Guide Me From My Friends A song by Peter Tosh
Jah Jah guide me from my friends cause I know…
I know my enemies…
Every time I know…
I know my enemies…
I know my enemies…
Every time I know…
I know my enemies…
They will come and
Sit around your table
Wanting to kill you like
Cain kill Abel
Sit around your table
Wanting to kill you like
Cain kill Abel
Only trying to find an easy way
That they can try to eliminate you
That they can try to eliminate you
Jah Jah guide me from my friends cause I know…
I know my enemies…
Every time I know my enemies…
I know my enemies…
Every time I know my enemies…
Anytime you see your friend there
The first thing you see
Is him teeth, yes
But if you could see the inner part
Then we gonna know the sucker have got a wicked heart
The first thing you see
Is him teeth, yes
But if you could see the inner part
Then we gonna know the sucker have got a wicked heart
May Jah Jah guide me from my friends cause I know, every day…
I know my enemies…
Said I know my enemies…
I know my enemies…
Said I know my enemies…
Oh, Jah Jah guide me from my friends cause I know…
I know my enemies…
Long time I been watching them, I know…
I know my enemies…
I know my enemies…
Long time I been watching them, I know…
I know my enemies…
******* ****** *******
So here are the lyrics on “friendship” – a song that all youngsters of today must listen to. It says that we know our enemies, but the so-called friends with whom we spend our valuable time at times are worse than enemies. It’s just old wisdom.
But friendship has been glorified and cherished for ages.
“A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.”
“If you live to be 100, I hope I live to be 100 minus 1 day, so I never have to live without you.”
These and many more interesting, mushy coochee coochee coo quotes can be dished out and used freely on our dear friends. And before I talk any further on friends and friendship, you must listen to this story.
The friendship between Lord Krishna and his poor friend Sudama symbolizes it like no other.
Sudama was one of Lord Krishna’s friends. They studied together. When they grew up Krishna became king and Sudama remained a poor man. Sudama’s wife often told him to ask his friend Krishna for help. he kept refusing, but one day he decided to go and meet him. When Sudama entered the magnificent palace he saw Krishna sitting on a throne with court men, ministers, and servants all around him. He was taken aback, but not for long as Krishna rushed from his seat of power to hug his friend, washed his feet, and offered him his throne to sit. He then mischievously asked Sudama what had he brought for him. Sudama tried to hide the humble rice crispies he had brought for his friend to eat as he knew that as children Krishna loved this meal from Sudama’s home.
Krishna saw what he was hiding, grabbed it, and happily devoured the meal lovingly.
The joy of meeting an old friend was so overpowering that Sudama forgot why he had gone to meet Krishna, and did not ask for anything.
It is said that when Sudama reached home after a very contented trip at his friends’ place, he saw his old poor hut had transformed into a house with comforts, and there were riches beyond his comprehension. Sudama remembered Krishna’s pure love and his eyes welled up with joy and gratefulness. That is what true friendship is all about. It’s magical. It crosses all boundaries of status. It exists forever.
Having given this little story from the Indian mythology, many would beg to differ. Is there anything as true friendship now?
This sacred term has been commodified completely now. Yet this true sentiment called ‘friend’ would surely echo for anyone who has been enriched by the existence of a true friend.
“Friendship is unnecessary,” according to C.S. Lewis, “like philosophy, like art, like the universe itself… it has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival.”
One must not see friends as utilitarian tools that help advance their goals. May sound a bit odd to today’s generation. Seneca, the Roman philosopher wrote, “He who regards himself only and enters upon friendships for this reason, reckons wrongly. The end will be like the beginning: he has made friends with one who might assist him out of bondage; at the first rattle of the chain such a friend will desert him. These are the so-called “fair-weather” friendships; one who is chosen for the sake of utility will be satisfactory only so long as he is useful. Hence prosperous men are blockaded by troops of friends, but those who have failed stand amid vast loneliness their friends fleeing from the very crisis which is to test their worth. Hence, also, we notice those many shameful cases of persons who, through fear, desert, or betray. The beginning and the end cannot but harmonize. He who begins to be your friend because it pays will also cease because it pays. A man will be attracted by some reward offered in exchange for his friendship if he be attracted by aught in friendship other than friendship itself”.
In another letter, Seneca cautions against mistaking flattery for friendship — an admonition all the more urgent today, in the Age of Likes, when the forms of flattery and the channels of positive reinforcement have proliferated to a disorienting degree: ” How closely flattery resembles friendship! It not only apes friendship but outdoes it; with wide open and indulgent ears it is welcomed and sinks to the depths of the heart, and it is pleasing precisely wherein it does harm.
How I wish people would understand this, and imbibe these wise words of Seneca.
Friendship is synonymous with sacrifice, understanding, love, companionship, caring, and more. Someone who may or may not agree with you on every issue, yet be there for you, speak for you and stay put forever. Someone who you can unabashedly approach with any kind of problems you may be facing. Have you ever had such a friend? Are you a friend with these qualities? What can you say about friendship?
MYSTORYMYWAY 