We choose company by comfort: whoever is easy, whoever takes us as we are. And we quietly hope that being near good people will rub off on its own. One refinement: nearness alone is not enough. A sādhu is not merely a decent person nearby; he lives an intense practice and gently turns the lives of others toward the real goal. And association with him, sādhu-saṅga, is a following: you become submissive and walk his path, outwardly and inwardly. Saṅga, he says, means to follow completely. Simply being close is not yet saṅga. And a simple law works: you rise to the level of the one you truly follow. That is why the most practical first step in bhakti is living association with someone already on the way.