Last Updated on 29 July 2023 IST | International Friendship Day 2023: Importance of Friends in Our Lives is immense. Friends play a significant role in everyone’s life. Whenever we say this word, it makes us nostalgic about the person who stood by our side in our times of need. With whom we share our sorrows, happiness, in the company of whom our joy doubles and the one who halves our misery. It also reminds us of the popular motto on a friend: – “A friend in need is a friend indeed” which means, a true friend is always there for you, whenever you are in need.

On this Friendship Day, let us rediscover and strengthen our bond with that oldest and truest friend of the soul: the all-pervading, all-powerful, Supreme Kabir Sahib Ji.

Friendship Day 2023 Special

International Friendship Day 2023: People of all age groups need friends, no matter if they are rich or poor. Everyone seeks the company of a person with whom they can share their heart and their life. Especially those who can understand them, help them, cheer them, and let them laugh, even at a time and condition when they normally can’t.

Having a friend is equally important as having a family. It is for this reason that they say – friends are the family whom we choose for ourselves. They remain with us during hardships and make us feel special. Even during childhood days and when we grow up, friends help us to understand and develop the habit of caring and sharing.

History of International Friendship Day

Friendship day is celebrated all over the world. Initially, it was proposed by the card making industry for their profits in 1958 in Paraguay, South America, as International Friendship Day to develop the feeling of fraternity and unity among the people of different regions. It was celebrated by exchanging greeting cards for the very first time originated by Joyce Hall, who was the founder of Hallmark cards.

■ Also Read | National Best Friends Day: Who Is the Only Best Friend of Every Soul?

Although, after some time when people realized that it was a mere profit scheme made by the card making industries, Americans’ interest in celebrating Friendship day ran out of steam. But by that time, Asian people had adopted it as a culture because of the impact of social media.

Friendship Day in India

Factually, on 27 April 2011, the General Assembly of the United Nations declared 30th July as official International Friendship Day. Although in many countries like India, it is celebrated on the 1st Sunday of August every year (this year it is on  August 7).

International Friendship Day 2023 Theme

The theme for International Friendship Day 2023 is ‘Sharing the human spirit through friendship‘. It targets Friendship as a fundamental spirit for maintaining peace and prosperity in the world. It also helps to accord between the countries.

Significance of International Friendship Day

Friendship day signifies the importance of harmonious and trustworthy friendships that ultimately bring friends close to each other. Although the idea of celebrating friendship day was proposed by the industrialists for their profits, basically it was a good idea as everyone should value their good friends. And now people celebrate this day as a day of camaraderie and honouring of all the loving friends who are precious in their lives.

Friendship Promises Fraternity

Moreover, the biggest reason behind the declaration of 30th July as a friendship day by the General Assembly of the U.S. was to promote fraternity. They wanted to change the mentality and attitude of their people, bringing amiability among the human family with no exploitation in society.

How Is Friendship Day Celebrated?

Various celebrations are made on this day. People celebrate this day by sharing love with their friends through exchanging greeting cards, bands, and gifts. Also, some surprise parties or trips are planned to spend quality time with friends and make them feel special. People post several memories on various social media platforms of the times they have spent with their friends. Particularly, on this day, friends exchange colorful bands as a gesture to commemorate their bond.

The exchange of gifts, greeting cards, bands, and parties is in trend but the best way you can celebrate with your friends is by giving them ‘Jeene ki Raah’ book which is the most downloaded book.

What Are the Three Types of Friendships?

According to Aristotle, there are three types of friendships that he had mentioned in Book Vlll of Nicomachean Ethics.

• Friendship for utilities.
• Friendship for pleasure.
• Friendship of the good.

Friendship for Utilities

It is a type of friendship that is between you and another person who is helpful for you in some way. Like, he helps you in the accomplishment of your projects. And the reason for being in friendship is just for the accomplishment of tasks and utilities.

Friendship for Pleasure

This type of friendship begets when you love to do something with someone and love someone’s company for doing different activities like playing, roaming, eating, and sharing your memories and whatever else in the company of another that gives you pleasure.

Friendship for the Good

This is a type of friendship that believes in the good of each other, keeping respect for each other and without any hidden agendas. Friends who have similar interests and notions which help each understand the other very efficiently lie in this category and this type of friendship is deemed superior.

International Friendship Day 2021: Aristotle mentioned that friendship for the sake of utilities and pleasures is accidental and limited but the friendship of the good, is one which can survive lifelong. Aristotle’s philosophy gives us an idea that helps us judge what type of friendship we are having with someone.

Who Is the True Friend of Every Soul?

