Association with Heaven or Hell

The principle of association is really a beautiful thing, one should learn early in spiritual life to avoid bad company, like is said one knows a man by the company he keeps. But what about the company one keeps on the mental level. We learn from Bhaktivinode Thakur that the heavenly and hellish worlds are emanations from a particular potency of the Lord, this creation inacts in such a way as in an interaction with the human mind who is in freedom. The contents of our mind is the result of what Emanuel Swedenborg calls influx. In a atheistic naturalist influx is primarily ascribed to the senses of the body and the external world. One who is a little elevated in spiritual life ascribes influx to the spiritual world. The first teaching of yoga is that we are not our bodies, further we are not our minds either. Understanding influx helps the process of disindentifying with the mind because one comes to understand that what enters the mind enters from either Heavenly or Hellish societies. Likewise we first learn to be mindful of the association of our bodies with other physical beings as we are in the process of disidentifying with our bodies, further we can learn to watch our association on the level of the mind as we are disindentifying with our subtle body. It is beautiful that one has the opportunity to avoid the association of hell even when one is not directly met with it in any particular physical scenario, one simply recognisises the thought - that is not heavenly influx - and chooses to disassociate from it, as this battle is won the opposing heavenly state is 'plugged in' in its place. In this way a persons mind can be gradually raised into love by the understanding of the will. One should chant and always remember the Lord and his devotees, because by chanting their names and remembering them we are associating with them and their good qualities.