Embodiment · “Being Precedes Having”
Good Company & Natural Living
Deliberately curate one’s company, conduct, and surroundings toward what is elevating, so that the heart’s natural love and steadiness have conditions in which to grow.
In 5 lines: Sri Yukteswar taught that we grow toward what we live around. Seek elevating company and good guidance; reduce time with what agitates or coarsens. Live by Yama and Niyama — non-injury, truthfulness, contentment, self-discipline — and keep a clean, quiet dwelling and simple food. By such company and conduct, he said, the heart’s bondages fall away and its natural love grows. Aim for nourishment, not for judging others.
What it is
In The Holy Science (1894), Sri Yukteswar Giri taught that progress on the inner path is not only a matter of meditation but of how one lives and whom one keeps company with.
He held that the heart’s “natural love” — the inborn pull toward one’s source — grows or withers according to one’s associations and conduct. The classical idea is Sadhu-sanga: keeping the company of the wise and good.
Yukteswar paired this with natural, moral living — Yama (self-control: non-injury, truthfulness, non-stealing, continence, non-covetousness) and Niyama (purity, contentment, self-discipline) — and with practical care for food, cleanliness, and a quiet dwelling.
This entry renders that as a deliberate practice of curating environment and conduct so the inner work has fertile ground.
The Method
- Seek elevating company. Yukteswar prized Virya, moral courage, which he said “can be obtained by the culture of Sraddha, that is, by devoting one’s natural love to his Preceptor, by being always in his company.” Extend the principle: spend time with those who steady and uplift you; reduce time with what agitates or coarsens.
- Follow good guidance. “Those who remove our troubles, dispel our doubts, and bestow peace are true teachers” — keep near such people and “follow with affection his holy instructions.”
- Live by Yama and Niyama. Practise non-injury, truthfulness, non-stealing, continence, non-covetousness; cultivate purity, contentment, and self-discipline. By their observance, he taught, the heart’s bondages “disappear” and virtue arises.
- Arrange a clean, quiet dwelling and simple food. Keep a calm place to live and practise, and eat simply and moderately — the tradition favours light, sattvic, vegetarian fare — so body and mind stay clear.
- Make it daily and ordinary. This is not an occasional retreat but the steady arranging of one’s ordinary surroundings, meals, and friendships toward what nourishes. (Sourcing note: the quoted phrases on Virya, Sraddha, and true teachers are from The Holy Science (1894), ch. 3; the Yama/Niyama content and the heart’s “bondages disappear” are Yukteswar’s. Specific dietary and dwelling guidance reflects the tradition’s natural-living teaching.)
Source & Lineage
Sri Yukteswar (1855–1936), guru of Paramahansa Yogananda, set out this conduct-and-company teaching in The Holy Science; he also founded a “Sadhu Sabha” (Society of Saints), an organisation expressing the value he placed on holy company.
The Yama/Niyama frame descends from Patanjali. This entry is distinct from generic association/environment notes and from self-examination practices.
Common refinements
Spiritual snobbery. Curating company can curdle into judging or shunning people; the aim is nourishment, not superiority.
- Harsh isolation. Withdrawing from all difficult company can starve you of needed connection; seek good company, don’t just avoid bad.
- Rule-policing over kindness. Yama/Niyama is meant to soften the heart, not to become rigid self-monitoring.
- Neglecting the inner work. Environment is the soil, not the crop — pair it with actual practice.
- Treating food/dwelling rules as the whole path. They are supports, easily over-emphasised.