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Introduction
suffering. Delusion, the real cause of suffering, prevents it from understanding its true nature and deprives it of its inherent happiness. By virtue of the delusion the soul identifies itself with the body and treats the comforts and discomforts of the body as its own. This is the root cause of its misery, wandering from birth to birth and suffering from old age, disease, death, etc. This stanza thus points out the root cause of suffering.
That suffering cannot end, unless the soul realizes its true, blissful nature. That realization can come forth by securing guidance from a true Guru who has experienced the soul. One, who has not experienced it, cannot explain its true nature. Here explaining does not mean clarifying the terms, as it is done in the schools. That type of explanation, the worldly soul might have got on innumerable occasions during its infinite wandering. At times it might have also got the right explanation, but that has remained at the superficial level and did not reach the depth within. It is not possible to bring the suffering and misery to the end until one understands the true nature of the soul and brings it to the experiential level, until he attains self-realization.
Explanation by a self-realized Guru occurs from his soul and is therefore convincing. As such, the pupil is induced to put it into practice. The genuine efforts in that direction can enable him to understand the true nature of the soul. Shrimad has therefore said (Vachanämrut # 651) that ‘understanding means to know and experience the true nature of soul, as it is'. Such understanding changes the entire outlook. When the orientation turns to its true nature, one can stay tuned to it. There is thus enormous importance of an enlightened Guru in spiritual pursuit. Shrimad therefore starts the work with homage to the graceful Guru, who explained the true nature of the soul.
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