In plain words
God Alone Is Our Friend
Embodiments of Prema! Nowhere in any other creature do we see the divine power that is in humanness. All powers are in man. Yet he cannot come to know this divine power of his own. When does it become possible to know it? When you understand “suhṛt”, you can know the divine power. Only when we gain the friendship of God do all powers arise in us. Suhṛt means one who knows no selfishness, who expects no return, who does no harm of any kind, who is the embodiment of Prema; such a friend there is only one, and He alone is God. Any man at all does a good turn only in the hope of a return for himself. The one who moves among people in friendship, expecting no return of any kind, looking for nothing whatever, and holding their welfare itself as His own Ānanda, is God, and God alone. Contrary qualities such as kāma, krodha, moha and lobha enter within, bring unrest upon humanness and drive Ānanda away. Above all else, the enemy of man is desire. Where worldly desires are concerned, he who is full of hate today may turn into a friend tomorrow. He who is an enemy today may become a friend tomorrow. But the Gītā did not accept it that way. This ‘desire’ always stays an enemy, nothing but an enemy. These desires, too, have certain limits. These desires belong not merely to men; the gods have them too. Indra and Candra have the power to bring about a change in a single moment. Yet for these desires no satisfaction is to be found anywhere. So Vedānta compared these desires to fire and to the ocean. However many kinds of firewood you throw into this fire, it never says, ‘Enough, enough.’ This is exactly what the Gītā called “analam”. That is, the words ‘Enough now, enough’ never come from fire. However much you throw in, it longs for still more. And then, what is the ocean like? However many rivers come and pour into it, the ocean stays just as it always was. Neither for the ocean nor for fire is there any satisfaction anywhere. So the boundless desires of man are like this ocean and this fire. Only when the three guṇas become one in man do we understand this truth. The proper study of mankind is man.