In plain words
However great a man's power of intellect may be, people cannot attain Divinity by intellect, by clever arguments or by the śāstras. For all this, Bhakti alone is the root. 'Pray to God with Bhakti, and He will surely appear before you,' Sanatkumāra taught.
In people today, cleverness and intellect are running beyond all bounds. By such cleverness, by such intellect or by learning, they cannot attain God at all. God is won only by a Bhakti and surrender that are pure, steady and selfless. Only perfect Prema wins God. So what we have to develop today is perfect Bhakti. To remember God only in times of trouble and sorrow, and to forget God in times of happiness, joy and comfort: that is not our Bhakti and surrender. 'Yad bhāvaṃ tad bhavati': with whatever heart we pray to God, with whatever feeling we think of God, that very result comes to us. There is also the fruit that goes by our karma. Power comes to us according to our Bhakti. To make our effort in Part time Bhakti and to long for Full time Prema: this cannot be. Apart from You alone I know no other: in this way, thinking of that Divinity, of God, at all times and in every state, we must come to the state where we dedicate everything to God, for His pleasure.
Today we perform yajñas, yāgas and other rites. What is the inner meaning of this? It is this: we reach the goal, God who fills all places, through one karma and another, by one path and another. For this Bhakti there are nine paths.
Śravaṇaṃ kīrtanaṃ viṣṇosmaraṇaṃ pādasevanaṃ arcanaṃ vandanaṃ dāsyaṃ sakhyamātmanivedanaṃ.
When we practise any one of these many paths with full faith and full Prema, we shall surely be able to see the shining Divinity. We shall be able to experience it. So, to attain Divinity, Prema alone is the chief, royal road. That is not to say that sacred books need not be read. Books may be read. You may listen to the good words of elders. But there is no use in merely reading, in merely listening. Only when you put one or two of them into practice do they bear fruit. But in the humanness of today a strange disorder is growing in many ways. Above all, Ahaṅkāra and pride are going far beyond their bounds. As long as this thing called Ahaṅkāra is there, the vision of the Ātma will never come to us at all. Ahaṅkāra must be rooted out. We must take care not to let envy come near. Seeing the happiness of others and the comfort of others, many people suffer a great deal.