In plain words
We must not set about serving for the sake of the fruit. We must set about serving for the sake of Prema, for the sake of experiencing the oneness of all.
A small example. In a hospital: when a man has no one at all to turn to, they will have put him in hospital. He keeps pining away under many kinds of suffering. You go to the hospital and speak kind words beside him: ‘Sir! Don't cry. What do you need?’ If, so saying, you set about serving him with good words, how close a bond has formed between him and you! Forgetting even his relatives: ‘Oh, who is this, a student; he has come for the Summer Class, it seems. He came to the hospital and served me’; and when you are leaving: ‘My son! What is your address?’; he takes the address, writes letters back to you, and makes every fitting effort to build a bond between the two of you. How did this bond form? It formed through an act of service. The bond of human hearts forms through the spirit of service, not through the attitude of a leader. Today, if someone or other is Prime Minister, when the Prime Minister comes to a town they go to the station and put a hundred garlands on him. They take a hundred cars there and say, ‘Sit in our car, sit in our car!’ If that same Prime Minister gives up office, even the rickshaw man asks him for the fare. The honour of authority lasts only for the moment. The honour of the heart's Prema brings about a close bond that lasts all through life. So for us to set about building a relationship in matters of authority is nothing but sheer folly. When we wish to grow our bond through the principle of Prema that belongs to the Ātma, true security takes hold for us only in the life of service. That itself takes shape as true Bhakti.
When we do service with sacred feelings, holding on to no pride at all over our honour and dishonour, and the feeling enters you with all your heart, ‘Through this service of mine this person will gain this benefit,’ then, without caring for anyone, even if the elders at your home say no, you will surely take part in that service, and take part in it to make them happy without fail.