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Qualities of an ideal Sadguru
Purification of the Soul is not possible without the pursuit of the three-fold path. A guide is very much essential while following the path of soul-purification. How can one find a way without a guide?
The path of worldly life needs no search and the path to Moksa is never found without a search. The worldly path is very easy to follow. The jiva has knowingly-unknowingly, owing to his papa-karma, the sinful acts, has roamed the lowest of the lower worlds, and on account of his punya-karma been born several times as a human or super-human. He is roaming even now and will be doing so in future.
The path of uplifting the Soul is very difficult to find. The light, that illuminates the effort which leads one away from the chaturgati - the four levels of life - onto the panchamagati - the fifth level of existence is difficult to find. Without it, man keeps fumbling in the darkness. That lamp is Sadgurudev - Sadguru is the lamp that will illuminate your path. Kabir has also said -
पीछे लागा जाय था, लोक वेद के साथ,
आगे से सद्गुरु मिल्या, दीपक दिया हाथ ।
He says - My life was being frittered away in the beliefs handed down by the scriptures and the traditions. But I found a Sadguru and he dispelled the darkness of my ignorance. He brought me into the light of my Soul.
How Kabir found his guru and what he had to do to get him is a very interesting tale.
It is said about Kabir's life, that he was born to a widow Brahmin woman. Fearing public outcry, he was abandoned on a lake shore. About the same time a Muslim couple by names Niru and Nima were passing by and happened to notice the innocent child. They had no issues. They carried the child home and began
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