I have given numerous lectures about how to associate with devotees. I specifically preach often on this theme since association with devotees is the primary foundation for spiritual advancement. If someone is unable to associate with devotees, then his life can become too easily influenced by the attitudes of nondevotees. We are by nature social beings. In His instructions to Srila Sanatana Goswami, Lord Caitanya quotes a verse from Katyayanasamhita: “It is better to accept the miseries of being encaged within bars and surrounded by burning flames than to associate with those bereft of Krishna consciousness. Such association is a very great hardship.”
Collected Letters, vol. 2