In plain words
If you examine every act of daily life, it becomes clear that people set out to enjoy only what is attractive. Attraction is the chief quality of divinity. The power to attract comes only through Prema. Looked at in any other way, this cannot be understood. Drawing you close through it is only in order to give you a sacred saṃskāra.
Through saṃskāra, value grows
Truly, through saṃskāra a man's worth increases. A man without saṃskāra is no different from an animal. He has no value of any kind. There is a stainless steel watch on your wrist! The stainless steel in it is not worth even two annas. But through saṃskāra it was turned into nuts, bolts and springs, and because it shows the measure of time, two annas' worth of steel has become a watch worth two or three hundred rupees. In the same way, through the refining work of good practice, the good path, good conduct, good thoughts and good qualities, an ordinary man can become a great soul and gain a place of great value. So by listening to sacred teachings, by attaining the vast principle of Prema, and by practising service to society, a man shines as a great soul. For that, I draw them by camatkāras, shape them with saṃskāra, and set them on the path of paropakāra. When they take an interest in service to society and practise it wholeheartedly, human brotherhood and the fatherhood of God become clear to them, Ahaṅkāra and mamakāra wane, and every opportunity opens for a spiritual frame of mind to grow.
To recognise divinity, qualification is essential
There are no rules whatever that “God must show only such powers, and must not do such things.” He has the authority to do anything at all, from the atom to the immense. That is His own will; no one else has any right to step into it. To recognise divinity, qualification is the very first necessity. In medicine, only doctors who have trained to examine illnesses and decide on the right treatment, and have earned degrees, are qualified. For building houses or bridges, only engineers are qualified. If those without qualification criticise the principle of God, it is simply laughable. Failing to recognise divinity is a disease. It can never be yoga.
Their sacred histories tell us that “Rāma, Kṛṣṇa and Christ all worked camatkāras and wondrous deeds.” Rāma Himself entered the path of Dharma and went on winning victory in every quarter through wondrous deeds and camatkāras. We learn from the history of Bhārata that He built a bridge to Laṅkā with monkeys. In keeping with the place, time and circumstances of that day, such a camatkāra, such a wondrous deed, was true for that age. To protect the people from a torrent of heavy rain, Kṛṣṇa lifted a mountain and worked a miracle. But no one ever criticised, saying, ‘Kṛṣṇa did not build a bridge, did He? So Kṛṣṇa is not an Avatāra.’
When Śaṅkarācārya went to a poor woman's house for alms, she had nothing with her, and so she gave him a single gooseberry, it is said. Ancient texts have long told how the Ācārya, seeing it and moved to pity, wondrously brought down a shower of golden gooseberries and put an end to her poverty. Those of the Śaṅkara pīṭhas, too, comment on this wonder especially, and proclaim Śaṅkara's divinity.