Shloka : 27
चोरपापिव्यसनिनां संग: पाषंडिनां तथा ।
कामिनां च न कर्तव्यो जनवञ्चनकर्मणाम् ॥ 27 ॥
અને ચોર, પાપી, વ્યસની, પાખંડી, કામી તથા કીમિયા આદિક ક્રિયાએ કરીને જનનો ઠગનારો, એ છ પ્રકારનાં મનુષ્ય, તેમનો સંગ ન કરવો. ॥ 27 ॥
One should avoid the company of six types of people that are either a thief or a sinner or a person full of vices or a hypocrite or a person with strong sexual desires, or a person who cheats people by his tricks. || 27 ||
Commentary
'A thief' means a person who has the habit of stealing or a person who robs the things which belong to other people and are not given willingly. 'A sinner' is a person who tends to kill the animals etc. and commits such sins. 'A person full of vices' means a person who has vices like hunting the animals, gambling etc. or a person who is addicted to marijuana, hemp, bhang, tobacco etc. 'A hypocrite' means a person whose behavior is against the Vedas and scriptures. 'A lustful person' is a person who desires the other women to fulfill his sexual desires. 'A cheat' is a person whose profession is to cheat people for his own benefit. The company of all such people should be avoided. 'Company' means to be friendly with them, sit with them, sleep with them, have food together, cook in the same vessels, exchange the cooked food with each other or mix the food, perform religious rites together, study together, fix the marriages etc. social relations and enjoy the meals together etc..
Besides, 'arrogant' means a person who has false pride of his power or position in society and crosses the limits of code of conduct set by the scriptures; 'Unmatt' means a person who has confused state of mind due to imbalance of 'Vaat' element i.e. air element in our body. And a person who is spendthrift, greedy, who has many enemies, liar, who visits prostitutes and who believes in fate and does not make any efforts to achieve something i.e. lazy, such people should be avoided completely. Because one’s mind is affected and influenced by the study of scriptures as well as the company they keep. Therefore, the company of good scriptures and learned people should be sought after.