Love and Its Means Are Mutually Dependent
Narada offers a balanced view: love and the means to love depend upon one another, like a path and the one who walks it.
In Sutra 29, Narada resolves the debate over whether knowledge or love comes first: 'Anyonya-ashrayatvam ity eke' — 'Some say they are mutually dependent.' Love can deepen knowledge, and knowledge can kindle love; the two support and reinforce each other. Rather than ranking them rigidly, Narada acknowledges their living interplay in the devotee's growth. This mature view dissolves a false either/or, recognizing that the spiritual life is an organic whole. It reflects a wisdom found across traditions: that head and heart, understanding and devotion, are not competitors but partners, each correcting and enriching the other on the way to God.
Some say that love and its means are mutually dependent.
The mutual dependence of love and knowledge mirrors the hermeneutic circle in philosophy, where understanding the whole and understanding the parts continually inform and deepen each other.
Narada Bhakti Sutras