In plain words
But then they came to believe that it was not good to show this Bhakti as something merely personal. They came to feel that prayers of a collective form were most necessary. They came to think too that each praying for himself, each thinking of God for himself, was selfish. They believed that what is selfish cannot attain the good of others. Among the Christians and among the Muslims too, one person would recite something from a scripture, and then all who had gathered there would recite it after him and follow: that is how it went on. They felt that collective prayers were most necessary. They took up the feeling of Lokāssamastā sukhino bhavantu. They thought too that when they took up this feeling, the country would enjoy well-being. In 1469 Guru Nānak, the guru of the Sikhs, began these collective bhajans. The very first foundation of these bhajans was Guru Nānak. It grew little by little. After that, in 1498, Tyāgarāja went on furnishing it with rāga, tāla and bhāva. From then on, collective bhajans, as they are called, went on starting up within our Bhārata. These bhajans are not merely some kind of karma done to pass the time. They came to recognise that bhajan is that in which the minds of all, the feelings of all, the rāgas of all and the tālas of all become one and demonstrate the unity in the multiplicity that is divinity. All said and done, its inner meaning is that collective bhajans are very fruitful. They are potent. In Bhakti, they gave bhajans a foremost place. These bhajans too must be bhajans filled with Prema. When this first began in the villages, Tyāgarāja said:
Come, you holy souls! Come to the bhajan of Śrī Rāma, you blessed souls! Come, let us all sing bhajans of Kodaṇḍarāma; come, you holy souls! Come to the bhajan of Śrī Rāma, you blessed souls!
He began this song. Come, let us all sing bhajans of Kodaṇḍarāma. He felt that this Kodaṇḍapāṇi could keep Daṇḍapāṇi far away. Daṇḍapāṇi is Yama. Kodaṇḍapāṇi is Rāma. He said that when the Name of Kodaṇḍapāṇi is near, Daṇḍapāṇi cannot come close. With such faith, with such perfect Prema, with divine feeling, bhajans began.
But today it has lost that holiness.