What is non-attachment?

As thoughts arise, destroying them utterly without any residue in the very place of their origin is non-attachement. Just as the pearl-diver ties a stone to his waist, sinks to the bottom of the sea and there takes the pearls, so each one of us should be endowed with non-attachement, dive within oneself and obtain the Self-Pearl.

Is it not possible for God and the GUru to effect the liberation of a soul?