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to be called wise, but that desire is very harmful. An aspirant for higher goal must avoid such passions.27
A householder seeking emancipation must seek a pious and enlightened teacher (sadguru) and be in constant readiness to obey his commands and for that purpose one has to reduce possessions, both physical and psychic.28 It is necessary to renounce worldly life to be blissful, but if one cannot afford to renounce everything, one may renounce even partially. The way and manner of such partial renunciation, as advised by śrīmad, is as follows:
If a seekar is in association with a pious teacher he will be able to convert his inauspicious tendencies and thoughts into auspicious ones thereby he will come to possess auspicious nature and become introvert. All this happens because of the extraordinary qualities and association of the pious teacher and his pious presence, supreme knowledge, absolute peace, and perfect. renunciation.29
He has further said that so long as one cannot totally renounce worldly life, one should, as a householder, act ethically and have always in view the welfare of the soul and work hard for the same and try to achieve the goal.30 In his writings called Upadeśachāyā he
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