One has to master the mind, and this can be accomplished by observing spiritual rites and performing various forms of sacrifice. The ultimate goal of all of these practices is to achieve devotional service to the Lord. Without devotional service, no one can know the Sovereign Person.
Logos 152
The Lord says: “Once you are freed from the concept of material and ethereal bodies, and your senses are free from all influence of the gunas, the attributes of material nature, you will have, in my presence, the realization of your pure form. Then you will evolve to the level of pure consciousness”.
The science of God teaches that a person whose sole desire is to serve the Lord with absolute love is a liberated being regardless of the conditions to which material existence subjects him. This attitude of service corresponds to the real form of the individual being, distinct from God. In truth, the real, spiritual form of the distinct being is to be an eternal servant of the Supreme Lord. In the spiritual world, the service offered to the Lord is based on absolute love. There is no way to compare absolute love service to forced service in this world. In the material world, even the one who seems to be no one's servant must at least serve his senses under the dictation of the gunas. In fact, no one is master in this world, and all those who serve their senses have a very bad experience of “service”; because it’s more like bondage. So they tremble at the thought of having to serve, because they know nothing of the spiritual condition.
In absolute love service, the servant is as free as the master. The latter is perfectly independent, and in the spiritual world the servant also enjoys this quality of perfect independence, because there is no forced service there. Absolute service is born only from spontaneous love. A pale reflection of such a quality of service is found in that which a mother offers to her child, which a friend gives to his friend, or the wife to her husband. Indeed, these three forms of service are not imposed, but aroused only by love. But let us understand well that in this material world, even the service offered with love is only a distorted reflection of that which we find in the spiritual world, in contact with the Lord, and which is real service, service linked to the love of each being. This same service, imbued with spiritual love, can be performed here with devotion.
Serving God with love and devotion allows one to be aware of being a spiritual soul or spiritual entity, and not the body of matter.