In plain words
So there is no path higher than Prema. It is through this Prema alone that good qualities such as kindness and sympathy grow.
God Is the Guru, the Guru Is God
Embodiments of Prema! You are practising sādhanas of many kinds. God never looks at your sādhanas. God does not ask for your Bhakti at all. He asks only for Prema. A few hours ago Prasad, a member of Our Central Trust, came. He came and, somewhere in the course of talking, said, “Swami, what is the difference between a bhakta and a dāsa?” I told him. My dear! A dāsa is one who takes the body as his support and toils for the pleasure of God. A bhakta is one who thinks of God wherever he may be. The one who thinks of Hari always, at all times and in all places, is the bhakta. The one who has taken refuge, ever regarding it as nothing but service of God, is the dāsa. Śaṅkarācārya had 5 disciples. One of them was very pure of heart. They had all come to learn the śāstras, the Vedas and the Brahma Sūtras. They went on studying logic and grammar. One day Śaṅkarācārya was teaching some point of logic to the disciples. One disciple alone took as his support the thought, “I must do the guru's service” (a dāsa). After bathing at daybreak, taking the guru's clothes, washing them in the Gaṅgā, and bringing them back again in the evening. The disciple was absorbed in the bodily service of the guru. Thinking on the guru's name, he went on making the clothes pure. He did not know. The Gaṅgā's water was swelling up. It came up to his waist, it came up to his neck. The river was rising in flood. Then he raised his head and looked. He had no worry that he might be swept away, that he might die. “I shall fail to do the guru's service! I may not be able to hand the clothes to the guru before evening. I must hand these clothes to the guru. Even if my life goes, it does not matter,” he said. Calling “Gurujī, Gurujī” within himself, he put the clothes on his head and went on, step by step. That sacred feeling itself, as he set down each step, became a lotus of stone.