In plain words
When the mind has put an end to all its impurities and planted the purest of feelings, and the eye of Jñāna has opened, one comes to see the whole universe shining, full, as Brahman.
Without the flower, no green fruit is born on the tree; without the green fruit, no ripe fruit comes; without steadfastness in karma, Bhakti does not come; without Bhakti, can one be filled with Jñāna?
Embodiments of the holy Ātma!
To stay for ever in an ordinary state is no mark of a man who is moving forward. A student does not agree to stay in the same class for ever. Year by year he crosses one class after another and goes on ahead. In the same way, for the sādhaka advancing on the spiritual path, to stay for ever in one state is in no way the right path. It is not good to live for ever on one path alone. Step by step we must climb from Viśiṣṭādvaita to Advaita and strive to understand the higher level, the loftiest principle. With the high state as his very aim, the sādhaka must first of all enter upon the ordinary pūjās and arcanās. As a rule, the people of Bhārata follow this order: worshipping God with flowers, worshipping Him with the sixteen offerings. But there is another path, better than this.
To worship God with good character and good conduct is a special kind of Bhakti. This very Bhakti has also come to be called parā-bhakti. Always worshipping and making offerings with flowers stays only at the most ordinary level. This is good, certainly! But it is not right for us to stay for ever on that same level and lose the higher level. To worship the Lord of all through good qualities, through good conduct, through good thoughts, through good company is a special worship. That is why the worship of the Lord of all with good qualities, good thoughts and good conduct is not the ordinary kind: it is exalted, and it takes part in parā-bhakti, reaching to the high state. This very thing the smṛti has set out under the name ‘guṇa arcana’, and also as the way that asks, ‘By what qualities can the Paramātma be pleased?’
Ahiṃsā prathamaṃ puṣpaṃ, puṣpam indriyanigrahaḥ, sarvabhūtadayā puṣpaṃ, kṣamā puṣpaṃ viśeṣataḥ, śānti puṣpaṃ, tapaḥ puṣpaṃ, dhyāna puṣpaṃ tathaiva ca, satyam aṣṭavidhaṃ puṣpaṃ viṣṇoḥ prītikaraṃ bhavet.
The very first flower is Ahiṃsā, the second flower control of the senses, the third flower compassion for all beings, the fourth flower forbearance, the fifth flower Śānti, the sixth the flower of tapas, the seventh the flower of dhyāna, and the eighth the flower of Satya. Its inner meaning is that when we offer worship with these eight flowers, God will be pleased.
The flowers of nature wither in a while, drop away and fall prey to foul smells. Rather than offer passing worship with such flowers, gain passing fruits and reach a passing state, we must strive for the chance to offer eternal flowers of Satya, pure and lasting, and so reach a goal that stands firm. In our Bhārata many great souls reached the high state only by following ordered ways like these. Ordinary people, unable to see this Satya, keep on worshipping with those flowers alone; then, failing to gain a fruit that is only passing, they fall into despair and hopelessness and give way to discouragement. So, for the sādhaka who longs to reach the level of Satya, the eternal feeling and the holy goal, we must strive to reach the place where these lasting flowers of the qualities are offered.
You must recognise the Satya that, without going to the trouble of searching out worldly flowers for ourselves by the gardenful, by the hillful or by the bazaarful and gathering them in, the flowers of the qualities blossom beautifully in the very Bṛndāvana of our citta. In the very Bṛndāvana of your heart these qualities, which are fragrant flowers, are ever blossoming. They give the good quality called Ānanda.