Suppose you have a candle that you want to light.
So, you would obviously do a step-by-step exercise i.e. You would go to the market, buy a matchsticks box, come home, find a platform on which you can station the candle, switch off the fan, pull down the curtains so that the wind does not gush in through the windows, take the matchbox, remove the stick, learn to ignite the matchstick; you may fail a couple of times, and finally when you manage to rub the stick correctly on the scratch surface, there you go... You have a lighted matchstick and as you touch it to the candle, it gets enlightened!

Another option is: You take your candle to the already enlightened candle, and your work gets done!
Which way would you choose to enlighten your candle?
Obviously the second one?!

We all would choose that option because it’s a fairly easy option, isn’t it? We don’t have to do anything in it, we don’t have to even know anything about how to enlightening a candle, we just have to humbly take our candle to the enlightened candle and that’s it! With the help of the enlightened candle, we directly enlighten our candle. This option works wonders, but provided you have an enlightened candle in existence.

That’s The Reason Why Living Gnani Is Required...
To enlighten our Soul, there are two types of paths in this world:

1.One is a step by step path, where we have to do something to achieve Self-Realization – do some meditation, chant some mantra, worship God, leave family, home, money, property and possessions, read scriptures, take up penance, perform rituals, do sadhana for finding out ‘who am I’, and we will finally get Self-Realization. Thus, it is possible to attain Self-Realization through this path. But it is a long, long, an indeed very long path; it would take up many many years and could be many lives too to enlighten our Soul.

2.There is another path called the Akram path!
This is a stepless or an elevator path. Here, just by mere grace of the Living Gnani, we attain Self-Realization.
This is why our religious leaders teach us religion; but finally they too say that, “If you are keen in seeking the Soul, please go to the Atma-Gnani (the Enlightened One).” When asked why so, their reply is, “because I have come to transform one doing immoral conduct to one with moral conduct. But for the path ahead, you may contact Atma Gnani.”

We are fortunate that today, Living Atma-Gnani, the Enlightened One, exists amidst us...
...who through a ‘Gnanvidhi’ can enlighten our Soul.

The ‘Gnanvidhi’ is totally free of cost and it doesn’t require us to change our religion nor our worldly life. It is only about crushing our karmas, our wrong beliefs and wrong understandings that have blocked the light of our Soul.

In Gnanvidhi, with the divine grace of the Enlightened One, all our wrong beliefs get fractured and the right belief of, ‘who am I, what are my properties, what are my qualities, how I am separate from mind-speech and body, what is my function’ set in automatically. After Gnanvidhi, we get the right understanding that, “I am not John (please insert your own name here); I am a Pure Soul.”

‘Gnanvidhi’ is not a ritual, it is science!
The Soul is always pure. But due to our wrong belief, we cannot get the experience of the Pure Soul. The wrong belief of ‘I am John’ gets fractured when you get the right belief of ‘I am a Pure Soul’ through Gnani, the Enlightened One!!!

In Gnanvidhi, we get the realization of the Self; and we also get ‘five principles’ that teach us how to remain in the Pure Soul and dissolve our pending karma without adding up any new karma now.

After Gnanvidhi, these five principles are explained. That will help us protect the right understanding and the right awareness. The Pure Soul, enlightened through Gnanvidhi, is protected by these five principles because we have not finished our worldly karmic accounts yet, with each family member of ours, our friends and relations. So, with the help of these principles, we are able to maintain the awareness of Pure Soul and can finish all our karmic accounts with equanimity.

This is called the Akram path or the stepless path to Self-Realization. Lord Krishna had given the same knowledge to Arjun, that we today can receive from the Living Gnani through the Akram path.
So, go for it! This is the way I have chosen to enlighten my Soul.

To know more please visit: https://www.dadabhagwan.org/self-realization/

Author's Bio: 

Ambalal M. Patel was a civil contractor by profession. In June 1958, spontaneous Self-Realization occurred within Ambalal M. Patel. From this point on, Ambalal became a Gnani Purush, and the Lord that manifest within him became known as Dada Bhagwan. A Gnani Purush is One who has realized the Self and is able help others do the same. Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan used to go from town to town and country-to-country to give satsang (spiritual discourse) and impart the knowledge of the Self, as well as knowledge of harmonious worldly interactions to everyone who came to meet him. This spiritual science, known as Akram Vignan, is the step-less path to Self-realization