# Association ## 1. What is a devotee’s business? It is a devotee’s business to remain in touch with the Absolute Truth twenty-four hours a day. If we associate with a living source, a Vaiṣṇava, and hear hari-kathā from him, we will certainly develop faith in the Supreme Lord and awaken our propensity to serve Him. If we wish to become devotees, we must associate with Vaiṣṇavas. Associating with and fully surrendering to Vaiṣṇavas removes our impediments. The Vaiṣṇava’s duty is to make his companions and dependents fearless, free from anxiety, happy, and to deliver all conditioned souls from Maya’s hands. It is a Vaiṣṇava’s business to induce all materialistic living entities to become inclined toward the Supreme Lord. This is real compassion. Our spiritual success is guaranteed if we are honest in our dealings with Vaiṣṇavas, hear attentively from them, and lead our lives according to their instructions. Only then can we be said to be taking advantage of their association. ## 2. Is it important to always associate only with devotees? We should always remain in Vaiṣṇava association. We are so weak that we cannot survive without Vaiṣṇava association. If we remove ourselves from that association, we will again develop the sinful mentality that we are masters. If we do not always follow the orders of guru and the Vaiṣṇavas, we will find ourselves in great danger. As soon as we remove ourselves from their shelter, Maya will capture us. Then we will again wander through the universe as Maya’s servants. 3. Whose association should we desire? He who says, “Worship the Supreme Lord,” is certainly a spiritual master. Only devotees are honest and saintly; others are not. The thoughts of karmīs, jñānīs, and yogis are born from their aversion toward the Lord. We should reject their association and associate only with Vaiṣṇavas. Only then will we find benefit. ## 4. How can we achieve Lord Hari? We should seek to associate only with Kṛṣṇa’s devotees. Kṛṣṇa’s devotees are auspicious, eternal, and compassionate. Bad association—association without Kṛṣṇa consciousness—is harmful. Thus, we should not respect anything unrelated to Kṛṣṇa’s devotional service. I am astonished to see that despite hearing so much hari-kathā you still admire material life and attachment. This is unfortunate. We cannot attain Kṛṣṇa by bad association. Remember, we achieve Lord Hari by associating with devotees and renouncing the association of materialists. If we can see all material objects in relation to Kṛṣṇa, then they cannot harm us. The world is full of ingredients for the Lord’s service. If, however, we consider the Lord’s paraphernalia as intended for our own enjoyment, our material attachment will increase and we will have to suffer material existence. ## 5. Should we renounce the association of those greedy for money? Wealth is the source of all anarthas. It is best if wealth is used in Kṛṣṇa’s service. Otherwise, it will ruin our lives and bind us to material existence. Pious devotees should never be greedy for temporary wealth. We should hanker only after eternal wealth, spiritual life. May persons who desire auspiciousness be free of attachment to wealth, because as long as we are materially attached, we will not be able to develop attachment for spiritual life. Our lives will be useless. Please bless me so that for the rest of my life, I will not have to see the faces of materialists greedy for wealth. ## 6. Is it good to serve the Supreme Lord in the company of other devotees? We should serve the Supreme Lord together under the spiritual master’s guidance. It is our duty to engage in the Lord’s service, in the association of those Vaiṣṇavas, who are fully devoted to their spiritual master. We should be friends with such devotees and constantly remain engaged in giving pleasure to the spiritual master and the Supreme Lord. The living entities try to gratify their senses, forgetting Kṛṣṇa’s service, and thus suffer material misery, but it is our duty to always remain inclined toward the Lord’s service while surrendering fully at His lotus feet. ## 7. How can we attain Vaiṣṇava association? If we attentively hear hari-kathā from devotees, we are associating with them properly. When we associate with devotees properly, we will realize both the Lord’s greatness and the insignificance of this world. Then while engaging in the Lord’s service under the devotees’ order, we will strengthen our faith, attachment, and love for the Lord’s service. To engage in Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s loving devotional service is the ultimate goal of all living entities. ## 8. How should we live? People will always discuss worldly topics, and we should remain inattentive to such discussions. If we have a strong desire to advance on the spiritual path, no number of obstacles can check us. Show respect to materialists, but do not adopt their behavior. Rather, mentally reject them. Discuss literature like Śaraṇāgati, Prārthanā, and Prema-bhakti-cāndrikā. It is certainly good to associate with scripture. Later on, we will require association with saintly persons to learn the art of worshiping the Lord. ## 9. Is association with devotees the most essential element of our Kṛṣṇa consciousness? It is extremely essential to associate with the spiritual master and with Vaiṣṇavas who are fully surrendered to the spiritual master. Unless we associate with Vaiṣṇavas, how will unqualified people like ourselves learn the proper code of conduct and come to serve guru? We always need ideal examples. If we don’t associate with Vaiṣṇavas who are fixed at the spiritual master’s lotus feet, attached to chanting the holy name, and fixed in the Lord’s service, we cannot ourselves become fixed at guru’s feet. We cannot learn to