In plain words
But practically it does not come right. A small example. In our homes there are mother, children, father, all of them. But each must go on doing his own work. At home the mother goes to the kitchen and cooks, and does all this. The children too go on doing some household work or other: cleaning the whole house, washing all the vessels and the like. Though they do so much work, when evening comes, ‘Mother! I have swept the whole house, I have put all the things in order. Will you give me some wages?’ the child does not ask. The wife does all the cooking, and ‘I have toiled so much; will you give me some money for this toil?’ she does not ask her husband. The husband goes to the office and works, and after he comes home, ‘I have done this much work, for this family. Will you all give me something?’ he does not ask. What is the reason? Those in the home are one's own. They pour out all their strength for them only because they are one's own in this way. It is only because they are their own that they expect no wages for looking after them. But when you call two labourers and have some work done in the house, by evening they ask, ‘Sir! Give us our wages.’ Because those who work, ask for their wages, take them and go are strangers. Those who do the work sincerely, do it with all their heart as ‘my work’, and do not ask for wages, are one's own.
One who does japa, dhyāna and pūjā craving the fruit is a stranger to God
If one thinks God is one's own, then he who works craving the fruit, saying, ‘I have done this much work, this much japa, so many sādhanas, and God gives me nothing for myself!’, is a stranger. One who does japa and dhyāna craving the fruit, and expects the fruit from God, is a stranger. He is not God's own. One who, saying ‘I am Yours’, bows his head to His command without craving any fruit is His own. To one who did hired labour He gives only as much as was asked. To His own He gives still more, even when they do not ask. If we are to become worthy of God's grace, if we are to taste God's principle of Prema, then when we live as His own, not craving the fruit, bowing our heads to His command, He Himself sees to everything.