SHORT STORY: A Different Best Friend
For Rasho, not only was this a very different way of thinking of God, it was also an entirely new way of thinking about friendship.
By Mesha Oh
Rasho was taking his morning walk in the park when his mind went to his father, who had died more than 20 years earlier. He didn’t remember his father often—they had had a very strained relationship.
“You have no friends,” Rasho pictured his father mocking him. “Don’t be such a sissy! Go out and make friends! See how many friends your mother and I have!”
A wave of revulsion rushed through Rasho as this image replayed itself in his mind.
Rasho’s late parents had had what they called a “very active social life”. They were members of several clubs, where they would spend the weekends, meeting their friends and having “fun”. Every other evening, they were either dining at a friend’s place or having friends over for a party, when there would be much eating, drinking and laughter, and the occasional squabble or drunken brawl.
Rasho’s father just couldn’t understand why Rasho was such a reserved boy. He wanted Rasho to be just like him—gregarious, outgoing and surrounded by friends.
Rasho interrupted his walk and sat down on a bench. He allowed his mind to take him where it wanted to. He recalled the book he had read many years ago that had completely transformed his conception of friendship, and of God too. The book had spoken of God as one’s best friend.
Rasho had never before thought of God that way. God, he had been given to believe, was some great invisible being who lived somewhere far beyond, outside the universe, and was somebody who was to be greatly feared. The image of God he had been led to believe in was of a fierce and angry dictator, ready to pounce on him for the slightest misdemeanor—a bit like his own father.
But the book—by a noted spiritual teacher—spoke of God in a very different way. It described God as one’s intimate Friend, someone who loves us truly and deeply cares for us in a way no human being can, someone who is closer to us than anything else, someone who is accompanying us at every moment. The book talked of God as the most reliable companion.
For Rasho, not only was this a very different way of thinking of God, it was also an entirely new way of thinking about friendship.
Inspired by the book, Rasho had worked on cultivating a deep friendship with God. This intimate relationship had seen him through some really tough times. As he grew older, while he outgrew his shyness and made numerous good acquaintances and a few close friends, God was for him his dearest companion.
Rasho’s mind went back to his father. It struck him that he couldn’t remember even one occasion when his father had even mentioned the word ‘God’ except while swearing about something. Not once did he see his father pray or read a book about religion or spirituality. How his father, who so prided himself on the number of friends he had, had missed out on the greatest friend possible, Rasho mused.
Rasho’s mind then took him to his father’s dying moments, in the emergency unit of a hospital. No one but doctors and nurses were permitted to enter the unit. While Rasho’s mother, his siblings and he sat in the hospital lounge, unaware of what was happening inside, Rasho’s father had a massive heart-attack and breathed his last. Leave alone his many friends, not even members of his family had been present with him when he departed. There had been no one to hold his hand, no one to wish him farewell, no one to pray for his onward journey.
And it was not just that. When Rasho’s father’s body was brought home, hardly any of his many friends whom he had loved to be surrounded with turned up. And none of those who came wanted to help with preparing the body for the last rites. The task of cleaning the corpse was left for a trusted home help to do.
Rasho breathed a heavy sigh—it was a sigh of disgust mixed with relief. The memory of his father living and dying without caring about God repelled him. The image of his father coaxing him to “go out and make friends” while completely ignoring his parental responsibility of helping his children to develop a relationship with God disgusted him. But at the same time, Rasho felt a great sense of relief. He felt blessed that he had come across that book that had completely transformed his life, introducing him to God, his best friend, whose companionship now meant ever so much to him.
