Message from the Gospel – 20. Associate with Holy People

Message 19 highlighted the necessity of solitude. Here we present the importance of associating with holy people.

MASTER: "It is extremely difficult to practise spiritual discipline and at the same time lead a householder's life.  There are many handicaps: disease, grief, poverty, misunderstanding with one's wife, and disobedient, stupid, and stubborn children.  I don't have to give you a list of them. But still there is a way out.  One should pray to God, going now and then into solitude, and make efforts to realize Him."

NEIGHBOUR: "Must one leave home then?"

MASTER: "No, not altogether.  Whenever you have leisure, go into solitude for a day or two.  At that time don't have any relations with the outside world and don't hold any conversation with worldly people on worldly affairs.  You must live either in solitude or in the company of holy men."

NEIGHBOUR: "How can one recognize a holy man?"

MASTER: "He who has surrendered his body, mind, and innermost self to God is surely a holy man.  He who has renounced 'woman and gold' is surely a holy man.  He is a holy man who does not regard woman with the eyes of a worldly person.  He never forgets to look upon a woman as his mother, and to offer her his worship if he happens to be near her.  The holy man constantly thinks of God and does not indulge in any talk except about spiritual things.  Furthermore, he serves all beings, knowing that God resides in everybody's heart.  These, in general, are the signs of a holy man."

DEVOTEE: "What is the good of holy company?"

MASTER: "It begets yearning for God. It begets love of God. Nothing whatsoever is achieved in spiritual life without yearning. By constant living in the company of holy men, the soul becomes restless for God. This yearning is like the state of mind of a man who has someone ill in the family. His mind is in a state of perpetual restlessness, thinking how the sick person may be cured. Or again, one should feel a yearning for God like the yearning of a man who has lost his job and is wandering from one office to another in search of work. If he is rejected at a certain place which has no vacancy, he goes there again the next day and inquires, 'Is there any vacancy today?'”

"There is another benefit from holy company. It helps one cultivate discrimination between the real and the unreal. God alone is the Real, that is to say, the Eternal Substance, and the world is unreal, that is to say, transitory. As soon as a man finds his mind wandering away to the unreal, he should apply discrimination. The moment an elephant stretches out its trunk to eat a plantain-tree in a neighbour's garden, it gets a blow from the iron goad of the driver."

We may list the advantages of holy company as follows: (i) Holy men constantly talk about God which helps us to remember God all the time; (ii) Constant thinking leads to yearning for God; (iii) It begets love of God; (iv) It helps one cultivate discrimination - every time  the mind sways, holy company pulls the mind  away from bad tendencies.

How to get holy company? We have to seek the holy people. We have to aspire, we have to wish, yearn for holy company. Let us start doing that now.