FolioCorpusŚrīmad-Bhāgavatam

Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 6.16.5

बन्धुज्ञात्यरिमध्यस्थमित्रोदासीनविद्विष: । सर्व एव हि सर्वेषां भवन्ति क्रमशो मिथ: ॥ ५ ॥
bandhu-jñāty-ari-madhyastha-
[bandhu-jnaaty-ari-madhyastha-]
mitrodāsīna-vidviṣaḥ
[mitrodaaseena-vidvishah]
sarva eva hi sarveṣāṁ
[sarva eva hi sarveshaam]
bhavanti kramaśo mithaḥ
[bhavanti kramasho mithah]
bandhu — friends jñāti — family members ari — enemies madhyastha — neutrals mitra — well-wishers udāsīna — indifferent vidviṣaḥ — or envious persons sarve — all eva — indeed hi — certainly sarveṣām — of all bhavanti — become kramaśaḥ — gradually mithaḥ — of one another.
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
bandhu-jñāty-ari-madhyastha-
bandhu
friends
jñāti
family members
ari
enemies
madhyastha
neutrals
mitrodāsīna-vidviṣaḥ
mitra
well-wishers
udāsīna
indifferent
vidviṣaḥ
or envious persons
sarva eva hi sarveṣāṁ
sarve
all
eva
indeed
hi
certainly
sarveṣām
of all
bhavanti kramaśo mithaḥ
bhavanti
become
kramaśaḥ
gradually
mithaḥ
of one another.
In this material world, which advances like a river that carries away the living entity, all people become friends, relatives and enemies in due course of time. They also act neutrally, they mediate, they despise one another, and they act in many other relationships. Nonetheless, despite these various transactions, no one is permanently related.

It is our practical experience in this material world that the same person who is one’s friend today becomes one’s enemy tomorrow. Our relationships as friends or enemies, family men or outsiders, are actually the results of our different dealings. Citraketu Mahārāja was lamenting for his son, who was now dead, but he could have considered the situation otherwise. “This living entity,” he could have thought, “was my enemy in my last life, and now, having appeared as my son, he is prematurely leaving just to give me pain and agony.” Why should he not consider his dead son his former enemy and instead of lamenting be jubilant because of an enemy’s death? As stated in Bhagavad-gītā (3.27) , prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ: factually everything is happening because of our association with the modes of material nature. Therefore one who is my friend today in association with the mode of goodness may be my enemy tomorrow in association with the modes of passion and ignorance. As the modes of material nature work, in illusion we accept others as friends, enemies, sons or fathers in terms of the reactions of different dealings under different conditions.

— A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda
Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura Gauḍīya
Translation
One person becomes a relative through marriage, a relative of one’s father, an enemy, a false friend, a well-wisher, and becomes indifferent to or envious of another person in different successive births. When I die, seeing me as a son, you lament. But why do you not see me as an enemy, and rejoice when I die, since all these relationships are temporary? That is expressed in this verse. Bandhu are kinsmen through marriage. Jñāti is a paternal relative. Enemies are those who attack. Mitra is a person desiring one’s good fortune. Madhyastha is externally friendly and internally inimical. Udāṣina is a person who is neither friendly nor inimical. Vidviṣa is a person who cannot tolerate another’s superiority. The enemy in one life becomes the son in another life. It is a common saying that a son with good qualities who dies is actually an enemy, since he gives greater sorrow.
In this world friends, relatives, enemies, mediators arise and shift in time. The current configuration is one slide in a long deck.
Reflection Questions
  • Whose role in my life has rotated through several categories already?
  • Where am I treating a current category as final?
📝 My note

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