In plain words
"Viśvaṃ viṣṇumayam," they have said. Viṣṇu means that which teaches all-pervasiveness, which makes known all-knowingness, which shows the One who is all-powerful. The sacred path of making humanness one with this Viṣṇu principle is what is called "Bhakti". Looked at with worldly eyes, Bhakti seems to be the way of loving all.
First of all we must love our mother and father. Next we must love the teachers who give us the unfolding of good qualities and breadth of mind. We must love the country that gave us the sacred human birth. We must have faith in the divine infinity in every human being. Īśāvāsyam idaṃ sarvam: we must have faith in the truth that the Lord is in all. We must love our fellow men. A heart without Prema is a dark house. Into it there is entry for the bats called lust, anger, greed, delusion, pride and envy. A room they have entered is full of filth. In a heart so full of stench, only evil feelings arise. When evil feelings arise, a man becomes wicked and acts so. A wicked man is the same as a beast. So students must, first of all, make Bhakti arise in their hearts.
Bhakti means the principle of Prema that is pure, unmoving and selfless. To join such Prema with Prema is the chief sādhana. From Prema comes śraddhā. From śraddhā comes Jñāna. From Jñāna, sādhana is made firm. The fruit of sādhana is the attainable, the goal. Only when a man develops this principle of Prema does he become fit to behold what is called divinity.
A man without faith is no better than a corpse
Now the third is faith. A man without faith cannot live in this world even for a moment. Faith in what? First of all one must come to have faith in oneself. Only when one has faith in oneself does faith in God grow.