The assembled congregations ask Guru Gobind Singh the art and practice of following religious tenets. The Guru then recounted five ways in which devotees can walk the spiritual path.
Some people practice religion only as a business. The house of worship is run as a business venture, and they seek to earn money and worldly goods from other devotees. The Guru described this as the most base method of practicing religion. The second way is in just following those practices which are pursued by family and friends, much like a copy cat. The actions are thoughtless, and are taken up only to be a conformist. The third common way is to see religion as a trade with God. The devotee wants to achieve material success – money, status – and in return is ready to read scriptures and take up charity. People have unfulfilled desire, and they think that religious practice will help them in achieving it.
Little do they know that more of this will only fan more desires. These common methods are actually rather far from the spiritual side.
The fourth way is when the devotee begins having faith in the teacher, and practices concentration and meditation on the learning imparted. And soon, the fifth way opens. From love for the teacher, there is a dawn of love for all, beyond being happy and sad, poor or rich, or beyond life and death.
In the Dasam Granth, Guru Gobind Singh describes it so:
Of what use is to sit in pretence of meditation – like a crane with his eyes closed.
Taking baths in the seven seas, he will lose this world and the next.
The stench of false pursuits will waste your life.
I speak the Truth – listen to me ye all,
Only he, who is absorbed in True Love, he would realize the Lord.