Supreme Love Is Not Mere Desire
Narada is careful to distinguish para bhakti from ordinary desire, for true love seeks nothing in return for itself.
In Sutra 7, Narada clarifies: 'Sa na kamayamana, nirodha-rupatvat' — 'That love is not of the nature of desire, because it is of the nature of renunciation.' Worldly love is bound up with craving and the wish to possess, but divine love is rooted in self-surrender rather than self-gratification. The lover wants only to give, to serve, to belong to the Beloved, expecting nothing back. This purity distinguishes para bhakti from the lower forms of attachment that masquerade as love. Narada thereby anticipates a deep ethical insight: that the highest love is precisely the love that has been emptied of self-interest, finding its fullness in giving rather than getting.
That love is not of the nature of desire, for it is of the nature of renunciation.
Philosophers of love distinguish eros (desiring love) from agape (self-giving love); Narada's para bhakti clearly belongs to the latter, though it retains eros's passion and longing.
Narada Bhakti Sutras
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- What the Narada Bhakti Sutras say about desire
Narada's distinction is structural rather than a matter of degree. Wanting reaches out to take something; love, as he defines it, is made of letting go.