consider the spiritual master our well-wisher. We cannot understand that the spiritual master is as good as God. We cannot develop the tendency to serve the spiritual master. If genuine devotees who are fixed at the guru’s feet teach us neither how to serve the spiritual master nor how to behave when we are with him, then even after receiving a bona fide spiritual master we may lose him. We would be losing a coveted jewel if we were bereft of his service. ## 10. Isn’t it possible to serve the Supreme Lord on our own? How can we serve the Lord whimsically or without the support of those whom the Lord has appointed as His servants? Those who desire religiosity, economic development, sense gratification, or liberation are not the Lord’s servants. Moreover, those who make a show of serving the Lord and are eager to have the worshipable Lord supply their sense gratification are not His servants either. How is it possible to serve the Lord in the association of such people? Ordinary conditioned souls can never fix the mind or discuss hari-kathā or the Lord’s instructions because they are attached to matter. A materialist is always busy with worldly matters. That is why the Śāstras have forbidden us to associate with them. It is our duty to remain in touch with the Absolute Truth twenty-four hours a day. Vaiṣṇava association awakens our propensity to serve the Lord. A devotee is a person who when approached can destroy all our inconveniences with the weapon of his instructions. He can cut to pieces our attachment to material existence and mental speculation. How do we associate with Vaiṣṇavas? By our ears. Any hearing other than hearing from devotees is bad association. However, hearing from devotees is useless if we do not surrender ourselves completely but remain puffed up with false ego. ## 11. Is it necessary to live with devotees to get their association? Certainly association with devotees is essential. However, we attain association according to our own qualification. It is not a fact that simply by living together we can take advantage of good association, and it is true that we can associate with devotees even when we live at a distance from them. Association does not necessarily mean living in the same room. However, living with devotees makes it easier to hear from them, whereas such hearing is more difficult over a distance. We conduct festivals in the temple to give everyone the opportunity to associate with devotees, to destroy their attachment for material life, to display compassion for all living entities, to develop a taste for chanting the holy name, and to engage in the service of Hari, guru, and the Vaiṣṇavas. The Maṭha’s main purpose in holding festivals, reciting Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and discussing hari-kathā is to awaken the soul’s constitutional propensity to serve Kṛṣṇa. If we hear hari-kathā in the association of devotees, we revive awareness of our constitutional position and attain the ultimate goal of life. A devotee is saintly. He is neither a material enjoyer nor a dry renunciant. By associating with saintly devotees, we can understand that just as material enjoyment is sinful, the path of dry renunciation is also sinful. Confused about what to do, the pseudo-renunciants adopt the path of renunciation. Being attached or simply detached from the material world are both signs of aversion to the Supreme Lord. Unless we give up these forms of aversion—material enjoyment and dry renunciation—we cannot attain complete shelter in devotional service. If we fail to understand the meaning of pure devotional service, we will end up either as material enjoyers or dry renunciants. ## 12. How should we live at home? Proper association with exalted, swanlike personalities destroys our qualification for falling into the dark well of material life. If we associate with liberated souls, we will be qualified to become spiritual householders. Those who do not associate with bhāgavatas to discuss the Bhāgavata, knowing the two to be nondifferent, will never find fortune in household life. It is good for devotees to live at home, because it allows them to peacefully worship Lord Hari. Such peace, however, is not available to those who are too attached to household life, who are gross materialists. It is important to enter family life resolved to serve Kṛṣṇa. This resolution is far superior to practicing false, monkey renunciation. False renunciation will not help one attain the ultimate goal of life. One should enter family life only if it is favorable for the execution of devotional service to Hari. If family life is unfavorable, it is a dark well and should be rejected. If one becomes detached from family life just to display his expertise in false renunciation, he will not benefit. Immature renunciants soon fall down. Association with the Lord’s devotees destroys materialism. Those who enter family life only to satisfy worldly morality will become absorbed in materialism. Just as the Lord’s devotee must accept the renounced order, he is also required to enter household life. Family life is favorable for devotees, because when a devotee enters family life, he enters a temple. For a devotee, there is no difference between entering household life and entering renounced life. However, household life is unfavorable for nondevotees. There is a huge difference between attached materialists entering household life and the household life of a devotee. Because a devotee enters family life only to favorably cultivate Kṛṣṇa consciousness, he should remain aloof from bad association and idle talk. He should faithfully execute the limbs of bhakti—his hearing and chanting—with enthusiasm, confidence, and patience. A householder devotee must serve Hari, guru, and