In plain words
Vedānta has gone on teaching nine kinds of paths.
Listening, singing of Viṣṇu, remembering Him, serving His feet, worship, salutation, service, friendship and the offering of oneself.
All of them were laid down as certain paths, as roads to reach the goal. What is the fruit all these karmas give us? All these sādhanas do not give Mokṣa. They bring about cittaśuddhi alone, nothing more. Cittasyaśuddhaye karmaḥ. Through karma only cittaśuddhi comes about. Beyond that, these karmas have no power to give Mokṣa. However many yajñas, yāgas and kratus one performs, these make one journey only as far as heaven. Kṣīṇe puṇye martyalokaṃ viśanti. When this merit wears away, one has to come back again to the world of men. None of these can give freedom from birth. Then why should we do karmas? Without cittaśuddhi we do not gain Jñāna-siddhi. Without Jñāna-siddhi the attainment of Mokṣa does not come to us. Through karmas, cittaśuddhi; through cittaśuddhi, Jñāna. Jñānādevatu kaivalyam. By Jñāna, Kaivalya is gained.
Though we ourselves are this Ānanda, we cannot recognise this Ānanda for ourselves. Ānanda is not somewhere else. There is no Ānanda at all in objects. There is no Ānanda at all in persons. These give only a passing joy. It cannot be called Ānanda. It is santoṣa. Toṣa means giving. What is it? Saṃ (some): that which gives a little. There is a great deal of difference between santoṣa and Ānanda. Ānanda is bound up with the heart. Santoṣa lives in the head. The head is only responsibility. The heart is right. See how much difference there is between a right and a responsibility. For a right you must always fight. Responsibility: you who hold a job may sit in the office until you retire. This is responsibility. This lasts until you retire. After he retires, even if a bomb falls on that office, it is nothing to him. But the heart is not like that. There is right. As long as life lasts, this right stands with its due authority. Once we gain this Ānanda, it does not go again. There are three things in this world. One thing, once gone, does not come back. The second, once come, does not go. The third does not come. It does not go. Once come, it does not go: that is Jñāna. Once gone, it does not come back: that is Ajñāna; it does not go, does not come: that is Brahman. An Ānanda that suffers no loss in our humanness is within us alone. A joy that goes does not come back. A sorrow that has come does not go back.