Geetha says: Shraddhavan labhate jnanam (The persevering seeker secures wisdom). This means that without perseverance and earnestness, no success can be achieved. You must develop interest and devote attention to the path shown by elders and to the knowledge taught by scriptures. You must pay heed to what the elders say. If you have no earnestness (shraddha) you cannot achieve anything, despite your worldly qualifications. Despite ages of evolution and considerable progress in scientific knowledge, people are unable to make significant progress towards the Divine because of absence of strenuous striving in the spiritual sphere. Study of the scriptures and reciting God's names may be good acts in themselves. But if there is no love for God from within, which is the basis of all sadhana (spiritual discipline), any amount of recitation, listening or reading of scriptures are of no use.

- Divine Discourse, Feb 5, 1984.