What is the consequence of 'bad company' and what is the prescribed solution?

Bad company is depicted as entirely false and an 'abode of great miseries.' As noted in Chapter 10, it will unknowingly lead you astray and sever your connection to happiness. The text poses a rhetorical question: 'Except for Sainath or a Sadguru, who else will remove the effects of bad company?' The prescribed solution is therefore Satsang, or the company of a Sadguru. By carefully preserving the compassionate words of the Guru, bad company will be destroyed. Satsang is described as the only faultless association, capable of purifying a person and counteracting the detrimental influence of negative associations.