In plain words
The Fault of Company
Though a man's feelings may be sacred, through some faults of company all of them sink to the bottom. All of you have heard so many sacred things. You have studied so many sacred books. You have had sacred darśanas. But what is the use? By the influence of your food and its conditions, all of them have sunk to the very bottom. By the time this hour came, all that blood was gone. Only then are the good feelings coming up to the top. Some bad feelings stand in the way of the good feelings within us coming out. Every man must make the right effort to drive these bad feelings away. We have built ourselves a house. We have set a main door in this house. Then we have fitted windows for air to come in and go out. Because we have fitted a door, we do not let in the pigs and donkeys going along the street. Only when your friends and your relatives come do you open these doors. In just the same way, this temple called the body has many windows, the senses. The influence of the mind within us is the main door. We must examine, discriminating between the eternal and the passing, whom to let in there and whom not to let in. So today, without such examination, without enquiry, anyone and everyone is coming in. The wicked, the evil and the spreaders of evil are getting into it. Because a state with no barrier has arisen, life is becoming a life without limits. For everything, ‘Na śreyo niyamaṃ vinā’. For everything there must be a rule. We should not go near everyone. We should not converse with everyone. We should not make friends with everyone. We must examine, discriminating between the eternal and the passing, recognise the truth of whether a person is good or not, and act on it. But do not hate anyone. Adveṣṭā sarvabhūtānām. We must not hold a feeling of hatred towards anyone. But we must not let them in beyond the limit out of a feeling of Prema.