swamiji on Bhakti

Some persons worship God for the sake of obtaining wealth, others
because they want to have a son, and they think themselves Bhâgavatas
(devotees). This is no Bhakti, and they are not true Bhagavatas. When
a Sâdhu comes who professes that he can make gold, they run to him,
and they still consider themselves Bhagavatas. It is not Bhakti if we
worship God with the desire for a son; it is not Bhakti if we worship
with the desire to be rich; it is not Bhakti even if we have a desire
for heaven; it is not Bhakti if a man worships with the desire of
being saved from the tortures of hell. Bhakti is not the outcome of
fear or greediness. He is the true Bhagavata who says, "O God, I do
not want a beautiful wife, I do not want knowledge or salvation. Let
me be born and die hundreds of times. What I want is that I should be
ever engaged in Thy service."

Sayings and utterances. Complete Works, 5:411.

We never die, nor are we ever born. Bodies die, but we never die.

Sayings and utterances. Complete Works, 5:411.

Excerpt from Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda.

The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 3/Lectures from Colombo to Almora/Reply to the Address of Welcome at Paramakudi

The Omnipresent Lord has been hidden through ignorance, and the responsibility is on yourself. You have not to think that you were brought into the world without your choice and left in this most horrible place, but to know that you have yourself manufactured your body bit by bit just as you are doing it this very moment. You yourself eat; nobody eats for you. You assimilate what you eat; no one does it for you. You make blood, and muscles, and body out of the food; nobody does it for you. So you have done all the time. One link in a chain explains the infinite chain. If it is true for one moment that you manufacture your body, it is true for every moment that has been or will come. And all the responsibility of good and evil is on you. This is the great hope. What I have done, that I can undo. And at the same time our religion does not take away from mankind the mercy of the Lord. That is always there. On the other hand, He stands beside this tremendous current of good and evil. He the bondless, the ever-merciful, is always ready to help us to the other shore, for His mercy is great, and it always comes to the pure in heart.