearing because of his virtuous nature, but generally speaking a person is considered dear simply because of the purpose he serves

O Cat! The original cause of our friendship no longer exists. Thus, I can understand that your present expression of friendship must be due to another motive. Perhaps you desire me as your prey. I know that cats are by nature enemies of mice & so I refuse your so-called friendship

Lomasa blushed with shame but after a short pause said: Palita you got me all wrong for I am genuinely grateful to you

Palita said: I accept your words as genuine But I can never repose my trust on you. The most important principle expounded by the science of diplomacy is mistrust. One should try his best to inspire confidence in others but at the same time should mistrust his enemies, for if he does so no matter how weak he may be, they will never be able to bring him under their control

Dear Lomasa, I advise you to be careful of the hunter for his anger has been aroused

Listening to this, the cat became so afraid that she ran away from the banyan tree to take shelter elsewhere

Huge lessons!

Thoughts? #gameoflife