Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā that we assume the qualities of those with whom we associate. And if one were to want to advance in a particular discipline, one quite naturally would search out a community, a society, a club, an organization where people were focused on that discipline, and one would take the association of those people.

In a similar way, if one wants to advance spiritually, it's quite natural that one would gravitate towards a place where people were engaged in that practice. And it's natural because we want to do something. We want to be with others who are doing it. In describing the process of devotional service, one of the previous great teachers of bhakti says that as soon as one develops a sense of appreciation for devotional service, the next impulse is to find out where people are practicing it, so one can be there with them.

That happened to me when I was in high school. I had an impulse to practice spiritual life. And then I got a magazine called Back to Godhead, and it had pictures in it of young people my age or a little older who were doing various kinds of services together: running a printing press, or some of them were serving out food (prasādam). Others were chanting in public. And I thought, "I'd like to be with those people, do what they do, find out what they're doing." So I gravitated. So it's one of the ways in which our teachers say that we're drawn to the association of devotees, as soon as we have a sense in our heart that I would like to be more engaged in service to God, and we look for people who are already engaged.

Therefore, our founder started what he called a society, International Society, with a view to giving people everywhere an opportunity to associate with those who are sincerely trying to improve themselves spiritually. He recognized that it's a universal principle. It's not that it works in one culture, but not in another. It's not restricted to a particular culture, because it has to do with the living force, the soul and souls are equal everywhere. They may have different external circumstances, but internally, we're all the same, in that we're all parts of God and we're all conscious beings. Therefore, as he conceived it, the process of bhakti would work anywhere, in any country.

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