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Perspective
Friendship and Culture
for World Unity
by TA Ramesh
 Love
is a life-long willing entanglement of hearts. It is a natural concern
for other beings. It may be a genuine concern of a mother for her child,
a lover for his love, a friend for his friend and a leader for the
mankind. Friendship is a particular name for the relationship between
man and man, woman and woman, man and woman and so on. It is a chosen
entanglement on agreeable terms among like minded persons. It is
considered to be another form of love. The deep friendship is what we
call as intimacy. Of course, lastly, if two persons are known to each
other, they are considered to be acquaintances. So, these are the
relationships we come across in our life.
Friendship of Personalities
Along with the themes like love, ambition, jealousy and so on, the great
genius Shakespeare has dealt with friendship also giving due importance
to it in his plays like Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet.
Charles Dickens has also given a prominent place for it in his novels
like The Pickwick Papers, The Great Expectations and
Our Mutual Friend. The list of such authors on friendship
grows endlessly. Because of friendship many authors have earned name and
fame such as Addison and Steele, Swift and Pope, Coleridge and
Wordsworth and T.S. Eliot and Pound. Friendship has brought immortal
fame for them and generation after generation people’s esteem for these
authors is scarcely diminishing in the world.
Value of Friendship in Literature
Not only English literature but all the language literatures of the
world have given an esteemed place for friendship, because its benefit
is invaluable to mankind. In the great Hindu Epic, Mahabharata, the
divine poet, Vyasa has depicted a wonderful picture on friendship not
only between man and man (Karna and Duryodhana) but also between God and
Man (Lord Krishna and Arjuna). The love and respect of the people for
God has increased more mainly due to this aspect of life in this single
epic than in any other religious literatures of the world. This is the
highest place any literature can give to friendship.
Needs and Deeds of
Friendship
The value of
friendship is estimated from the balance between the needs and the deeds
of men. The needs of men are fulfilled by deeds. The deeds are performed
by means of good ideas. But who is there to give ideas to one? There
comes friendship into play and naturally it becomes a necessity for
anyone. After getting an idea, one has to plan one’s action, proceed and
finish it well. So, one is in need of encouragement, support,
assistance, cooperation, defense and so on. These are some of the needs
of men to perform a deed. One gets honor only from the deed one does.
The deed may be becoming a professional, becoming a leader, achieving
fruition in love, regaining lost honor, fulfilling a vow and so on.
These deeds constitute the vicissitude of man. A friend alone can
interpret well the validity of a deed before it is performed and guide a
person in the proper direction.
Friend
Who can be a
friend? One, who is materially, morally and intellectually developed,
can become a good friend to a person. A friendship having such friends
can do achievements in any field of life and has the capacity to sustain
itself for a longer period. Further more such a friendship rather lives
more in deed than in time. Of the three qualities of a good friend,
morality is most important. The other two qualities are not a difficult
matter to be developed as the friendship proceeds on a deed. The reason
is that if a person is morally developed, he is reliable to his friend
due to his integrity of character, the vital aspect of any man. The
integrity of character is a perfect collaboration of thoughts, words and
deeds. This quality denotes the nobility of a person. For a noble
person, emotional, intellectual and spiritual developments are not at
all a struggle in life. They are the actual pursuit of his life. Hence
perfection in these matters is the aim he could aspire at.
Friendship
Just like love friendship also starts at first sight or chat. The
general behavior, manners, decency and kindness bring persons closer at
first. The mutual understanding takes place as time passes on, when each
one observes each other’s real activities. Some dissolve friendship when
it stops fetching benefits. The former one proceeds on mutual trust and
confidence whereas the latter one goes on exploitation. In friendship
both benefits and losses are shared equally; otherwise, it is not at all
called as a friendship. The mutual sharing of both good and bad or joy
and sorrow are not an obligation, but are a voluntary performance. In
some extreme cases, a friend sacrifices his own life for the sake of
another with pleasure. This sort of friendship is a rare thing in the
world. In the modern world, friendship is developing a world culture,
because it blossoms among peoples of different countries irrespective of
their class, creed and color. Apparently culture and friendship look to
be two different things, yet culture develops upon friendship and
friendship cherishes on culture.
Now Order of World Culture through
Friendship
After the two World Wars, old order changed to new order, science and
technology developed and educational institutions spread far and wide to
develop the mind of the people in all fields of knowledge. The new order
is a blend or combination or mixture of ideas, ideals and ideologies in
the society. Taking the ideal love and friendship as the basis the love
and friendship of the present day society cannot be analyzed. Therefore,
the old order cannot be applicable to the present generation. But under
the new order there is much scope for different peoples, irrespective of
their geographical position to mingle together and develop a world
culture by means of friendship.
Importance of Culture
Culture has various meanings to various persons and various countries.
It is a study of perfection. It is knowing the best of everything and
propagating such knowledge to the posterity. It is seeing the things as
they really are and making truth prevail over everything. It is doing
good to others, loving the neighbors, correcting the mistakes of others,
clearing the confusion and reducing the miseries of mankind. It brings
peace of mind and helps mankind to achieve spiritual perfection. In
short, it refines mind, behavior and activities of men. Culture is
taught to the people through classics, painting, music, dance, drama and
literature. It is disseminated to all people through art. Every country
has an independent culture of its own. These cultures put together into
a single whole form the world culture.
Science provides the necessary aids to spread culture of a country to
various parts of the world by means of Cinema, TV, CD, Internet
connections, etc. These scientific gadgets help people easily understand
other countries’ life and activities, etiquettes and interests and aim
and nature. This knowledge provides the necessary back ground for any
person or persons to go to any other country or countries to do most
beneficial and good deeds for one’s own country and other countries.
This is the aim of friendship through world culture. The expression of
cultural ideas may be differing from place to place, but the central
idea of all the cultures is concerned with human nature only. The
internal harmony of the people depends upon the world harmony. Through
the world culture by fulfilling the external needs of the people, the
world harmony can be achieved.
One World
Due to the friendship between nations the benefits to the people are
many. Many authors like S. Radhakrishnan, Bertrand Russell and Aldous
Huxley have written much about the world community, the world government
and the modern utopia to bring about the world harmony. They all have
supported the view that education, friendship and culture are essential
and very important for a good life. It is clear to note that for a good
life people are in need of good education, friends, love, good health,
sufficient income, congenial society and favorable government. How can
world culture fulfill these needs of the people?
These needs are the reasonable ones for any individual and are the
common need of all the people. A world organization has the capacity to
solve this general problem. We have United Nations Organization (UNO),
through which these needs could be fulfilled. It is the joint venture of
all the nations on the basis of friendship.
The United Nations Organization has to intensify cultural programs to
bring yet closer the nations that are members in it. By diverting the
attention of the nations towards the world culture, the thought of war,
hatred, fear and competition can be thwarted. In the name of friendship
all the nations should be involved in responsible creative activities
with a view to solve totally the problems like poverty, disease and
ignorance. It should arrange educational programs to give training to
all the citizens of the world in Agriculture and Industries, should
develop the particular talents of the individuals in Science and Arts
and utilize them in the creative direction. This could be the aim of the
world culture through friendship in the modern age.
The concept of friendship that it is a chosen entanglement on agreeable
terms among like minded individuals or nations holds good since time
immemorial. From the individuals to the nations this concept is of much
use. If an organization is able to perform the duties of a friendship
well irrespective of like mindedness, then the world will certainly
become a cultured and civilized one. The more the world organization
like the UNO improves the world culture the more developments will take
place upon friendship and make the world a better place to live.
August 13, 2006
Image under license with
Gettyimages.com
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Perspective
The Week of August 13, 2006
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