Bhakti Is Greater Than Action, Knowledge, and Yoga
Narada exalts bhakti above the paths of works, knowledge, and meditation, since love alone is its own fruit.
In Sutra 25, Narada makes a bold claim: 'Sa tu karma-jnana-yogebhyo apy adhikatara' — 'But bhakti is greater even than the paths of action, knowledge, and yoga.' The other paths are means to an end, valued for the liberation they bring, but bhakti is both the means and the end, for love is its own reward. The devotee does not love God in order to gain something else; the loving itself is the highest attainment. This places the path of the heart at the summit of spiritual life. The teaching reflects the perennial insight that love alone among human aspirations is sought purely for its own sake, never as a stepping-stone to something further.
Bhakti is greater even than the paths of action, knowledge, and yoga.
Narada's elevation of love above all other paths anticipates Sri Ramakrishna's teaching that in the present age the way of devotion is the simplest and surest road to God-realization.
Narada Bhakti Sutras
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- What is bhakti? Narada's definition of devotion
He ranks love above the paths of works, knowledge and meditation. Other traditions dispute this, and the sutras make the claim without hedging it.