All the scriptures sing with one voice the great glories of the association of devotees.

Since beginningless time, the living beings have been wandering (reincarnating) through 8,400,000 species of life, bound by māyā and floating in the ghastly current of saṁsāra. The only way to become free from this condition of bondage by māyā is by attaining devotion for the lotus feet of the Supreme Lord, which is again only attained by associating with the Lord’s devotees and receiving their mercy.

mahat kṛpā vinā kon karme bhakti noy;
kṛṣṇa-prāpti dūre rahu – saṁsāra nahe kṣoy
(C.C.)

“Without the grace of the great souls, no activity can be counted as bhakti. Let alone attaining Kṛṣṇa, even liberation from material bondage is not possible.”

There is no other way to free the contaminated heart from the subtle desires it is used to having since beginningless time and to become favorable to the Lord’s lotus feet than associating with the sādhus.

Śrīmat Jīva Gosvāmī has clearly corroborated that with special considerations in Śrī Bhakti Sandarbha —

atha bhagavat kṛpaiva tat sānmukhye prāthamikaṁ kāraṇam iti ca gauṇam. sā hi saṁsāra durantānanta santāpa santapteṣvapi tad vimukheṣu svatantrā na pravartate tad asambhavāt. kṛpā-rūpaśceto vikāro hi para duḥkhasya sva cetasi sparśe satyeva jāyate. tasya tu yadā paramānanda rasatvenāpahata kalmaṣatvena ca śrutau jīva vilakṣaṇatvasādhanāt tejo mālinyas timirāyogavat tac cetasyapi tamomaya duḥkha sparśanāsambhavena, tatra tasyā janmāsambhavaḥ. ataeva sarvadā virājamāne’pi karttūm akarttum anyathākartūṁ samarthe tasmin tad vimukhānāṁ na saṁsāra santāpa śāntiḥ. ataḥ sat kṛpaivāvaśiṣyate. santo’pi tadānīṁ yadyapi saṁsāra dukhair na spṛśanta eva, tathāpi labdha jāgarāḥ svapna duḥkhavat te kadācit smareyur apītyatas teṣāṁ saṁsārike’pi kṛpā bhavati………………tasmād yā kṛpā tasya satsu vartate sā sat saṅga vāhanaiva vā sat kṛpāvāhanaiva vā satī jīvāntare saṁkramate na svatantreti sthitam (Bhakti Sandarbha – 180)

“Although the grace of the Lord is the primary cause of becoming favorable to Him, it is still secondary, because it is impossible for the grace of the Lord to independently reach the conditioned souls, that are afflicted by the scorching fire of material existence and that are averse to the Lord. Mercy is a kind of mental transformation, which awakens when the misery of others touches the heart of a merciful soul. The Supreme Lord is always the embodiment of the topmost transcendental rasika ecstasy — what a difference there is between Him and the sinful and ignorant living being! Just as the shining sun can never touch the darkness, similarly the false misery that the living being is suffering from can never touch the heart of Śrī Hari, that is impossible in all respects. Therefore, although there is always an ocean of mercy within Śrī Bhagavān’s heart, and the Lord is able to do everything, there is no end to the material miseries of the living entities that are averse to Him. Therefore, the only thing that remains to redeem the conditioned souls is the mercy of the great saint. Although the hearts of such great souls are also not touched by the false misery of the material world, still, just as the wakeful human being considers the suffering he went through in dreams to be false, he can still remember this misery when he sees other people sleeping and dreaming and is eager to awaken them. In the same way, the devotees who have woken up from the slumber of illusion can have mercy towards the conditioned souls who are suffering different kinds of false miseries in the material world that appear like different kinds of dreams. Therefore, the mercy of the Lord that dwells in the hearts of the great souls is infused within the hearts of the conditioned souls through the vehicles of sat saṅga (association with the great devotee) and sat kṛpā (the grace of a great devotee), not independently.”

If ordinary gods and goddesses do not go anywhere without their vehicles, then would the crownjewel of all of the Supreme Lord’s energies, Mahādevī Bhagavat Kṛpā (the great goddess of God’s grace) go anywhere without a vehicle?
Therefore, the association of the bhaktas is the only flawless way to attain bhakti and the proximity of the Lord. In his praises of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, Śrīla Mucukunda has said:

bhavāpavargo bhramato yadā bhavej janasya tarhyacyuta sat samāgamaḥ
sat saṅgamo yarhi tad eva sad gatau parāvareśe tvayi jāyate matiḥ

“O Lord! When the time has come for the living entity, who is revolving through endless reincarnations, to end his material conditioning, then he will reach the proximity of saints, and when he attains their saintly company, then he will become lovingly inclined towards You, who are, after all, the Supreme Controller of both cause and effects and the only shelter of such saints.”

To show that the best way to terminate mundane existence is the company of the saints, the termination of mundane existence is mentioned first and the company of saints is mentioned afterwards.
The alaṅkārikas (knowers of poetic embellishments) describe this as the fourth type of atiśayokti alaṅkāra —

caturthī sā kāraṇasya gadituṁ śīghra kāritām yā hi kāryasya pūrvoktiḥ – “In order to describe how quickly a cause can display its effects, the symptoms are sometimes described before the cause. This is called the fourth type of atiśayokti alaṅkāra.”

