In plain words
We can only call these good karmas. Spiritually, it is to conquer the animal nature in man. Not only that: to go from humanness to divinity is spirituality.
But today we put on the mask of spirituality and go on many pilgrimages and do good karmas. But in all this, are we conquering, as its fruit, the beastliness, the animal nature? That is the Satya we must inquire into; we read many Vedas, Śāstras, Itihāsas and Purāṇas. We go round many holy places on pilgrimage. We bathe in many sacred waters. We have the darśan of many great souls. But how far are we conquering the animal nature in us? Man makes no effort at all to inquire into this; we must recognise today the Satya that, without inquiring into this Satya, however many sādhanas we do, they are of no use. However many years go by, however many kinds of sādhana we do, the animal nature in us only grows day by day; we make no attempt at all to bring it under control. Greed, Ahaṅkāra, envy: animal traits such as these vices we go on making stronger still. How then is our spirituality growing? What then is the use of our making so many pilgrimages to holy places? Even when they go to God's side, they seek only wealth. But they do not seek compassion and Prema.
We dedicate our life only to the value of these vanishing, impermanent, worldly objects. We are unable to recognise that this is a world that follows the dominance of tamoguṇa. We are unable to recognise that the jīva principle itself is the path by which the journey to the upward course must be made. However long we live in this Prakṛti bound up with tamoguṇa, we cannot win what is sāttvic. So the guru who teaches this principle of the one Ātma, this Satya, is the true guru.
Here gurus are of many kinds. To make known a mantra, teach the meaning of the mantra and tell one to practise it with steadfastness: such a one is called the dīkṣā guru. The dīkṣā guru's duty is only to impart the mantra and nothing more. A mantra's power that cannot rein in the senses in this machine called the body is of no use. We can only recite all these mantras like gramophone plates, like tape records; we can only recognise the power of the mantra; in practice they stay empty. Then the second path: the guru who makes known the rites and methods of worshipping many deities. He is the śāsana guru. We may also call him the bodha guru. This teaching can reach as far as the head, but it cannot be carried to the heart. In these teachings multiplicity alone grows, while the state of recognising oneness is lost. It takes a path beyond the dualist path of ‘Īśvara is separate, the jīva is separate, Prakṛti is separate’. That this Īśvara, jīva and Prakṛti, all three, are only reflections of matter, and that the real Ātma alone is one: what makes this Satya known is not seen in these bodha gurus.