the Vaiṣṇavas, chant the Lord’s holy name, associate with devotees, and hear hari-kathā. If all his endeavors are aimed at satisfying Kṛṣṇa, he will attain good fortune. ## 13. Is it proper to become a materialist? We are servants of the Supreme Lord. Why should we become materialists? Material enjoyment brings distress. Sense objects, which we perceive through form, taste, smell, touch, and sound perpetually trouble us. We should not become material enjoyers. Śrī Gaurāṅgadeva said that one who wants to worship the Lord should never even see a materialist. If we surround ourselves with sense gratification, we will forget the Lord and tend to consider His devotees insignificant. A person who is traveling on the devotional path should not see a materialist’s face. Not only should he not see a materialist, he should not see even an associate of a materialist. As the physician for our material disease, Śrī Gaurasundara, advised, “Do not associate with materialists, do not associate with materialists, do not associate with the materialists.” ## 14. Should one give up bad association? Not everyone is fortunate enough to understand a Vaiṣṇava’s activities and behavior. It is good for me if, due to ignorance, someone looks upon me with a crooked glance. My only distress is that some people go to hell along with their ancestors by becoming envious of my eternally worshipable spiritual master and the Vaiṣṇavas. It is the duty of intelligent persons to perfect their human life. These persons should know that it is dangerous to associate with pseudo-devotees. Those who accept the path of material enjoyment or dry renunciation are walking, not toward devotional service, but in the opposite direction. There are thirteen unauthorized sampradāyas, such as the āul, bāul, etc. Their association is bad. If one considers such abominable association along with association with hypocrites and women, good, then he will inevitably become degraded. Please do not associate with such misguided people. Associating with nondevotees ensures one’s degradation. Material enjoyers or people who are fond of material enjoyment are uninitiated and devoid of transcendental knowledge. They are pseudo-devotees or nondevotees. Please stop associating with such nondevotees and make progress in spiritual life in the association of devotees and the śāstras. ## 15. Should we reject association with attached householders? We never desire to associate with those who want to prosper in family life. We should develop a strong desire to serve those who are attached to worshiping Hari and who are situated in family life with Kṛṣṇa in the center. It is our duty to give up bad association and take shelter of saints. Those who mistake nondevotees for devotees will certainly find themselves in difficulty. ## 16. How do we worship Hari constantly? By always remaining in the association of the living source—those who are constantly engaged in worshiping Hari—we will, by the mercy of those great souls, automatically receive the good fortune to engage constantly in Lord Hari’s service. Therefore the śāstras state, nijābhīṣṭa kṛṣṇa-preṣṭha pācheta’ lāgiyā, nirantara sevā kare antarmanā hañā: “Actually the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana are very dear to Kṛṣṇa. If one wants to engage in spontaneous loving service, he must follow the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana and constantly engage in devotional service within his mind.” (Caitanya-caritāmṛta Madhya 22.159) Śrī Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has also sung: kṛṣṇa se tomāra, kṛṣṇa dite pāra, tomāra śakati āche āmi to’ kāṅgāla, ’kṛṣṇa’ ’kṛṣṇa’ bali’, dhāi tava pāche pāche “Kṛṣṇa belongs to you. Therefore you are able to give Him to others. This is certainly within your power. I am indeed wretched and fallen, simply running behind you crying, ’Kṛṣṇa! Kṛṣṇa!’” ## 17. Whose association should we desire? Our spiritual master has declared that karma and jñāna are the religion of cheaters. We should give up those paths and follow the path of devotional service. To do so, we should associate with those who traverse the path of devotion. It is essential to associate with devotees superior to us. Our most cherished object is the dust of Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmīs lotus feet. Śrī Rūpa established Lord Caitanya’s mission in this world. Our devotional service will be enhanced in the association of devotees. Karmīs, jñānīs, and yogis are nondevotees. Hence they cheat themselves and others. Their association should be rejected. All association apart from devotee association is inauspicious. ## 18. How can we achieve mental strength? We are weak and need to become mentally strong. Our mental condition will become stronger if we faithfully hear kṛṣṇa-kathā from living devotees. It is not possible to strengthen our mental state without associating with devotees. ## 19. How can we realize the self? I can realize myself and regain my spiritual form simply by the mercy of my spiritual master, who is an intimate devotee of Kṛṣṇa. We must always associate with devotees, because simply by associating with them we can receive information about our spiritual form, our constitutional position. Once we have received this information, we will no longer consider the material body the self and our sense desires will be destroyed. Constitutionally, we are the Supreme Lord’s eternal servants. This conception will be awakened in us if we engage in the Lord’s service in the association of devotees. Then we will not be tempted by material enjoyment, which is the propensity of a conditioned soul. ## 20. Why are we unable to serve Kṛṣṇa? It is impossible to serve Kṛṣṇa without receiving the mercy of great souls. This is