God cannot be known by the outgoing faculties, by the intellect or the vital airs called the pranas.
He can be known only by the soul: like alone can know the like. When is the soul liberated? When it is analysed from mind and the outgoing faculties.

Sant Kirpal Singh

Before and after Guru Nanak

Book "Godman", written by Sant Kirpal Singh – Chapter 10


There is always food for the hungry and water for the thirsty. A babe that was born five hundred years ago was provided by Dame Nature with milk from the mother's breast; and so was the case with one who came into the world a thousand years back. Those who are born in the present age are also being provided with similar means of sustenance.

The law of supply and demand is an immutable one in nature. In exactly the same way this law works inexorably in spiritual matters also.

For the aspirants before the time of Guru Nanak or in this age or hereafter, nature cannot but provide the means of satisfying their aspirations.

To delimit a particular period of one or two centuries as the period of Gurus and to say that there were no Master Souls before or after that particular time, is against the fundamental law of supply and demand, and hence incorrect.

The teachings of the Masters are for all times and not for any particular period. They utter eternal truth which hold good for eternity, and are the common heritage of mankind in general. Their seed-dictum for instance is that God is One and is the gift of a Godman. It is an axiomatic truth, self-evident, and hardly needs any comment.

In Anurag Sagar, Kabir Sahib tells us that he came into the world in all the four yugas or cycles of time.

Bhagat Bani was in existence long before Gurbani, from Guru Granth Sahib and the verses of Bhai Gurdas, we learn that from age to age people benefited from Shabd or Bhani.

Krishna and Balbhadra both bowed before a Guru.
Namdev the calico printer and Kabir the weaver
learned the esoteric science from a Guru.
Bani has been in existence in all the four cycles of
time and carries the message of Truth.
Shabd is true, and Bani is true.
Godmen have from age to age explained this.

In the biography of Guru Nanak by Bhai Bala, Guru Nanak is said to have stated that in this Kali Yuga (Iron Age) many a Saint would come to lead people Godward.

Seventy Bhagats and fourteen Saints would come during this period.
The Saints would carry shiploads of people homeward.
Those who would not believe would flounder, and
those who are slaves of their lower selves would not be accepted.

From the above it is clear that both Guru and Gurbani have always existed side by side. It is the Guru who has ever been the means of helping the seekers after Truth.

O God! Thy Saints have at all times been in the world.
O God! Throughout the ages the line of Gurus has been in existence.
The succession of Satgurus continues throughout
and they have ever preached the lessen of Naam.