Friends and Foes

A Saint had some disciples. They used to always sit together and pray. Once the saint sat alone and was praying peacefully, the disciples followed him and quietly sat next to him. He closed his eyes, lifted his hands up and said "Oh! God, I can defend myself from my enemies but please help me from my friends, I cannot fight with them". The disciples heard this and then questioned him what are you praying to God for that "There is always fear and danger from friends, why from friends." Friends are always helpful when in need. They said "you were in dhyan while praying so may be by mistake you must have said to God to help you from friends and you can fight against your enemies instead you should have prayed to help from enemies".

The saint replied"NO, I was fully aware of what I was praying, there is no mistake.

He said "My Friend is this "I" and ME, MY EGO. My friend is this feeling of being a doer(karta ka bhav), of being myself. These friend they don't leave me, they are stuck to me. I am afraid of these friends. My enemies are anger, lust and desires, greediness, possessiveness (Kama, Krodh, lobh and Moha). I can fight with them. I can make them my slaves. They cannot dictate me. But, Oh! this I, Me ,Myself whom I love so much, they also love me so much, I cannot fight with them. Only God can help me to get rid of them. If my Ego is hurt, I feel like taking revenge, if somebody says I am egoistic, I get wild because I cannot hear anything against my friend.

You know in the last chapter of Gita i,e eighteenth chapter Lord Krishna told Arjun about Ego. If God had told him in the beginning Arjun would not be able to hear anything from Krishna.

Once a Fakir went to a state capital and was sleeping under a tree. It was dark night. When he woke up he saw some light. He looked around and saw a jugnu sitting in front of him. He had spread his wings and told the fakir "see it is because of me you can see light otherwise there is all darkness. The fakir told the jugnu insect "you are very nice, very sweet, this whole city is lit with your light, even sun and moon derive light from you." Jugnu's ego got bloated up, he jumped and sat on fakir's hand. He said "you are such a nice Maharaj, nobody has ever praised me so much." They became good friends and full night they went on talking. Slowly, slowly the fakirs love changed the jugnu's thoughts and he started behaving and talking like the Mahatma.

Same way Lord Krishna with his praises, love and affection changed Arjun, who being a warrior, had ego and Lord also with sweet words helped him to overcome depression.
Very few are lucky to have such friends who help them to get rid of ego and eradicate their depressive thoughts