Good Company
Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba gave the following to the college students at Puttaparthi. However, we, too, can learn a lesson or two from it.
The company one keeps decides his character; a person tries to join a group where he can freely express his innate nature. So satsang [good company] is a very important requisite for moral and spiritual advancement. Man, by nature, wishes to cater to the desires that arise within him or the urges that invite him from outside; very often these are deleterious. So he ruins himself by giving them the chance to master his personality.
Consider the influences that good association can modify or elevate. A length of string is a worthless thing; no one will wear it on the hair, nor will any one reverentially place it on the idol of God. But let it associate itself with a few fragrant flowers; then women decorate their coiffure with the length of floral garland and devotees place the garland, string and flowers, on the idol they adore. A block of stone in a public square is a neglected, much maligned, misused thing; street dogs foul it. But let the stone receive the company of a sculptor and his pupils; it is shaped into a charming idol of God and installed in a temple to receive the homage of thousands for centuries.
Take the instance of the domestic mouse. In the houses where it dwells, it is hunted and trapped, poisoned and killed. But when God Ganapati [Ganesha, the remover of all obstacles] adopted it as His vehicle, it came to be adored as a holy animal. The serpent is hated and beaten to death whenever it makes its appearance; it is dreaded and avoided by man. But in association with Lord Shiva, who has them around His wrists, ankles, and neck, it receives reverence from millions. The company of the Divine gives it a halo of consecration.
So, too, evil company demeans and debases. Take the example of fire. Fire is held to be sacrosanct and holy; it is religiously fed and fostered in every orthodox home where the Vedas [sacred texts] are the guidelines of life. But when the Fire God enters a ball or a rod of iron, it has to suffer plenty of hammer blows while the rod or the ball is being shaped into some tool that man has planned! Attachment to the metal, iron, brings about this calamity to the highly venerated fire.
The years of life allotted to man as a result of the enormous amount of merit earned and accumulated through many lives in the past have to be utilized for the purpose of rising higher into divinity. For this adventure, congenial and inspiring company is essential. The search is for diamonds; but, people are misled into believing glass beads are diamonds. They gather them and are content. Riches decline only when spent, but life is clipped short every moment, whether you spend it or not. Even if you idle away the hours, or sleep unconcerned, every minute makes you older, takes you nearer the grave.
In order to direct time into useful channels, life has to be regulated and limited; habits have to be sublimated; tendencies have to be corrected and constructive attitudes fostered. These are emphasized in the Sathya Sai Hostel and it is a pity that some of you do not appreciate the restrictions and the guidelines. They might be irksome to you just now, for, you have joined this hostel quite recently after growing up in totally different environs. Perhaps you crave for what is called `freedom’ of will and action. But when you have not fixed an ideal before yourselves, this easily becomes `license’, the uncontrolled self‑will and wandering in the streets. What is the end of `freedom’? The real end of freedom is not `pleasure’ but `wisdom’. Swa-iccha is the Sanskrit word for `self‑will.’ Self here means the higher self, the Over‑self. Its will is ever to merge with the Supreme and be immersed in ananda [bliss].
Just consider the fate of students in most of the other colleges and hostels. Note the unhappy state of affairs prevailing there. The atmosphere is not congenial either for academic achievement or for personality development. It is saturated with imitative excitement or factional politics. Has man evolved from the animal only to descend to depths worse than the animal? Is man to be motivated only by the needs of hunger and fear? A cow comes forward to eat a bunch of grass; it runs away at the sight of a stick.
Can man be happy by securing degrees, or by attending pictures [movies], roaming around the bazaars, and spending time aimlessly? In many cases, the parents and elders are at fault, because they are bad examples for their own children. They drink and gamble, hate and fight. And education has to save you from pursuing these wrong paths. I may tell you that students of this hostel who have lived here for some months in accordance with the rules and regulations have won appreciation of the authorities of sister colleges in Bangalore for their punctuality, earnestness, and disciplinary behavior.
A disciplined life is the best offering you can make to the country or to the divine in you. One single person who is averse to regulated living may by his example spoil the careers of many others with whom he comes in contact. So each of you must accept the ideal after analyzing its implications and its validity. Animal instincts and impulses have persisted in human nature as vestiges and it is only when their upsurge is controlled and eliminated that the springs of divinity can manifest themselves. The Hostel provides you just the chance and the satsang that help you to accomplish this.
Nature can be modified by nurture; dogs become vegetarians and do not relish meat when they are trained to relish only that type of food. So open yourselves gladly to the influence of the satsang available here. Of course, storks will ridicule the hamsa [swan]; crows will carp at the cuckoo’s song. However, in spite of all the cynicism, the hamsa struts about as grand as ever and the cuckoo has not developed any flaw in its tone. Those who ridicule find themselves isolated, neglected, and laughed at for their idiosyncrasies.
Very often even the most intelligent schemes of men result in the opposite turn of events due to some fundamental flaw in their reasoning. It was in Bobbili [a place in Andhra Pradesh, southern India], years ago, an infectious disease resulting in boils on the skin spread fast. It was discovered that the infection originated with domestic rats. But the rats could not be totally destroyed by means of traps.
The ruler decided on encouraging people to keep cats as pets at home, and he gave each householder a liberal monthly allowance of rice in order to feed the cats. Five kilograms of rice was the quantity supplied every month. After a while, complaints poured in that the cats were not being fed. Instead, the householders were themselves consuming the rice intended for the cats. So the ruler ordered them to present themselves in court with the cats they reared. When they appeared along with the pets, it was discovered that the rumors of misappropriation were false. Every cat was plump, well‑fed, and astonishingly heavy.
There was one cat and one only, reared by [a man named] Ramakrishna, which was lean and hungry. When the ruler challenged him and charged him with neglect and misuse of the rice supplied, he said, “Master! Not one of these other cats has ever caught a rat; they are too well‑fed for that; they have no hunger; how then can they seek out and kill rats? My cat catches at least a dozen a day.” The ruler had to agree that his plan was a big flop. It produced the opposite effect!
The rules laid down for you are for your own good, remember. Whatever I do, speak, or order is for your good, for rendering your future years happy and fruitful. This is the most valuable period of your lives, and you must be thankful that you are spending it in this atmosphere, in the midst of this satsang. All this is being done because of My belief that you are all Mine. Even if you deny that you are Mine, I shall persist in telling you that you are Mine. For I am the Divinity that is your reality. The I in you is disturbed and distressed when you stray into wrong and wander into waywardness. Therefore, understand well the value of the schedule of work and worship prescribed for you here and have your personalities molded to the best shape, so that you may shine forth as inspiring examples of the servants of God and of man.
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, Oct. 1977
