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The One in Many
Soul is the light of God within man. The soul comes out of God and before creation it lives with God. It resides in a human body according to the Will of God. If we compare God to the sun, the individual is a ray of that sun. The relationship between God and man’s soul has also been compared to the fire and the spark, also the ocean and the wave. The soul is not the “self” or the ego. It is the ultimate essence of the individual which is immortal.
"The soul neither dies nor can it be destroyed."
(SGGS pg 1026)
Elsewhere the Guru says :
"God abides in the soul and the soul abides in God."
Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji explains the relationship between body, mind and soul as under :
"The body is the mud of sin, while the mind is the frog.
The intellect is the bumble bee and the soul is the lotus.
The mind-frog is ignorant of the Guru’s message (bumble bee) and
Therefore unaware of the beauty of the lotus of the soul."
(SGGS pg 24)
The Gurus have emphasised that the mortal must understand and realise his real self, his element of divinity. Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji says :
"By realising the self,
One stands attuned to the Formless One."
(SGGS pg 415)
"He who realises his self,
Identifies himself with the Supreme Self."
(SGGS pg 21)
Bhagat Kabir Ji says:
"As long as I was tied to the body, duality existed in me;
Since realisation came, here, there everywhere, the One alone do I see."
Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji has mentioned the ways and means of the individual soul’s progress towards the Supreme Soul:
"If God shows mercy, one meditates on Him.
Then the soul is dissolved and absorbed in Him;
It becomes one with the Supreme Soul,
And the inner duality dies within."
(SGGS pg 661)
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