In plain words
It does not go back into the milk it came from. Cut it into pieces, and still it stays just as it is; it does not merge. So it is from this Advaita that this butter called Viśiṣṭādvaita came. When this butter called Viśiṣṭādvaita has gathered, the buttermilk called Dvaita is left over. So butter and buttermilk, both came from the milk itself. So the milk is Advaita. The butter is Viśiṣṭādvaita. The buttermilk is Dvaita. All of them come together to the one goal. You must recognise this clearly. You are setting off by train in the holidays. One has taken a 1st class ticket. One has taken a second class ticket. One has taken a third class ticket. But the one who took the 3rd class ticket has no seat to sit on, and he is having a very hard time. The second class ticket holder has found some place. The 1st class ticket man is nice and comfortable. How long does all this comfort and discomfort last? Only as long as the travel lasts. The station is one and the same. On this journey we have to bear some hardship. But this journey is our life. Hardships, losses, sorrows, worries: all of them keep coming. This hardship came to me because of this ticket. Had I taken a first class ticket, this hardship would not have come to me, would it! This 1st class is God's grace. So how does God's grace come? Only if we do sādhana does that grace come. Only when you give the money for the ticket does he give you the ticket, is it not? If we go to some shop and fling some five rupees in his face, he flings a handkerchief in ours. Only by giving something can we get something else. Without giving up one thing, we cannot get the second. Only when we give up bad qualities can we take hold of good qualities. Only if we give up unrest can we attain Śānti.
Another example. Now, what our journeys are like: the path of karma, the path of upāsanā, the path of Jñāna. What it is like is this. We are travelling by train. We have boarded at Bangalore, meaning to go to Bombay. If we board an ordinary train, we must change trains at Guntakal. We must take all our luggage and change trains. We must catch another train. We have to go through all this trouble. On the path of karma. The path of karma is ordinary train travel. And the path of Bhakti, what is it like? A through carriage. Along the way they attach this carriage to another train. But we need not change. But we must get a seat in the through carriage. He himself takes the through carriage and couples it to another. That is the path of Bhakti. The through train: that is the path of Jñāna. The through carriage is the path of Bhakti. Ordinary train travel is the path of karma.
So in all three, Jñāna, Bhakti and karma, the goal we reach is one and the same. But on the way we have to bear some hardships. We have to face some troubles.