Good company has multiple meanings, primarily of course indicating an organization or business that sells goods and/or services to make money. The other meaning with which this article is linked to is “people”; the company of a person or people. If you are in India there is the possibility that you would have come across the word “Satsang”, which generally is defined as to be in the company of holy men. Until a couple of years even I too believed that as the definition of satsang! My brush(I think I should term it as spiritual awakening) with spirituality brought an end that definition. For those of you who believe that spirituality is about being religious, I am sorry to disappoint you - ‘Spirituality begins where Religion ends’! Me being spiritual is connected with my own life experiences, and I like to sum my till date experiences as mysterious, beyond logic, and fascinating…. Some other time for that, let’s get back to our topic!
Satsang can be loosely defined as in the company of pious people. Here the word pious is to do with having moral values, and nothing about being religious or connected to religion. Hence, in olden days satsang was very common, the number of miscreants were also less and most people lead life abiding to moral values. Today we have different types of ‘company’ in the physical and virtual world. However, in both the scenarios moral values are scarce or non-existing. Today everything is weighed in terms of materialistic values. Unfortunately, our children are exposed to this right from their childhood. We think, what does a child of 4 years understand with respect to moral values? We as adults do not hesitate to throw our values to the wind in front of our little ones, after all they are too young to understand anything ☹. In today’s world the company for children is the idiot box or some cartoons. For us these children’s cartoon is harmless, but not for the child. Look at series like tom and jerry, or the Indianized ones like chota bheem and others. There is so much violence in the actions of these cartoon characters, which enters the subconscious minds of the children, without even them knowing! Most discussions at home centre around politics or some scandals or some crime; mostly very negative topic/s. As parents we are perennially busy, running behind that seemingly achievable unreachable goal. The message that reaches the child is also this ‘busy’ and ‘mechanical’ approach to life.
The good company can also be looked at from a human being point of view. Look at our own body, there are so many parts in it, each doing its function complying to the working principles of the body. If we are happy our body is also happy and healthy. If we are sad our body is sad and at times sick too. What happens if I catch a cold? If I am healthy, the cold may not last much and my healthy body will be able to get rid of the antibody (whatever caused the cold). However, the memory of the cold does remain. If I keeping catching a cold frequently and I don’t take proper care, I could fall ill, and it could even become fatal. Here is the good health is like the good company and the infections challenges of life. The childhood balance between good and bad is very fragile…. Bad company even in micro and mini doses does harm the insight of the individual until it reaches a stage where the bad subdues the good within. However, with the right environment the good will be able to overcome the bad. The flip side is very different and dangerous though. It is also important for the child to have a complete childhood, where they play, and engage themselves in all child activities. In today’s world the child activities are also controlled and this results in an incomplete childhood, deprived of various childhood desires which lye subdued or in a sleeping state and most often get triggered in early youth, resulting in unwarranted mishaps. A simple eg. a small child might get angry when their toy is taken from them by any another child and sometime end up having a fight with the other child. The fight and complain is always temporary and before you know these two are the best of friends. Now if one looks at the same scenario with the children replaced by adults, the outcome will most likely be nasty, painful and the loss of relationship between the individuals forever! The newspapers and news channels are full of such instances.
So, does it mean that the company of good people can transform and completely change the individual. Well it does look that way externally, however internally the good thoughts have subdued the bad thoughts. It also means that if the individual gets back to into a bad company, there is the possibility of the bad thoughts getting the upper hand. Hence it is important to understand that any individual always needs to be surrounded by righteousness. This essentially needs to happen right from childhood; why childhood, what about when the child is in the foetus status. Infact the pre-birth state is more vital and critical with respect to the foundation of righteous thoughts. The concept of good and bad are situational and is not of Indian origin. Here the emphasis is on knowledge and the lack of knowledge. The foundation of everything in our culture is Dharma, which can be loosely termed as righteousness.
So Good Company or satsang is highly essential in today’s living. It is important to get out of this magnificent virtual world called life and look at the life as an independent observer. It is important to look around and feel everything around the self. It is important to seek answers for the most intricate and confusing problems from nature. Believe me nature has answers to all our problems and issues. It is true that most of the time we fail to observe and understand nature and, in the process, miss out the simple solutions of our problems. So satsang can also happen without people, by just being in the midst of nature. Just like in nature the elephant is mighty however a tiny ant can create havoc, in the same way we humans are mighty and at the same time fragile. The moment we realise this most of our problems vanish. This infact is our ego the smaller “I” factor. Once we let go of this “I” we start to see the “I” in everything around us, the “I” becomes part of the “We”. Infact if we go back to science we know that everything including the self is made of atoms and molecules, and if we look at it from another angle everything is a manifestation of energy forms.
