In plain words
However much water flows in the Gaṅgā, you get only as much as your vessel holds, is it not so! So to recognise divinity you must first make wide the vessel that is the heart. You cannot recognise divinity through pūjās, through vratas, through japa, tapas and dhyāna. All these are good works. You will get the fruit that fits them. But this is not spirituality. The link with the Ātma is itself the true spirituality. If you leave that aside and do japa or tapas: these are passing things, so from them you gain only passing results. The Ātma alone is Satya and eternal. Only when you remember that Ātma do results come to you that are true and eternal.
Bhajans must give Ānanda to all
You sing bhajans; you change so many rāgas, but are you changing your feelings at all? Within, the nature of a beast; without, the remembrance of the Name: what are such bhajans for?! Only when the feeling changes does singing bhajans bear fruit. The bhajans you sing join only with the outer rāga and tāla, not with the heart. Sing such bhajans for any number of years, and the fruit you get is only what a tape recorder gets. So those who sing bhajans must first change their feelings. Wicked feelings must go far away, and holy feelings must come in. Many people take part in a bhajan. So those who lead must keep the gathering, the time and the occasion in mind and sing songs that give Ānanda to all. If instead you say, “I shall sing only the songs I like,” then why sing such songs at all?! This is selfishness, selfishness, selfishness! Those who sing for their own sake should sit in their own room and sing to themselves, not in public. It is not enough for those who lead the bhajan to look only to their own liking and to their own śruti, laya and rāga. They must consider: “So many thousands are here! Will my song fill all their hearts with Ānanda?” Guru Nānak began congregational bhajan. All must join together and sing with one feeling. But if you go on singing as you please, just to suit yourself, for whom are you singing? You are singing for yourself alone, not for God.
Paramātma is won by Prema alone
Prema is the divine power that is the very breath of life to every good deed. Without it, what use is singing? What use is doing? What use is seeing? What use is speaking? God yields to Prema alone. Kabīrdās too, “Rāma! I cannot do japa and dhyāna; I cannot perform yajñas and yāgas. But I do have the cord of Prema that can bind You. That is enough!” he said. A heart without Prema is like a desert. That is why the Gopīs said:
“In the deserts that know no Prema, so that shoots of Prema may grow, so that, in a surge of Prema, a rain of Prema's nectar may fall, so that rivers of Prema may flow, play the music of Your flute, Kṛṣṇa! Play Your music, will You not!”
“Draw out the whole essence of the Vedas and turn it into Nāda-Brahman, pour it again into the flute and turn it into the form of song; sing, Kṛṣṇa! Speak so that every word drips honey; talk to us, Mukunda, till our hearts are content.”