If you want to be a devotee, you must surrender completely to the Lord.  Mere reading of scriptures is of no avail. One can experience joy only as a result of action.  To have devotion, there is no restriction on caste, creed or gender.  For the Lord's mission, the kinship with Him is attained only on account of devotion.  Of what use is it to have status, wealth and character without loving devotion to the Lord?  Like the cloud that does not bear rain, but wanders in the sky, people without devotion are at the mercy of the winds, irrespective of their caste or wealth, power and fame they possess.

-Divine Discourse, Prema Vahini .

True Happiness is Union with God. - Baba