How is friendship greater than service?

[Ms.Laxmi Thrylokya asked:- It is told that service, friendship and self-surrender are the three last steps in the ascending order of importance (Dāsyaṃ sakhyamātmanivedanam…). Hanuman represents service and Arjuna represents friendship. But, Hanuman is greater than Arjuna because Hanuman is worshipped in His temples whereas Arjuna is not at all worshipped. How to correlate these two concepts?]

Swami Replied:- Hanuman is the incarnation of God Shiva whereas Arjuna is an ordinary soul. A bright student studying 8^th class is more valuable than a dull student studying 9^th class. God Himself incarnated in the 8^th class to stand as an ideal for the 8^th class students. The 8^th class student topped the school whereas the 9^th class student failed because Arjuna was reborn as hunter and then as Swami Vivekananda to pass the examination. You should not see the value of the class, but, you should see the value of the student. The 8^th class student got 100/100 marks and passed the test of God Datta. The 9^th class student failed twice and then passed it 100/100 marks in the 3^rd attempt only. Now, what about the final standard, which is 10^th class representing self-surrender for which Gopikas stand as an example. We must understand the meaning of self. Self represents “I”, which represents the body in which the soul or awareness exists as a part (nervous system) of multi-system-body.

{The value of awareness is greatest among all the items of the body and hence, is called as Brahman. Brahman stands for any greatest item in a specific group of items. Brahman shall not be taken as God in every context of a group of specific items. Brahman is also taken as God in the same original sense because God is the greatest among all the created items. You may say that awareness is greatest among all the created items. Agreed. But, awareness is also a created item, God is greater than awareness and hence, God is the greatest among all the created items. The awareness also is greatest among the created items and it also can be told as the greatest (Brahman) among the specific group of created items. God is the creator and is greater than awareness and hence, the greatest in absolute sense is God, who can be also told as Brahman among the group of all items including God. Hence, awareness is a part of the body even though it has greatest value among the created items. A gold coin present in 100 silver coins is one of the groups of coins only irrespective of its individual value. If this analysis is well understood, Shankara will be perfectly understood; who told that soul is God in the context of converting atheists into theists. When Shankara says that Atman is God, He means that the human incarnation having soul and body is God and does not mean that every ordinary human being is God.}

Gopikas made self-surrender, which means surrender of their souls along with their bodies making the total self-surrender meaningful in perfect sense. This final surrender means establishing the existence of their only bond with God and spontaneous sacrifice of all worldly bonds (strictly means all worldly bonds) for the sake of God. Such self-surrender astonished God to the climax so much that God gave them 200/100 marks as a special case, which is higher than the highest 100/100. The highest fruit is Brahmaloka or Satyaloka (His own abode), which was already created during the process of creation by God. But, specially, Goloka was created by God above His own abode for the sake of the passed Gopikas, which is the higher than the highest fruit.

Friendship is placed above the service because God is more pleased in the friendship in which even scoldings are used by devotee towards God. In service, total respect exists with which God is already bored in His abode. When He comes down, He likes to enjoy love in friendship than respect in service.

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