In plain words
In just the same way, unless Bhakti and karma are both there, Jñāna is not gained. Without Jñāna itself, Bhakti and karma are of no use. In the same way, you have entered the summer class, and through purity of citta you are gathering in teachings of a spiritual kind. That is the mark of Bhakti. But we do not gain the Jñāna of putting it to use in the doing of karma. The sacred feelings you have earned by listening all week, you must make sacred on this day called sunday, in the form of karma put into practice. For doing such karma we have given it fine names: social service, self-help. The whole of life rests on karma alone. Without doing karma you cannot stay still even for a moment. Even the one who thinks, ‘I am sitting doing no work at all,’ is doing karma. Breathing in and breathing out are themselves karma. Shifting a leg from one side to the other is itself karma. Hunger and thirst themselves are karma. All of these are indeed bound up with karma. Even if we do nothing else, we at least keep moving our eyes. That too is karma all the same. Even if this body is held still, the mind at least runs off in all directions. That too is a karma, no less. So, since it is impossible for us to keep this body in this world without karma, it is most essential that we believe the doing of karma itself to be the chief aim of our body, and in this karma practise it as sacred karma, as social karma, as karma for the good of others, and as karma for the contentment of the Ātma. This is what Bhakti, karma and Jñāna, all three alike, are: sacred paths practised to make one's birth worthwhile. Now I shall tell a little story about this and bring My talk to a close. In the Bhārata, in the Śānti Parva, Bhīṣma told Dharmarāja a story. In a pond, they say, there were three fish. One fish among them came up to the second fish: ‘Brothers! How long can we stay in the water? Once this water dries up, some fisherman or other will come, catch us and take our lives. So it is good to try, even before this water dries up, to reach some lasting water somewhere,’ said one fish. The second fish among them spoke, they say: ‘Brother! When the time comes for it to dry up, we will see to it; why think about it right now?’