What Aristotle did not mention is how human nature would change in the future. In comparison to the past, these days people have become pretty materialistic. Relationships are made only if there is to gain from another person. Nowhere does one see true human to human bonding, bereft of opportunism. It seems hard to find a true friend in this world today.

People make friends more by observing the status of other people, and those soulful, meaningful connections have seemingly become a thing of the past. Though it cannot be denied that everybody still possesses friends, even those living in seclusion, whether those friends are fake or real. When one falls in any difficulty, then he finds how true or fake these friends are.

■ Also Read: International Brother’s Day-Important information about Brother Day 

But apart from the worldly friends, let’s also talk of our soul’s one & only true friend. There is only ONE friend in this Universe who never leaves us, both in thick and thin. One who is trustworthy and will support us in every condition. Only with His grace can our lives become truly content and He is the only one who can actually remove all our worries.

And that loyal and closest friend of the soul is ‘God’. He is the one who can take away our anxieties and also helps us in getting rid of our vulnerabilities and even heal our most incurable and life-threatening diseases. The one who will be with us in life and even after our death. Only by the grace of that Friend (God), we remain safe in the mother’s womb. Only He can really read our minds and satisfy our exigencies even before we ask for them.

Do We Really Need to Find a Real Friend?

Yes, we need a friend who is a friend of the soul and always stays with us. Here we are connected to each other because of our past deeds. We meet people here and get separated. We help each other according to our convenience and make friends on our own free will. But God, who is the best friend of the soul, loves unconditionally and helps us. God knows you inside & out.

International Friendship Day 2023: Even our best of friends, our family, rather no one else can really understand our inner emotions the way God can, as He knows us inside – outside. In reality, if you are in pain, then your friends can solely console you and maybe even cry seeing you suffer, but they can’t really take away your pain. Only the Supreme God has the capability and powers to let our pain go. The truth is that the most important friend of man can only be God, this relationship and bond needs to be nurtured more than any other human relationship.

International Friendship Day 2023 Quotes

• “God is the true friend of a soul” ~ Sant Rampal Ji Maharaj
• “A friend in need is a friend indeed”
• “When we go close to God, He becomes our best friend and is always helping”
• “A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out”
• Make God Kabir your best friend. He never betrays.
• “A true friend encourages you to quit all vices and to lead the true path of life” Sant Rampal ji Maharaj

Who Is the Supreme God?

People worship Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, Ganesha, Goddess Durga, and other deities and messengers of God in other religions such as Jesus, Mohammad. Humans do this due to grave ignorance, as none of these deities and messengers are the God and won’t really help anyone if they don’t have a deposit of good karma from past lifetimes.

There are gods who do not allow the soul to attain salvation, which means that they ensure that the soul is kept trapped in the cycle of 84 lakh species. He is the only true friend of the soul, who never leaves His disciples in any situation. Kabir God has mentioned in His verses that He comes in all the four yugas, to help break the bondage of the souls who want to attain Eternal peace and never-ending bliss.

Satyug mein Sat Sukrit kah tera|

Treta naam Muninder Mera||

Dwapar mein Karunamay kahaya|

Kalyug naam Kabir dharaya||

He is indestructible. He does not take birth from a mother’s womb and while He conducts His divine play/Leela on Earth to reveal His true identity, in His childhood He is always fed with milk given by maiden cows.

The definition of God says― God doesn’t take birth from a mother.

God Kabir Is the Companion of the Soul

Moreover, the Supreme God is the only one who can break our shackles and free us from such a predicament. He is Kabir Sahib: the only Omnipotent, Omnipresent, Omniscient God who has created all of the Universes. All the holy scriptures such as Vedas, Geeta, Quran, Bible prove that Kabir Ji is the Supreme Power.

Who Can Help Us to Know About God (A Trustworthy Friend)?

The True Spiritual leader of our times, Tatvdarshi Sant Rampal Ji Maharaj has proven with citations from all the holy scriptures, that Kabir Sahib Ji is the one Supreme God. By taking Naam Initiation for true worship from Sant Rampal Ji, one can attain true spiritual peace and salvation.

Thus, do not waste time and take refuge in Saint Rampal Ji. This is the “right time” for the true worship of the Supreme, as He is here for us in our time of need. In these rapidly changing circumstances, where no one seems to know what will happen tomorrow, it is best to hold the hand of someone who is already extending His hand to save humanity.

Make God Your Friend, You Will Always Be in Profit

To take initiation from Saint Rampal Ji Maharaj, please Click Here to fill the Initiation form. You Can download the Sacred book Gyan Ganga.

FAQ about International Friendship Day 2023