Here the root cause of the termination of mundane existence is the company of the saints, and although the termination of mundane existence is the effect, the company of saints accomplishes this so swiftly that it cannot even be noticed anymore whether company of the saints took place first or the termination of mundane existence.

Another thing that should be noticed is that the termination of mundane existence is not the primary effect of association with the saints — the primary effect is the development of bhakti for the lotus feet of Śrī Hari. The termination of mundane existence is a side effect. The termination of mundane existence is regarded as darkness and the company of the saints is regarded as the sun. Just as darkness simultaneously disappears when the sun rises, similarly the darkness of ignorance that accompanies mundane existence at once disappears along with the sunrise of sādhu saṅga.

That is why Śrī Kṛṣṇa told Śrī Nalakuvara and Maṇigrīva —

sādhūnāṁ sama cittānāṁ sutarāṁ mat kṛtātmanām
darśanān no bhaved bandhaḥ puṁso’kṣnoḥ savitur yathā
(Śrīmad Bhāgavata 10.10.41)

“When the conditioned souls see the saints that have given their hearts to Me and that they are always equipoised, there will be no more material bondage for them, just as the eyes are no longer bound to darkness when the sun rises.”

Therefore whenever there is the company of saints, mundane existence will be terminated as a side effect and love for Śrī Hari will develop as the main result.
Here one may ask, “Why don’t we always experience such powerful effects of the company of the bhaktas, or why do we see so often that the faults of aversion towards the Lord are not destroyed and love for the Lord’s lotus feet does not awaken, despite associating with the sādhus?” To this, Śrīmad Bhāgavata answers: “This applies to the offenders. An offenceless person will certainly experience the abovementioned results. Although association with sādhus may be there, the sādhus do not wish to bestow their mercy upon offenders, as is stated in the Bhāgavata (3.5.44) —

tān vai hyasavṛttibhir akṣibhir ye parākṛtāntar manasaḥ pareśaḥ
atho na paśyantyurugāya nūnaṁ ye te padanyāsa vilāsa lakṣmyāḥ

“O Urugaya (widely praised One)! O Pareśa (Supreme Controller)! Your bhaktas, that are always placed around Your beautiful lotus feet, certainly do not like to cast a glance at the unsaintly persons who are averse to You due to their unreal or offensive sensual activities!”

This authoritative verse shows that the devotees of the Lord do not cast a glance at the offenders who are averse to the Lord.

Here it should be noted that the words asad indriya vṛtti in the above verse does not just refer to mundane sensual activities of the non-devotees, because unless and until the great souls cast their merciful glances, everyone’s sensual activities remain mundane. Rather, this phrase must be explained as ‘the sensual activities of offenders’, because the great souls shower the ordinary non-devotees with their grace. This is described in Śrīmad Bhāgavata (3.5.3) —

janasya kṛṣṇād vimukhasya daivād adharma śīlasya suduḥkhitasya
anugrahāyeha caranti nūnaṁ bhūtāni bhavyāni janārdanasya

Śrī Vidura Mahāśaya told Śrīla Maitreya Ṛṣi: “O master! Great auspicious devotees of Śrī Kṛṣṇa like you wander over the world to bestow their grace to the conditioned souls that are disinclined towards Śrī Kṛṣṇa, that are irreligious due to the overwhelming influence of their previous activities and that feel very miserable due to this.”

Therefore, if a person is only contaminated due to being disinclined towards Śrī Kṛṣṇa, but is otherwise non-offensive, then simple association with the saints will erase this fault and make them become inclined towards the Lord.

However, if someone is not inclined toward the Lord and is an offender as well, he will not be able to become free from the fault of indifference toward the Lord and turn toward the lotus feet of the Lord on the mere strength of association with the devotees. But, when they receive the merciful glance of a great soul, they will be free from the fault of offensiveness and become inclined toward the lotus feet of Śrī Hari. This is the solution of that question. The greatly realised devotees will certainly bestow their grace on the offenceless.

In other words, even if he does not realise that ‘this is a great soul’, and even if the great soul does not think, ‘I should bestow my mercy on this wretch’, and does not cast a merciful glance on him, still, simply by associating with the great soul, the conditioned soul will become inclined towards the lotus feet of the Lord. But if the great soul bestows his grace on the offender without looking at the offences because it is simply his nature to be kind, then the offender can become inclined towards Śrī Hari’s lotus feet. An offender cannot simply become inclined towards the lotus feet of Śrī Hari on the strength of his association with a great soul without getting his active mercy.

