Satsanga and the Ecology of the Mind
In the Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā, Swātmārāma emphasizes that keeping good company, or sat-saṅga, is one of the essential conditions for success on the yogic path. He identifies six pillars that guide an aspirant toward accomplishment of Yoga: enthusiasm, perseverance, courage, knowledge, conviction, and the renunciation of unhelpful company (HYP I.15).
Keeping good company goes beyond simply being around kind or pleasant people. It means consciously placing ourselves in environments, relationships, and inner states that cultivate sattva—the quality of clarity, balance, and harmony. It’s so important because in gatherings of satsanga, we are literally shaping the pathways of the mind toward peace, insight, and awakening.
On the otherhand, Swātmārāma also warns that bad company (asat-saṅga)— those people, relationships, and environments that lead us toward gossip, distraction, sensory indulgence, and carelessness— will pull the mind into rajasic (overactivity, distraction and inability to focus) and and tamasic (darkness, carelessness, lack of motivation) states that obscure truth. Each of those experiences will leave saṃskāras, subtle imprints in the unmanifest mind (citta) that will ultimately become triggered and germinate into actions that will shape our future thoughts, reactions, and behaviors.
Every interaction we engage in plants a seed. Sattvic company strengthens wholesome saṃskāras—calmness, compassion, discernment—while tamasic or rajasic company reinforces patterns rooted in the kleśas: attachment, aversion, over identification with separate “I”-ness, ignorance, and clinging to life. Over time, these repeated patterns form grooves in the psyche, influencing how we perceive the world and respond to it.
The Yoga Sūtra reminds us, “saṃskāra-sākṣāt-karaṇāt pūrva-jāti-jñānam” (YS III.18)—through awareness of these impressions, we come to understand the roots of our unconscious conditioning. When Swātmārāma advises seeking satsanga and avoiding asat-saṅga, he is not giving a moral directive but offering a psychological method of purification: a way to align our inner field with dharma and clear the pathways for higher consciousness.
In modern terms, we might say: “neurons that fire together, wire together.” The company we keep—both outer and inner—determines which pathways of the mind are strengthened. By consciously surrounding ourselves with those who uplift, study, and practice truth, we reinforce non-afflicted (ākleśik) tendencies—clarity, patience, and joy—and weaken the kleśa-driven cycles of grasping and aversion.
Through satsanga, we cultivate a collective field of sattva, a living antidote to the fragmentation of modern life. It nourishes right perception, deepens self-awareness, and allows the seeds of awakening to take root and grow.
