In plain words
Embodiments of Prema! The spiritual principle is not only going to temples, going on pilgrimages, worshipping God, thinking of God and the like. These are merely good deeds. They are worth doing, but we must do service with purity of heart. Truly, we must regard this service as service to God. Today, wherever we look, people appear as leaders, but nowhere do they appear as servants. Today Bhārat has lost the spirit of the servant. It is craning its neck for leadership. One cannot become a leader without being a servant. The very leader who is no servant does the world so much harm today. First we must be servants. In service alone come honour, prestige and joy. So every … who is a child of God must try to do as much service as he can. With such sacred feelings we must try to make our humanness worthwhile. We are doing bhajan. We are doing pūjās. We are doing dhyāna. We are doing japa. All these are good deeds! What is the fruit of these karmas? Only to rid oneself of the impurity that has entered one and enveloped one. Through these karmas the impurity goes, but God's grace is not gained at all. All good deeds are only for removing our impurities.
After that, we must strive for God's grace. God is within oneself. God is not separate. Only because we forget God do we try to recognise humanness alone. A fine example. There is a fire. Because we neglect that fire, ash comes from it and covers the fire. Nimuru means ash. That ash has covered it. So we cannot see the fire. Where is the fire? It is right inside it. If we blow away that ash, the fire can be seen. In the same way, Divinity is within us. Merely because we neglect it and fail to think of God, Prakṛti, which is Māyā, the ash that is desire, settles over it there. Where did that Māyā come from? It came from the fire itself. It did not come from somewhere apart. It came from the fire itself and covered the fire. If, through good deeds and through service, we make the proper effort with it and carry out our duty, that dust goes away. When the ash has gone, the fire shows itself naturally. You are the embodiment of the Ātma itself. Only delusion, coming from you, covers you.