In plain words
Spirituality is rooting out the animality that remains in humanness and turning it into divinity
We keep saying "spirituality, spirituality". What is spirituality? Is doing bhajans spirituality? Is doing pūjās spirituality? Is doing japa spirituality? Is doing dhyāna spirituality? This is not spirituality at all. All these are its limbs. What is the right meaning of spirituality? Destroying the animality in humanness and turning it into divinity: that is spirituality. Today we keep doing japas, dhyānas, yogas, bhajans, all of them. But the animality in us has not lessened at all. In the Kṛta, Tretā and Dvāpara yugas, the wicked appeared as the wicked. Dharmarāja showed himself as Dharmarāja. Śakuni showed himself as Śakuni. Duryodhana behaved as Duryodhana. But in this Kali age the dress is Dharmarāja's, but the deeds are Duryodhana's deeds. That is precisely why a poet said, ‘His name is Dharmarāja, but he does a demon's work.’ We must try to recognise well the nature of the mind. Bhakti and spirituality do not mean this. First of all we must destroy the animality in us. What is this animality? ‘Āhāranidrābhayamaithunāni’: for the animal and for man these four are the same! But ‘Jñānaṃ narāṇāṃ adhikaṃ viśeṣaḥ – jñānaśūnyaḥ paśubhissamānaḥ.’ Because this animality is in us, whatever we do, all of it becomes useless. So first of all we must root out this animality. We must rise from the nature of being human to divinity. That is the mark of true Bhakti! There is no use in putting on disguises. There is no use in using language. We must show it in our deeds. This alone is the sign of true Bhakti!