In plain words
The aim of karma, upāsana and Jñāna is one. That itself is the right stairway to divinity and to purity. Through this very karma we have been practising Dharma in many forms. The goal alone we do not set about enquiring into. It is not so now, but in former days the railway department had three kinds of travel facility. This body is now past seventy years, yet I have never had the experience of getting on a train. Many people say that when you sit in a train it sways this way and that. I have a wish to see that. A time will come for that. One: travelling in an ordinary train. You get in at Dharmavaram and mean to reach Hyderabad; but the train you boarded at Dharmavaram may have to be changed at Guntakal. Getting in at one place, getting down at another, unloading your luggage and boarding yet another train: This is a little hard. The second kind is the Through carriage. If you sit in this carriage you need not change. The railway people themselves attach this carriage. Another kind is the Through-Train. This is Jñāna. The Through compartment is Bhakti. The Through train is Jñāna. The first, travel by ordinary train, is the path of karma. On the path of karma some obstacles crop up. On the path of upāsana there are some comforts. On the path of Jñāna there are no troubles at all. What is the reason? It is one single principle. Advaita darśanaṃ jñānaṃ. Upāsana is that which goes along with manyness. Karma-upāsana is that which goes along with difference. The unity within the many is Jñāna. The many within the unity is Bhakti. What shows unity and manyness as different is karma. So karma is the chief thing. Through this very karma we can attain upāsana. Among all these, karma is most important. Without doing karma we cannot do any upāsana at all. Without this upāsana we cannot gain any Jñāna at all. The unity of these three is itself the true principle of the Ātma.
We must not think that karma is one thing, upāsana another and Jñāna another, make all kinds of changes and give room to doubts. What is bound by the body is karma. The root cause of birth is karma. Birth comes to us through karma. So we must first of all bow to this karma. This itself is the teaching of the Upaniṣad: ‘O karma, to you first of all my salutation. For what? Through me, through the body, through these limbs, the hands, the feet and the rest, have good karmas done.