Scriptures warn about the harmful effects of evil association while recommending Sat Sang as a reliable crutch for spiritual aspirants. Evil association has the instant power to corrupt even the purest of minds, as is seen in the way Parikshit commits a sin inadvertently, pointed out Damal Sri Ramakrishnan and Srimati Perundevi in a discourse.
Parikshit, of the Pandava family, rules with utmost righteousness. It is the time when Dwapara Yuga gives way to Kali Yuga. Parikshit hears the news that Kali Purusha has entered the kingdom and he decides to confront him with the intention of killing him. Kali falls at Parikshit’s feet and begs to be spared with his life. Parikshit warms him sternly and chases him away from the people. But Kali pleads for some place to stay and the king assigns four places for Kali — dice, women, wine and shambles — symbols of falsehood, intoxication, passion, cruelty and greed.
But the very meeting with Kali has the power to prompt Parikshit to err unwittingly. Such is the subtle working of evil. Once when on a hunting mission, he asks a sage in meditation for water to quench his thirst. When there is no response, he unthinkingly throws a dead snake on the neck of the sage. Immediately, he is full of remorse and laments thus: ‘Why did I throw the snake on the sage who was steeped in meditation? Was it for this that Krishna had saved me at birth from the powerful effect of Asvathama’s arrow? Was it for this I had ruled over the kingdom of the Pandavas as a righteous king who upholds dharma at all costs?’
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Hanuman too makes a wrong calculation in Ravana’s palace when he searches for Sita in the women’s apartments. Though his sense of dharma and his vow of celibacy remain intact when he sees the women sleeping in abandon, he errs in his judgment when he enters Ravana’s chamber and sees Mandodari. He thinks she is Sita and then reproaches himself for this sinful thought. Contact with the evil Ravana dilutes his perception of dharma for a moment.