Bhakti Is Its Own Cause
Narada's deepest view is that love depends on nothing outside itself; it is self-arising, like a king who needs no other authority.
In Sutra 30, Narada states his own conclusion: 'Svayam phala-rupata iti Brahma-kumarah' — bhakti is its own cause and its own fruit, requiring no external means. Just as a king is self-evidently royal and needs no other to confer his sovereignty, divine love is self-validating and self-sustaining. It arises by grace, not by mechanical cause and effect. This points to the mysterious, gracious character of love, which cannot be manufactured by technique alone. Narada thus preserves the gratuity of devotion — that love is finally a gift, dawning in the heart when grace descends, rather than a product wholly within our control.
Bhakti is its own cause and its own fruit.
The self-causing nature of bhakti parallels the theological concept of grace as gratuitous gift — something that cannot be earned by works but is freely given and freely received.
Narada Bhakti Sutras