why it is so important to take shelter at the lotus feet of a bona fide spiritual master. The Caitanya-caritāmṛta states, mahat-kṛpā vinā kona karme ’bhakti’ naya, kṛṣṇa-bhakti dūre rahu, saṁsāra nahe kṣaya: “Unless one is favored by a pure devotee, one cannot attain the platform of devotional service. To say nothing of kṛṣṇa-bhakti, one cannot even be relieved from the bondage of material existence.” (Madhya 22.51) If one associates with those devotees who continually serve Kṛṣṇa, then his propensity to serve Kṛṣṇa will also be awakened. Without the association of Kṛṣṇa’s devotees, one cannot develop his own desire to engage in the Lord’s service. Service to Hari is not a joke. It is dependent on the association and mercy of devotees. Simply by following in the devotees’ footsteps, one receives the good fortune to engage in the Lord’s service. ## 21. How should we think of ourselves in relation to Kṛṣṇa? Unless one thinks himself a servant, he cannot serve. Devotional service requires a relationship between servant and master. We are trying to become masters rather than servants in this world. How then can we serve? Only a servant can serve. “I will hear, see, chant, and remember with a spirit of enjoyment”: this is the karmīs conception, the conception of a nondevotee. If one wishes to progress, he has to renounce this formidable mental conception and learn to remain fixed as the Lord’s servant. He should serve twenty-four hours a day subordinate to a devotee and in that devotee’s association. Then only will he attain pure devotional service and the ultimate goal of life. If one learns to give up independence and become completely dependent on the spiritual master and Gaurāṅga, then his troubles will vanish and he will become happily engaged in the Lord’s service under his guru’s guidance. If he develops a relationship with Kṛṣṇa like the relationship between wife and husband, father and son, friend and friend, or servant and master, he will certainly find fortune and Hari’s eternal service. It is not possible to render service if one does not have a relationship with the one whom he is serving. One’s relationship with the Lord is revived when one engages in Kṛṣṇa’s service. Even people in this world render service through one of the four relationships. This is because without knowledge of their relationship with the Lord, they developed various temporary relationships. But each of us is the eternal slave of guru and Kṛṣṇa. We are sold-out animals at the feet of our spiritual master and Kṛṣṇa. Because we have forgotten this simple truth, we have fallen into our present miserable condition. If by the devotees’ mercy we can come to remember this truth, we will be saved and will make advancement on the devotional path. ## 22. Of what should we be careful? Everything in this world belongs to Kṛṣṇa. If one uses anything for his own enjoyment, he will have to face the consequences. Those who are averse to hearing kṛṣṇa-kathā will become materially attached and bound to this world. Therefore, pious persons who desire their eternal benefit should take utmost care to hear kṛṣṇa-kathā from real devotees. “I serve the Lord so much,”“I have already served the Lord,” or “I have become a Vaiṣṇava”these are sinful thoughts. One must give up such madness and humbly beg to attain the Lord’s service. To make a show of serving Kṛṣṇa without serving the spiritual master and the Vaiṣṇavas is like keeping water in a broken pot. Such pretense is simply pride. One must seek constant association with devotees. I am so weak that I am unable to survive without the association of devotees. If I do not associate with devotees constantly, I will certainly develop a strong desire to become the master, and various sinful thoughts will disturb me. Material existence is the gateway to hell. Even though it appears pleasing in the beginning, it will disappoint me in the end. ## 23. What is good fortune? After traveling through the universes from time immemorial, when a living entity’s material existence is about to come to an end, he develops a slight taste for devotional service because he receives the association of a devotee. This is the definition of good fortune. ## 24. Is it extremely necessary to associate with pure devotees? Neophytes or kaniṣṭhā-adhikārīs cannot actually understand the importance of Deity worship. Their mundane conceptions regarding Deity worship do not completely go away. Neither are they aware of the supremacy and transcendental position of devotees. This is why saintly persons recommend that kaniṣṭha-adhikārīs associate with pure devotees. Without the association of pure devotees, human beings cannot attain benefit and can never properly worship the Deity. ## 25. Which literature is topmost? There is no literature in the world as valuable as Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. But it is difficult to study Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam without the association of saintly persons and the spiritual master. ## 26. Is it improper to associate intimately with women? One must avoid sinful activities in regard to women. Renunciants must not associate with women at all. Even householders should not indulge in too much lusty activity. A person who forgets Kṛṣṇa and enjoys this material world is materially attached or an attached householder. It is irreligious to violate the principles of household life. Mahāprabhu said, asat-saṅga-tyāga,—ei vaiṣṇava-ācāra, ’strī-saṅgī’—eka asādhu, ’kṛṣṇābhakta’ āra: “A Vaiṣṇava should always avoid the association of ordinary people. Common people are very much materially attached, especially to women. Vaiṣṇavas should also avoid the company of those who are not devotees of Lord Kṛṣṇa.” (Caitanya-caritāmṛta Madhya 22.87)