Please see below the English discourse "Keep Company with the Virtuous", as printed by our Tiljala Publishers in the 2009 Electronic Edition, as well the physically printed editions:
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Keep
Company with the Virtuous
27
September 1978, Patna
Regarding
the dos and don’ts of life it has been said that:
Tyája
durjana saḿsargaḿ bhaja sádhu samágamaḿ,
Kuru
puńyaḿ ahorátram smara nityamanityatám.
“Tyája
durjana saḿsargaḿ” – you should renounce the company of
“durjana”. What is “durjana”? The man who depraves, who
misguides others is called “durjana”. Now, a particular man may
not be durjana for all. Suppose Mr. X is durjana for Mr. Y; he may
not be durjana for Mr. Z.
You
see, there are merits and demerits in almost each and every
individual. Suppose Mr. X is durjana for Mr. Y. Say, he has got merit
worth 20 points and demerit worth 25 points, the resultant 5 points
go in favour of demerit, so he is a durjana and he is durjana for Mr.
Y. Suppose Mr. Y is a good man, he has got merit worth 15 points and
demerit worth 13 points. So the resultant is 2 points in favour of
merit. So, he is a good man. But, in his favour the resultant merit
is only 2 and in the case of Mr. X the resultant demerit is 5 points.
If Mr. Y comes in contact with Mr. X, Mr. X has demerit worth 5
points, Y has merit worth 2 points, and the resultant goes in favour
of demerit. Mr. Y will become bad. But, in the case of Mr. Z, suppose
merit is 30 points and demerit 15 points, then the resultant is 15
points in favour of merit. Mr. X has only 5 points demerit, so if Mr.
X comes in contact with Mr. Z, Mr. X will become good. So for Mr. Z,
Mr. X is not durjana; rather he is in a position to uplift the
condition of Mr. X. It is not something permanent; it varies from man
to man. So this term durjana is a relative term. “Tyája durjana
saḿsargaḿ” – you should avoid the company of a man who is
durjana for you, that is, whose resultant demerit is more than your
resultant merit.
“Tyája
durjana saḿsargaḿ.” What should you do? To avoid the company of
durjana – “bhaja sádhu samágamam” – you should encourage
the company of sádhus.
Let
us know who a sádhu is? Sádhu means;
Pránah
yathátmanoviist́ah bhútánám api te tathá,
Átmaopamyena
bhútánaḿ dayáḿ kurvanti Sádhavah.
Only
using a saffron costume does not make a man a sádhu. Sádhu is the
inner sádhu. You should be sádhu internally. You may or may not
use any external saffron costume. In India, those who were called
sádhu used all-white costume and those who were sannyásiis used
an all-saffron costume. Saffron costume for sannyásiis and white
costume for sádhus. The system is that sádhus will use the suffix
“dása” after their names - Govardhana Dása, Yamuná Dása,
Hari Dása etc. In this way sádhus are to use the suffix dása.
And sannyásiis are to use the suffix ánanda after their names –
Vivekánanda, Paramánanda – ánanda after their names. This is
the technical difference between sádhus and sannyásiis. In Ananda
Marga, they are known as sannyásiis. An avadhuta is a sannyásii.
“Bhaja Sádhu Samágamam”. You should always encourage the
company of sádhu people. And now you know the meaning of sádhu.
For
each and every living entity one’s personal life is the dearest
thing. One loves one’s personal life very much. This is the rule,
this is the characteristic of all living beings. But those people who
understand this sentiment of living beings and love others with the
thought, “I should not kill, I should not give them any trouble
because they love their life as much as I love my own life”, are
true sádhus and those who lack this sentiment are not sádhus,
they are asádhu. Preaching the gospels of peace, and at the same
time slaughtering chickens, is not a proper thing for a sádhu
because the one who kills the chickens loves his life and the
chickens also love their own lives. So that man lacks the universal
sentiment of love. He is not a sádhu. A sádhu must be vegetarian.
“Bhaja
sádhu samágamam”. You should encourage the company of sádhus.
Sádhu – the detailed meaning is, he who uplifts others in all the
strata of life. That is, he who helps others in their physical,
psychic and spiritual development is a sádhu. Whoever has got more
points than you, more resultant points in favour of merit, is a
sádhu for you. This is just like the explanation of durjana.
Suppose the resultant merit in your favour is 45 points, and another
man has a resultant merit of, say, 60 points. Having 60 points of
merit, that man is a sádhu for you. It is a relative term. Utilize
each and every moment of your life in enjoying the company of
sádhus.
“Kuru
puńyaḿ ahorátraḿ”. You should be engaged in doing “puńya”
day and night. “Ahorátra” means 24 hours, from sunrise to
sunrise. As per occidental calculation, a day is from midnight to
midnight and as per oriental system, that is, the system of Asia, a
day is from sunrise to sunrise. One day in India means sunrise to
sunrise. One day in Europe means midnight to midnight. In Europe, the
date changes just after midnight and in India, the date changes after
sunrise. That is the system. Day or “ahah” means from sunrise to
sunset and night or “rátri” means sunset to sunrise, that is,
night portion. You should be engaged in doing puńya karma, day and
night, ahorátram, from sunrise to sunrise. “Kuru Puńyaḿ”.
What is puńyaḿ?
Aśt́ádashapuráńeśu
Vyásasya vacanadvayam,
Paropakárah
puńyáya pápáya parapiirańam.
Vyásadeva
wrote so many puráńas. He said that whenever you are engaged in
doing some welfare work, you are doing puńya. And when you are
working against public interest you are doing pápa. Be engaged in
puńya work for twenty four hours; day and night, from sunrise to
sunrise. How can one do puńyam while sleeping? How can one be
engaged in puńya karma? If during wakeful hours one is engaged in
puńya karma, then during sleep what will it be? A composure of
peace, a composure of welfare. So while sleeping one is also engaged
in puńya karma. Be engaged in puńya karma for the entire day and
night – from sunrise to sunrise.
In
Saḿskrit, the entire literature is divided into four groups. One is
kávya, the second is itikathá, the third is itihása and the
fourth is puráńa. Kávya is “Vákyaḿ rasátmakaḿ.”
When a story has been narrated in a lucid way it is called kávyam.
Then itikathá: itikathá is a proper record of what happened; that
is, that which deals with factual statements is itikathá. And
itihása is that portion of factual statement that has got educative
value and helps you in your upliftment. That portion of itikathá is
called itihása. The English term for itikathá is “history”,
in French “histoire”, but there is no English term for itihása.
And the last one is puráńa. Puráńa is not a fact, not at all
a factual statement, but a story. That story has got educative value.
That story helps you in your physical, mental and spiritual
upliftment. The Rámáyana is a purána, the Mahábhárata is
itihása and the history taught in schools and colleges is
itikathá. Itihása is not taught in schools and colleges nowadays.
And puráńa, just now I told you, is a story, but it has educative
value. Vyásadeva wrote eighteen puráńas. What was the central
idea? Why did he write so many puráńas? His intention was to
preach to the world that puńya means to help the people in their
all-round development and pápa means to degrade the people, to
misguide the people in all spheres of life. So here the word puńya
has been used. You should be engaged in puńya karma, in helping
others, for all the twenty four hours.
“Smara
nityamanityatám”. You should always remember that you are in a
world of passing shows, moving panorama. No picture, no position, no
stance shall remain as they are just at present. That is, everything
will change, everything is to undergo changes and you should be ready
to adapt yourself, to adjust yourself with those changed phases.
27
September 1978, Patna
