“Krsna says that suhrdam sarva-bhutanam (Bhagavad Gita 5.29) : "I am friend of all living entities," sarva-bhutanam. Not only human society, but animal society, the plant society, the aquatic society, there are so many living entities. Ananta-koti. Sa anantyaya kalpate. The living entities, there is no limit. There are so many quantities. And Krsna says that suhrdam sarva-bhutanam jnatva mam santim rcchati: "When one understands that I, Krsna, is the friend of everyone..." Krsna, when says, sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja [Bg. 18.66], He does not say to Arjuna. He says to all living entities, without any exception. Sarva-bhutanam. Suhrdam sarva-bhutanam. This is position of Krsna.”
- A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in a lecture on Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.25.43 Bombay, December 11, 1974
Lord Krishna says to Arjuna in Bhagavad Gita 4.3:
“That very ancient science of the relationship with the Supreme is today told by Me to you because you are My devotee as well as My friend and can therefore understand the transcendental mystery of this science.”
Lord Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita 12.13-14:
“One who is not envious but is a kind friend to all living entities, who does not think himself a proprietor and is free from false ego, who is equal in both happiness and distress, who is tolerant, always satisfied, self-controlled, and engaged in devotional service with determination, his mind and intelligence fixed on Me — such a devotee of Mine is very dear to Me.”
Srimad Bhagavatam 10.47.6:
“The friendship shown toward others — those who are not family members — is motivated by personal interest, and thus it is a pretense that lasts only until one's purpose is fulfilled. Suchfriendship is just like the interest men take in women, or bees in flowers.”
PURPORT by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura explains here that attractive women, like flowers, possess beauty, fragrance, tenderness, charm and so on. And as bees drink only once of a flower's nectar and then leave it for another, fickle men abandon beautiful and devoted women to pursue other pleasures. This tendency is condemned here by the gopīs, who gave their hearts completely to Śrī Kṛṣṇa. The gopīs wanted only to exhibit their charms for Lord Kṛṣṇa's pleasure, and in the pain of separation they questioned the motives of His friendship with them.
These are the transcendental pastimes of the Lord. Both Lord Kṛṣṇa and the gopīs are completely liberated souls engaged in spiritual loving affairs. By contrast, our so-called loving affairs, being perverted reflections of the perfect loving relationships in the spiritual world, are polluted with lust, greed, pride and so on. Like all liberated souls, the gopīs — and certainly Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself — are eternally free of these lower qualities, and their intense loving affairs are motivated exclusively by unalloyed devotion.
Your servant,
Bhaktivinode das
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