In plain words
Merely reading books, merely listening to discourses, is of no use.
‘Is a hungry man's hunger appeased by hearing how a feast of five delicacies is cooked? Does a pauper's poverty go by merely hearing of the power of wealth? Look: is all the darkness on earth destroyed by news of a lamp?’
Today everyone is a Vedāntin, everyone a reader of books! Everyone a devotee! But nowhere is its effect seen in practice. This is not merely a magic of words. We must become heroes in action. However much he speaks of the things of God, the one who does not practise is a traitor to God. When we believe in divinity, we must regard every task as divine and pledge ourselves to carry it out. What God wants is pure Prema and selfless service. If you offer these two to God, everything will come to you. Through the Sathya Sai Seva Organisations, people are doing a great deal of building work in many states. Further, we must give more of our time to service, and with zeal. We must not spend our life, which passes in a moment, on name and fame.