The example of these two kinds of persons is Śrī Nalakuvara, Maṇigrīva and the ordinary gods.
In the description of Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s tearing down of the Yamalārjuna trees, it is seen that Śrī Nalakuvara and Maṇigrīva had disrespected and ignored Devarṣi Nārada and had thus become offenders. Still, out of his causeless mercy, Devarṣi Nārada ignored their offences and instead blessed them by giving them offenceless residence in Vṛndāvana, giving them the darśana of Śrī Kṛṣṇa in His Śrī Bāla Gopāla mūrti along with remembrance of their previous activities, and giving them unshakeable devotion to His lotus feet. But Indra and the other demigods who had violated the etiquette towards the great saints could not attain devotion to Śrī Hari, although they saw Śrīpāda Devarṣi again and again. So when they sometimes offer praises to Śrī Kṛṣṇa, that is done only for their own purposes. If the Lord does something which does not fulfill their wishes, then they will not even hesitate to commit violence toward Him. This is clearly shown in the Śrīmad Bhāgavata when it is described how Śrī Kṛṣṇa stopped the sacrifice to Indra during one of His pastimes.

A doubt may rise against this conclusion, namely when Śrī Prahlāda Mahāśaya offered praises to Śrī Nṛsiṁhadeva he said :

naitān vihāya kṛpaṇān vimumukṣa eko nānyaṁ tvad asya śaraṇaṁ bhramato’nupaśye

“O Lord! I do not wish to be liberated alone without taking all the miserable living beings, that are wandering around in the wheel of constant reincarnations, with me. I cannot see anyone else as merciful as You who can give shelter to these helpless creatures!”

If Śrī Prahlāda was so merciful to all living beings of the world, then why were they not all redeemed?

The answer to this question is that there are innumerable living beings, and not all of these countless living beings arose within Śrī Prahlāda’s heart. He prayed to Śrī Nṛsiṁhadeva for those whose misery he had seen and heard of, and they were certainly redeemed. This is the conclusion of Śrīmat Jīva Gosvāmī, who is the jīva bandhu, the friend of the living beings.

Brahmarṣi Bharata told King Rahūgaṇa that knowledge about God cannot be attained through any other means but by serving the footdust of the great saints, and he has clearly described that —
rahūgaṇaitat tapasā na yāti na cejyayā nirvapaṇād gṛhād vā
na cchandasā naiva jalāgni sūryair vinā mahat pādarajo’bhiṣekam
(Śrīmad Bhāgavata 5.12.12)

“O Mahārāja Rahūgaṇa! Without being showered by the footdust of the great saints, austerities, Vedic activities, donations of foodgrains, construction of social housing, study of the Vedas or the worship of water, fire or the sun cannot help one attain knowledge of God!”

Śrī Prahlāda Mahāśaya also described the service of the footdust of the great saints as the best way to attain love for the Lord’s lotus feet —

naiṣāṁ matis tāvad urukramāṅghriṁ
spṛśatyanarthāpagamo yad arthaḥ
mahīyasāṁ pāda rajo’bhiṣekaṁ
niṣkiñcanānāṁ na vṛṇīta yāvat
(Śrīmad Bhāgavata 7.5.32)

“As long as one is not showered with the footdust of the saints that are totally free from sense gratification, no one will be able to touch the lotus feet of the Lord. In other words, until then, no one can have love for Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet. When love for Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s lotus feet is developed, all mischief will disappear from the heart.”

bhakta pada dhūli āra bhakta padajala; bhakta bhukta avaśeṣa — tina mahābala
ei tina sevāite kṛṣṇa premā hoy; punaḥ punaḥ sarva śāstre phukāriyā koy
tāte bāra bāra kohi śuno bhaktagaṇa; viśvāsa koriyā koro e tina sevana
tina hoite kṛṣṇa nāma premera ullāsa; kṛṣṇera prasāda tāte sākṣī kāli dāsa
(C.C.)

“The foot dust of a devotee, the footwater of a devotee and the food-remnants of a devotee — these three are very powerful. The scriptures exclaim again and again that service of these three cause kṛṣṇa premā. O devotees, hear me! That is why I am saying again and again — serve these three items with faith! These three cause the ecstasy of prema of Kṛṣṇa’s name, and cause the grace of Kṛṣṇa to descend. Kāli dāsa is the living proof of that.”

When Śrīman Mahāprabhu performed His pastimes, Śrīla Kālidāsa Rāya, who was fixed in his devotion to the foot-nectar and the lip nectar of the devotees, was blessed by attaining mercy from Śrīman Mahāprabhu in Nīlācala that was not attained by others. Śrīla Narottama Ṭhākura Mahāśaya has said:

vaiṣṇavera pada jala, kṛṣṇa bhakti dite bol,
āra keho nahe balavanta etc.
vaiṣṇavera ucchiṣṭa, tāhe mora mana niṣṭha,
vaiṣṇavera nāmete ullāsa etc.

“The foot water of the Vaiṣṇava can give the power of kṛṣna-bhakti. Nothing is that powerful.” “My mind is fully fixed in the Vaiṣṇavas’ foodremnants and rejoices in the names of the Vaiṣṇavas.” etc.

bhagavad bhakta pādābja pādukābhyo namo’stu me
yat saṅgamaḥ sādhanaṁ ca sādhyaṁ cākhilam uttamam

“I offer my obeisances unto the shoes that hold the lotus feet of the devotees of the Lord, whose association yields the fruits of all practise and perfections.”

–  Srila Ananta das Babaji, Sri Bhakta Tattva Vijnana

[Translated by my dear friend Advaita das]