In plain words
What did one bring along, what does one take away, at birth, and then at death? Where does wealth go? Where does one go oneself? Listen, heroic son of Bhārat!
To take the worldly, material life alone as the measure and the main thing, and to waste one's sacred, eternal, true humanness: this is nothing but a futile life!
A small example. In Bhārat we keep hearing the words mother, father, guru, God, in that order, from everyone's lips. What is the inner meaning of this order? The moment a man is born, the one his eyes see is his mother. The mother gives him milk and feeds him, fondles him and looks after him. Such a mother is the very first God. No one but that mother can show him his father. So the mother shows him the father, who, wishing for his progress, will take him to a higher station. Wanting his son's fame and honour to spread through the world, the father builds up hopes of many kinds and shows him a good guru. He who teaches the inner and outer principles, has him practise worldly and scientific knowledge, raises him in many ways to a higher station and after that shows him God: he alone is the guru. The mother showing the father, the father showing the guru, the guru showing God: Bhārat has lived this order from ancient times. So it has followed the order of mother, father, guru, God.
In the same way, our Vedic authority holds that by the principle of these four, Bhakti, Jñāna, Vairāgya and Tattva, Mukti comes to us. Bhakti awakens Jñāna. Jñāna brings Vairāgya. This Vairāgya leads one to recognise the knowledge of Tattva. These four, Bhakti, Jñāna, Vairāgya and Tattva, are the true pillars of the mansion of Mukti. By these four steps alone man is able to reach the abode of Mukti. The Bhāgavatam is a fine example of this. In this Bhāgavatam there are five letters. Bhā-ga-va-ta-mu. The letter bha is the … sign. Through this Bhakti, Jñāna comes to us. Through the sign that is the letter bha, the sign that is the letter ga is taught. The Jñāna that is the letter ga is able to bring one to the Vairāgya that is the letter va.