The Gift of Bhakti

Listen, my friend, while I tell you
  about the greatness of bhakti
  as explained by the Saints.
Know that this is the very path of the Masters …
Without bhakti all are hollow, without substance,
  like a husk without the seed.
Hold fast to bhakti, O ignorant one,
  and give up all your ‘wise’ pursuits.
Call it devotion, adoration or love;
  the three differ in name, not in form or essence.

Understand that Gurmat means bhakti and love,
  and that every other path is a contrivance of the mind.
Love is the essence of God and soul,
  and true Nam is the real form of bhakti.
Bhakti and the Lord are one and the same,
  and the true Master is the real form of love.
In fact, your own real form is also love,
  so you may accept all beings to be of the same essence.
But you might discern one difference:
  while some are drops, others are waves of that love.
In some it appears as a sea of light
  while in others it is called the fountainhead of all love.

Desire defeats one person
  while maya dominates another.
But there comes a stage where maya is diminished,
  dissolved in the Ocean and purified by its grace.
At the Source there is no maya at all,
  only love prevails there – nothing but love.
It is the great treasure house of love,
  it has no beginning, no end.
No one except a Saint has access there –
  only a true Master makes it his home.

Such is the value of love and devotion,
  you should secure this wellspring of nectar.
First offer your devotion to the Master,
  then receive from him the mark of Nam.
Go on singing his praises, please the Guru
  and obtain from him the treasure of love.
Listen to what Radha Soami says –
  you have received the gift of bhakti.

_{Bachan 12, Shabd 1
  Sar Bachan Poetry}