English
If you really wish to learn good things then simply maintain friendship with every person, regardless of whether people consider him to be God or a great fool. There is no other way to learn anything from someone. If you consider someone inferior then you will surely not find anything worth learning from him at all. And if you get charmed or impressed by someone or if you believe someone to be really great then also you will not be able to learn anything from him. In such a case, psychologically, you will find everything about them to be beyond your reach.
This simply means that any kind of distance is a barrier to learning. Learning is possible only by eliminating distances and becoming equal; and except for friendship no other feeling can bring this about. Whether it’s Kabir or Meera, they considered even God to be a friend and a lover. …And see the height of wisdom they attained. Even the world’s biggest psychology is the conversation between two friends, which we know as the ‘Bhagvad Gita’. Even in that, the important point to remember is that Arjun learnt from Krishna because he had the feeling of friendship towards him. On the other hand, if we speak about ourselves, then the same Bhagvad Gita is of no help to us because we consider Krishna to be our God. Now if he is God, then there is surely a great distance and distance of any kind is a hindrance to learning.
So, I have explained what needs to be done in order to learn. I hope, that whether someone is older or younger than you, you shall develop the feeling of friendship toward him and keep learning from him.
-Deep Trivedi