1. Previously, I have given the explanation of the "Devotion of Remembering God’s Name." Now, listen to the fourth type of devotion, "Serving the Feet of the Guru."
2. Understand that serving the feet of the Guru is to serve the True Master (Sadguru) with body, speech, and mind with the aim of Self-Realization.
3. What is meant by serving the feet of the Sadguru is to be one with him, and to step out of the troubles associated with the birth and death cycle.
4. Without the Sadguru’s blessings (teaching), there is no other remedy for escaping the miseries of the world. For this reason, one should serve the feet of the Sadguru as soon as possible in life.
5. The Sadguru points to what is true and provokes the thought of discrimination between the True and the false. He inspires the inner determination with which one realizes Parabrahman, the Absolute Reality.
6. "That" which cannot be seen with the eyes, and which does not appear to the mind, cannot be experienced without renouncing all attachments.
7. When one says "I have the experience," detachment is not possible, and when one is detached, there is no "I" that has the experience. This statement is understood only by one who is experienced, for others it is but a source of confusion.
8. Detachment, self-surrender, being beyond body-consciousness, aloneness, the natural state, no-mind, and Supreme Knowledge, are given seven different names, but they are the same.
9. Terms such as these, as well as other statements and indications become clear by serving the feet of and being one with the Guru.
10 The Vedas, the essence of the Vedas, Vedanta, the "accomplished one" (the Siddha), the inner meaning of the final doctrine of accomplishment (siddhanta), the indescribable, actual experience, and the Truth, are one thing.
11. Most of the various aspects of experience are understood by keeping the company of the saints. However, with this fourth type of devotion, "That" which is hidden becomes evident.
12. What is not seen is revealed, what is hidden becomes apparent, and That which is beyond appearance and non-appearance comes to be known only by taking the path shown by the Sadguru.
13. The initial steps on the inner path are indicated by saying that everything that is seen is not the Self, and as one makes progress in this, it is understood that the Self cannot actually be seen or pointed out.
14. One must become the Reality that one gives their attention to and looks for, and is That which is meditated upon in meditation. This is verified in three ways. (Verification from scriptures, the teaching of the Guru, and in one's own experience).
15. The doors of experience are opened by understanding how to utilize the investigation into what is True and what is false. Only in the company of saints can the true answer come to be known directly.
16. When one sees the Truth, the false disappears. When seeing the false, the Truth is not seen. Whether one sees the True or the false depends upon the one observing.
17. When the seer and the seeing are realized to be one with the seen, one's pervasiveness is realized and One is content.
18. There are many means of contentment which are gained through the Sadguru. Without the Sadguru it is not possible to take the correct path by any means.
19. Even by utilizing many experiments, spiritual practices and efforts, or hard work and studying holy texts, one cannot come to know the secret knowledge that can only be acquired from the Sadguru.
20. How can That which cannot be learned by studying, and which is unattainable through practice, be realized without the Sadguru?
21. For this reason, to truly understand the path of Knowledge (Jnana), one must keep the company of saints. One cannot speak of the possibility of understanding without them.
22. Serving the feet of the Guru is known as the fourth type of devotion which has now been briefly explained here.
23. God, the knowers of Brahman, and those with true Self-experience, are the truly free and worthy of praise. One should hold them in high regard.
24. All of this practical talk is being given for one's protection in worldly affairs, but what is really important is the service to the feet of the Sadguru.
25. "Serving the Feet of the Sadguru" is the fourth type of devotion. It gives freedom in all the three worlds, and gives the disciple liberation of merger with the Self.
26. Because of this fourth type of devotion, one becomes greater than the greatest, and with it many people have been able to cross beyond the world to the other shore.