In plain words
The roots that cannot be seen are the support of this tree. When you pour water at the roots, the tree grows richly. You are looking at this building. How fine the pillars are! How lovely the hall is! Look at the foundation. First of all. Without a foundation, how would these pillars stand? Without roots, how does a tree stand? In the same way, if the outer is to be, the Divinity called the inner feeling must be there. Only when you pour water at those roots does the tree come to growth. If, because the flowers and fruits are in the tree, you keep pouring water on the flowers and fruits, even those that are there fall off. No, no; you must pour water at the roots that cannot be seen.
The Veda taught equality and oneness
Students! For everything, the seer stays unseen. But on the day your Bhakti and prapatti grow, then even what is beyond the senses becomes manifest. Tyāgarāja said: ‘Where shall I search for You, O Rāma! Where shall I search! Where am I to search? Where am I to search, asking where You are?’ As he said this: have no doubt that He is here and not there. As he went into the river Kāverī and took up water to offer the sandhyā, Rāma gave him darśan in his cupped hands! Then Tyāgarāja rejoiced. ‘How much am I to plead, O Rāghava (how much must I plead), Rāma, protect me; Rāma, with Prema; O Delight of the worlds, protect me.’ He prayed in ever so many ways. In that prayer lies the whole of life. That prayer is not something that comes merely from the lips. It must come from the heart. Whatever man develops a heart of Prema, there God becomes manifest. A small matter. A matter you know. Some people say ‘my dear sisters and brothers’. My view is: do not use ‘my’, do not use ‘dear’; say ‘sisters and brothers’. It is pleasant. Now, in the dealings of the world, if you say ‘my dear sister’ it goes badly astray. You must not say ‘My dear sister’, it is very wrong; say ‘sisters and brothers’, say ‘my sisters and brothers’. It is respectful. Not only that; some elders too say ‘sai devotees’, ‘sai family’. It is very wrong; all are one family! Why should you use ‘Sai’?