In plain words
But in the man of today the broad outlook has dwindled. Narrow feelings have grown. For everything, self, self. Because selfishness has gone beyond all limit, the mind is going astray. In today's education there is no goodness. How many educated people there are in the world! How many great intellectuals there are! How many scientists there are! How many have received the Nobel Prize! But where are all their names? They have stayed only in a few books. But the names of great souls like Rāmakṛṣṇa Paramahaṃsa, Rāmadās and Kabīrdās have stayed in the hearts of men. But the names of those who learned worldly kinds of learning stay only in books. Our names need not stay in books. They must stay in the hearts of the people. To stay so, we must do some good deeds. ‘Tyaja durjana saṃsargam’: we must not keep the company of the bad. What is the reason? All that badness enters into us. Tell me your company, I shall tell you what you are. One must not keep company with the bad. If you are able, try to change the bad. So, ‘Tyaja durjana saṃsargam.’ Merely doing that is not enough. ‘Bhaja sādhu samāgamam.’ One must make friends with the good. Only when we make friends with the good do we go on rising to a good level. Though he was a man of great sacrifice, great power, great virtue and great strength, through evil company, through the company of Duryodhana, Duśśāsana and Śakuni, he became one of the wicked four: Karṇa. If you mix one seer of water into ten seers, this too gets the worth of milk. The milk gives worth to water that has none. If you mix one seer of milk into ten seers of water, the milk's worth is lost. When a good man joins with the bad, the good man's worth is lost.
What goes near to the Ātma is paropakāra
We must keep company with the good. We must join the good. It was with this in view that