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FRIENDSHIP IN OUR MATERIALISTIC AGE
True, loyal and faithful friends are indeed our prized possessionsupposed to be treasured forever. Their friendship is timeless and eternal.“For without friends,” Aristotle says, “no one would choose to live, though hehad all other goods.” Good friends are two bodies with one soul.
Regrettably and ironically, genuine friendship is hard to be found inour materialistic world where money and personal gains are considered asyardsticks or criteria for having friends. All the folk tales, stories, greatsermons extolling the virtues and setting great standard of friendship seem tohave lost their core meaning in our present age. The ideal friendship has beenconfined to books only. Its significance is reduced to nothingness in ourjet-set age, where moral values are blurred and eclipsed by greed, avarice,self-aggrandizement, faithlessness and some other social evils and vices.
There was a time when it was unimaginable for a friend to cheat hisfriend. Cheating friends amounted to infidelity. Friends were considered twobodies with one soul. The spirit of self-sacrifice for the sake of friend wascommon worthwhile quality. They were gelled together in adversity. They werealways mindful of each other’s interests and give each other room to grow.Jealousy, envy, prejudice, hatred, greed, hypocrisy were foreign to them. Theywere all-weather friends, treating their friendship as something great, nobleand holy. It is indeed very painful to say that such an ideal friendship israre in our present era. In their wild attempt to be part of rat race to hankerafter worldly riches and benefits, friends, shockingly, have adopted anindifferent and devil-may-care attitude towards their friends, who are lessfortunate than they are. This who-cares attitude is a grim reminder thatgenuine friendship has been adversely affected by our irrational and inordinatedesire of self-aggrandizement, setting aside all the basic moral values andethics.
All this creates a bleak, depressing and pessimistic outlook. Onewonders whether he will ever be able to have good friends in this materialisticworld. The answer is a big “Yes”. One must hope for the better. Pessimism mustbe replaced by optimism. Despite the fact that materialism reigns supreme inour times, loyal and devoted friends can still be found provided we makeconcerted efforts to locate them and encourage them to come out and let peopleknow true friendship still exists, although it lays hidden by being eclipsedand overwhelmed by negative elements of our society. But its disappearance isnot permanent. It will shine again.
Friendshipis a noble quality. We hate to lose or deprive ourselves of this great andwonderful possession of ours. We are all supposed to make sincere effort tokeep friendship alive for our own sake. Remember, Friends have no substitute,no match, no even money, nothing whatsoever. Following are some usefulsuggestions to keep friendship still valuable and worthwhile:
To have a friend, be a friend.Never test your friend. He/she might not be in a position, though they wish to, to come up with your expectations because of their own problems and compulsions.Be sincere with your friends. Your sincerity will win their hearts, and they will reciprocate your love, sincerity and devotion.All friendships have their ups and downs. Learning to put aside disagreements makes companionship long-lasting.There should be frankness among friends for self-revelation. One must take friend’s criticism as seriously as their expressions of admiration or praise.Friends must show their unity, faithfulness and loyalty.Friendship contains some trial, but true friendship endures the test and ever grows from it.Friends give more than they expect to receive.
In our age, when casual acquaintance often comes so easily and whenintimacy comes too soon and cheaply, we can’t bli
