In plain words
For whom are you doing tapas, for what are you doing it? You are doing tapas for your own wishes. Tapas is worthwhile only when you recognise God's wish. You must recognise the principle of God and act by it. To bless the devotee, God sometimes acts as though He were asking for something. God asked Kucela. He went to Śabarī and asked her: "I am hungry, give me something to eat." Did she give Him diamonds, did she give Him wealth, did she give Him anything else? She offered Rāma two jujube fruits. Kṛṣṇa went to the Gopīs. "I am hungry, I am hungry," He said. "Alas! There is nothing in the house; what can I give?" she said. He asked her to give Him that watery buttermilk. She poured it into a glass and gave it. He drank it and was delighted. Draupadī was in the forest, enduring every hardship, unable to bear her suffering and living on leaves and roots; Kṛṣṇa went to her and said, "I am hungry, I am hungry." "Kṛṣṇa! Do You think I am in Hastināpura? I am living in the forest. What can I bring and give You for Your hunger?" said Draupadī. "Let it be anything; give Me just what you eat. See whether a single grain of rice is sticking in that cooking pot," said Kṛṣṇa. A leaf was sticking to the pot. Draupadī brought the leaf and said, "Offered to God." By that trifling thing the hunger of God, whose form is infinite, was satisfied.
To You, who hold the whole cosmos in Your belly, is it fitting to offer food and delicacies? To You, who move in all the waters, is it possible to give a bath?
In what way can one satisfy God? What does God, who is everywhere, expect? He expects you to make your life worthwhile; He has no wishes of His own at all. God's nature is only to give, always; He has no nature of taking. When you place your life in the hands of such a God, God Himself keeps it at play in every way. Little children play with kites. The kite flies in the sky. But he keeps the string held in his own hand. In the same way, even though we let our life roam in this world, the life-force at least we must place in God's hands.