DEVOTIONAL SERVICE IN FRIENDSHIP
\nDevotional service in friendship can be divided into two categories: the first is to act as the confidential servant of the Lord, and the other is to act as the well-wisher of the Lord.
\nThe devotee who has confidence in devotional service to the Lord systematically follows the rules and regulations, with the faith that he will achieve the platform of transcendental life.
\nThe second type of devotional friendship is to become a well-wisher of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
\nIn Bhagavad-g\u012bt\u0101 it is said that the Lord accepts a preacher as the most dear servant. Anyone who is preaching the confidential message of the G\u012bt\u0101 to the people in general is so dear to K\u1e5b\u1e63\u1e47a that no one can be equal to him in human society.<\/p>\n
In the Mah\u0101bh\u0101rata, Draupad\u012b says,
\n\u201cMy dear Govinda, Your promise is that Your devotee can never be vanquished. I believe in that statement, and therefore in all kinds of tribulations I simply remember Your promise, and thus I live.\u201d
\nThe purport is that Draupad\u012b and her five husbands, the P\u0101\u1e47\u1e0davas, were put into severe tribulations by their cousin-brother Duryodhana as well as by others. The tribulations were so severe that even Bh\u012b\u1e63madeva, who was both a lifelong brahmac\u0101r\u012b and a great warrior, would sometimes shed tears thinking of them. He was always surprised that although the P\u0101\u1e47\u1e0davas were so righteous and Draupad\u012b was practically the goddess of fortune, and although K\u1e5b\u1e63\u1e47a was their friend, still they had to undergo such severe tribulations. Though their tribulations were not ordinary, Draupad\u012b was not discouraged. She knew that because K\u1e5b\u1e63\u1e47a was their friend, ultimately they would be saved.<\/p>\n
A similar statement is there in the Eleventh Canto of \u015ar\u012bmad-Bh\u0101gavatam, second chapter, verse 53, where Havis, the son of King \u1e5a\u1e63abha, addresses Mah\u0101r\u0101ja Nimi:
\n\u201cMy dear King, a person who never deviates even for a moment from engagement in service at the lotus feet of the Supreme Person (engagement which is sought even by great demigods like Indra), with firm conviction that there is nothing more worshipable or desirable than this, is called the first-class devotee.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u015ar\u012b R\u016bpa Gosv\u0101m\u012b says that a neophyte devotee who has simply developed a slight love of Godhead is certainly a prospective candidate for devotional service. When he becomes firmly fixed in such devotional service, that assured status becomes a confidential part of his devotional service.<\/p>\n
Sometimes it is found that a pure devotee lies down in the temple of the Lord in order to serve Him as a confidential friend. Such friendly behavior of a devotee may be accepted as r\u0101g\u0101nug\u0101, or spontaneous. Although, according to regulative principles, no one can lie down in the temple of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, this spontaneous love of Godhead may be grouped under devotional service in friendship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DEVOTIONAL SERVICE IN FRIENDSHIP Devotional service in friendship can be divided into two categories: the first is to act as the confidential servant of the Lord, and the other is to act as the well-wisher of … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-13 17:46:43","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/81"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37754\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.isvara.org\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}