Just like if you mix with the drunkards, thieves and rogues, then you also become a drunkard, thief; similarly, if we live with the sadhu, sadhava, then you become sadhu

Expressions researched:
"Just like if you mix with the drunkards, thieves and rogues, then you also become a drunkard, thief; similarly, if we live with the sādhu, sādhava, then you become sādhu"

Lectures

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

We invite everyone, "Please come here, take prasādam, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, dance and go home." Where is enmity? (laughter) But still, they'll become enemy. This is the world. But if he lives with the sādhava, suśīla, and follows the rules and regulation, then he also becomes sādhava. Saṅgāt sanjāyate kāmaḥ (BG 2.62). Just like if you mix with the drunkards, thieves and rogues, then you also become a drunkard, thief; similarly, if we live with the sādhu, sādhava, then you become sādhu.

760517 - Lecture SB 06.01.17 - Honolulu

That is the qualification of sādhu. Titikṣava kāruṇikā. Why? Suhṛdaḥ sarva-bhūtānām: "He is friend of everyone." There is no distinction that "He is American," "He is Indian," "He is Christian," "He is Hindu," "He is dog," "He is cat," "He is man . . ." No. He is kind to everyone. Why we are preaching "No meat-eating"? If you stop meat-eating, then the poor animals will be saved. So what business we have got with the animals? Suhṛdaḥ sarva-bhūtānām. A saintly person is friend to everyone. "Why unnecessarily a animal should be killed?" That is his feeling. You can eat animals because by nature this is the arrangement, that ahastāni sa-hastānām (SB 1.13.47). Even we eat vegetable, that is also killing. But because I have to kill somebody to eat, that does not mean that I can kill my child also. Of course that is also going on now. There is discrimination. Similarly, the . . . our principle is that we are kind, merciful, to everyone. But we have to eat, so we eat Kṛṣṇa prasādam. Because after all, Kṛṣṇa is the Supreme Lord. So if He eats something, the responsibility is His. But we are not advocate of vegetarianism or nonvegetarianism. No. That is not our business. We are Kṛṣṇa-ites. What Kṛṣṇa said, we have to do. Therefore sādhu, suhṛt. Suhṛdaḥ sarva-bhūtānām. Sādhu is not enemy. Ajāta-śatrava. He does not create enemy, but the world is such that if you become devotee, even your father will be enemy. Prahlāda Mahārāja, five-years-old boy, what was his fault? He became a devotee, and his father was prepared to kill him. This is world. So he does not create an enemy, but these demons, rascals, out of their jealousy they become our enemy. Otherwise our process is not to make enemy. We invite everyone, "Please come here, take prasādam, chant Hare Kṛṣṇa, dance and go home." Where is enmity? (laughter) But still, they'll become enemy. This is the world. But if he lives with the sādhava, suśīla, and follows the rules and regulation, then he also becomes sādhava. Saṅgāt sanjāyate kāmaḥ (BG 2.62). Just like if you mix with the drunkards, thieves and rogues, then you also become a drunkard, thief; similarly, if we live with the sādhu, sādhava, then you become sādhu.