Srimad Bhagavatam — Navama Skandha, Shloka 15
Mahārāja Sagara, Kapila Muni, and the Deliverance of the Sixty Thousand Sons
असमञ्जस आत्मानं दर्शयन्नसमञ्जसम् । जातिस्मर: पुरा सङ्गाद् योगी योगाद् विचालित: ॥ १५ ॥ आचरन् गर्हितं लोके ज्ञातीनां कर्म विप्रियम् । सरय्वां क्रीडतो बालान्प्रास्यदुद्वेजयञ्जनम् ॥ १६ ॥
asamañjasa ātmānaṁ darśayann asamañjasam jāti-smaraḥ purā saṅgād yogī yogād vicālitaḥ
Formerly, in his previous birth, Asamañjasa had been a great mystic yogī, but by bad association he had fallen from his exalted position. Now, in this life, he was born in a royal family and was a jāti-smara; that is, he had the special advantage of being able to remember his past birth. Nonetheless, he wanted to display himself as a miscreant, and therefore he would do things that were abominable in the eyes of the public and unfavorable to his relatives. He would disturb the boys sporting in the river Sarayū by throwing them into the depths of the water.
FAQs
This verse states that even a yogī can become deviated from yoga due to saṅga (association), showing how companionship strongly shapes one’s spiritual steadiness.
Śukadeva explains that Asamañjasa presented himself through confusing, socially condemned behavior, linked to his earlier deviation from yoga because of harmful association.
Choose uplifting company and environments; even sincere spiritual practice can weaken if one repeatedly keeps degrading influences.