Company

So long as we do not find the company of saints, virtues will not enter our life and we will fail to move higher. If we stay in the company of unenlightened people and continue to be guided by selfishness, we are not going to attain any peace.

Wisdom does not dawn without the company of saints. And whosoever finds the company of saints becomes wise. He starts appreciating the difference between good and bad.

A saint has been considered more valuable even than Paras. Paras converts iron into gold, while a saint converts the seeker of his company into a saint like himself.

The company of enlightened saints removes the sense of discrimination and narrow-mindedness. The more we get such company, the deeper and stronger is our faith in God - Nirankar.

The bushes that grow near Sandal also get the same fragrance. Paras, the touch-stone, comes into contact with iron and converts it into gold. Similarly, a person who seeks the company of saints becomes a saint, becomes a devotee of God.

Some people say: once knowledge has been attained, what is the need to attend satsang day after day? Why do they not reflect in the same way that they bathed two days ago, so why bathe today? For the other tasks of life we never say to anyone, 'I have just done it, I shall do it again after a few days.' We know that if we do not eat, this body begins to grow weak; if we do not bathe, the body begins to smell and that filth can bring disease. In just the same way, if the mind is to be kept pure, one must take the support of holy company; only by attaining the company of the saints does the mind become pure.

Great souls always honour one another. They take in only the virtues of others and never bandy about anyone's faults. Whoever keeps taking in virtues, one day becomes a storehouse of virtues; and whoever keeps bandying about faults, one day becomes filled with faults. Great souls always take in only the virtues of all.

Just as dirty clothes are washed with soap and become wearable, similarly the unclean people become clean and noble with the company of the saints.

If you want to keep your mind clean, you must take help from saints. The mind becomes clean only in the company of saints.

The company of saints always glorifies us, fills our minds with nectar of righteousness and helps virtues enter our lives. The only requirement is that we should fully surrender to and align with godly persons; in case there appears a wall of ego in between, we may be deprived of being purified.

The nature of a saintly person can be compared with that of a cow, while an unsaintly person is like a snake. We feed the cow with grass, sometimes not even green, and even then it gives us milk. On the other hand, we offer milk to the snake and it gives only poison in return, because it can give to others only what it has.

In thought, deed and word he attends upon the good; gathering them from wherever he can, he ever looks into the scriptures.

Happy is he who's nigh to Thee in heart, / Who from Thy Teachings never need depart; / Too feeble to approach Thee, I can still / Consort with Those who know Thee as Thou art.

This mind is like a bird. Whatever tree the bird alights upon, it takes that same flavour. For a train there is a fixed track on which it runs, but for a bird no direction is fixed; it can fly in any direction. The state of the mind is just like this; it can go in any direction. But if this mind is to attain peace, it must join with the saints.

Just as the great souls give such importance to service, they give equal importance to the holy congregation. They long to hurry to the satsang so that they may have the company of the great souls, and the chance to sit together and sing the glory of the Formless. Through such holy company a means is found to remove whatever is lacking in life; so let us run to take part in it.

Whatever way our attention turns, wherever we rise and sit, that is what we ourselves become. Where there are more sportsmen and we live among them, our interest too turns to sport; where there are more traders, only talk of trade goes on; where there are more politicians, the talk is of seizing or holding power, of how to bring another down. In whatever company we keep, such becomes our own thinking.

The company of the great souls removes the sense of duality, removes narrowness, and establishes full trust in the Formless in every condition, while one's pride is destroyed. The more this company is attained, the more unshakeable becomes one's faith in the Formless Supreme. If holy company is not attained, the filth of the world begins to gather, our thinking becomes narrow, and our small-heartedness increases.

Just as plants growing beside a sandalwood tree take on the fragrance of sandalwood, and as iron touching the philosopher's stone is turned to gold, so too one who keeps the company of saints and great souls becomes a saint, a great soul, a loving devotee himself.

We have to borrow from saints their qualities, learn the skill of having faith in God, and learn from them how to serve others even when we have little capacity to do so.

It is only in the company of saints that our belief in God remains firm and our faith in the Almighty is strengthened. It is because of the company of saints that our mind becomes spiritually enlightened; it comes to know what is good and what is bad, and automatically stops moving towards evils and adopts the path of goodwill.