Be Careful The Company You Keep: Episode 449

Transcript

Welcome, beautiful thinkers!

Hi, I’d like to give you a reminder to be very careful about the company you keep.

So, I was reading more Muktananda play of consciousness this morning, as I do a lot of mornings, to remind myself of these important spiritual lessons.

To begin my day with a spiritual text, set things off on the right note.

It’s interesting when we read a spiritual text, often teachers have what I like to call the gift of tongues.

So this is like when you say something, but you say something at multiple levels of truth.

So for the uninitiated, they’re going to hear one level of truth. But for the initiated, they hear a deeper level of truth, and so on, perhaps multiple levels of truth.

Each one very true, and each one, very important for the level that somebody is at.

So it’s kind of strange, actually, it’s almost magical.

Sometimes it seems like when we go back and read these texts, we will find different messages than what we heard the first time.

And it even seems like when I go back and read some of these books, I think, is this even the same book that I read last time? It’s hard for me to place really.

And that’s the power that a true teacher has, when they explain in detail.

I don’t know if it’s, if it is actually something magical or it’s just that this simple fact of the reticular activating system. Or maybe it’s a bit of both, and the skill of the teacher, of course.

In this chapter about the command of the Siddhas. Muktananda reminds us to be careful about the company we keep.

So he says here.

“A lion cub can never really be like a donkey. In its claws, its head, its whole body. It is completely a lion.

But if it were to spend all of its time with donkeys, it would start to lose its bravery.

And the donkeys would begin to think it was one of them.

It would gradually change its own spirit, its nature and its habits and take on the characteristics of a donkey.

He would start to bray like a donkey, eat filthy things and bathed in dirty water in the streets as donkeys do.

If it did this for long, then only its body would be a lion’s.

All its inner characteristics would be donkey’s.

It would slowly forget its bravery and courage.

Its love of the forest solitude, its species, its habits and all the ways of a lion.

It would live in the streets of villages and towns.

And then one day a washer man would come along looking for a beast to carry the dirty clothes of the town.

And along with all the donkeys the lion would have to journey to and from the washing place carrying dirty clothes.

But they would never think that it was a lion but it turned into a donkey.

You would think that since donkeys are in the majority, it had improved on its own species.”

So that’s what some people say, “Better to be..” This is kind of an awful saying, but this is something like, “Better to be the runt among a bunch of winners than to be the king of the losers.”

But yes, it’s important to be mindful of the company we keep.

And he repeats this lesson a few times, is kind of curious.

I remember, I believe it was this chapter, I was reading it months ago.

And I was at a point in my life, there was a certain woman that I’d met, very beautiful. And I knew she would be very, very much a bad influence on me.

And I had to restrain myself, exercising this Herculean effort, not to send her a message and not ask her out on a dat.

I read this chapter or a similar chapter.

And every time I would read it, and I would think, you know, “Maybe it’s not that bad, maybe I could contact her.”

And then I read it again.

And, again, the message came in, and another part of the chapter until it seemed like Muktananda had repeated the message about five times, just to make sure it really got through to me.

And that’s really, like I said, that’s the power of spiritual text, it seems sometimes these things really deliver the messages that we need to hear in the moment.

If we are willing, if we put in the effort and we read them.

Now, yeah, he repeats here, “There is one thing you must remember, the Shakti that is active and growing within you is the guru himself.”

So, the Shakhti is like the Divine Consciousness energy.

“You should therefore be careful about the company you keep, so that the purity of your Sadhana is maintained.” Sadhana is this spiritual path.

“Bad Company is dangerous, even fatal. So make a firm resolve to avoid it.”

This is interesting, bad companies dangerous, even fatal.

I do know, I have heard of stories where people hang out with the wrong crowd.

Certain people are reckless, not even necessarily bad people but negligent and they end up doing something like drinking and driving or speeding on the highway and getting into an accident.

You keep that kind of company and what Muktananda says is true.

Yes, it absolutely can be fatal.

Certain types of people can get us into very difficult positions.

“When a man keeps the wrong company, all the bad features of a demon are automatically fostered in him and he behaves like a demon.”

“The normal qualities are destroyed.”

“Kaikeyi, who was full of love, affection and modesty became the cause of grief to King Dasharatha, Bharata and all the citizens of Ayodhya.”

“Because of the evil influence of her maid Manthara.”

“And she was forced to abandon her own beloved Son, son Bharata.”

“Just as a drop of sour curd can spoil a whole ocean of milk. So bad company can lead to every kind of evil.”

“It can make you gossip about everyone and talk ill of them.”

“It can make you indiscreet. Arrogant, impure, full of animosity, it can make you behave dishonestly.”

“It can draw you to movies and plays to eat impure food and restaurants.”

“Siddha students must be extremely careful to avoid bad company for it reduces the momentum of the inner Shakti.”

So there’s so many challenges there.

I have to wonder. Well, I’m going to think deeply about this passage about how this applies to my own life.

About how I need to be careful.

But yes, this is a phenomenon well known to criminologists.

Is like when you first meet somebody who is a criminal, maybe you think, you know, I don’t like what that fellow is doing.

If you have thin 10 friends who would criminals who like to do things like break and enter and steal, then you start to think, “Hmm, you know, I guess this is normal.”

Likewise, if you have friends who like to read spiritual texts and they pray 10 times a day or they eat healthy, they take care of the health or, you know, whatever it is, you want to enjoy in life.

Whatever fine things, whatever good, pure, sacred things you want to enjoy.

You can get with the right people and this will make good habits much easier for you because of the positive influence you have on one another.

That’s why it’s so important to take care of the company keep.