Devotion Is Its Own Reward
Narada teaches that supreme love seeks nothing beyond itself; the fruit of bhakti is bhakti, and the lover desires no other gain.
Having attained that supreme love, the devotee desires nothing else, grieves over nothing, hates nothing, delights in nothing else, and exerts for no selfish end (Narada Bhakti Sutra 5). Narada is emphatic that para bhakti is not a means to some further reward such as heaven, power, or even liberation; it is itself the highest attainment. The lover loves for the sake of love, and in that loving finds complete fulfillment. This distinguishes the bhakti path from transactional religion that bargains with the Divine for favors. The glory of devotion is precisely that it transcends all motive of gain. The activity pursued for its own sake yields a fulfillment that no external reward can match.
Having attained which, one desires nothing else, grieves over nothing, hates nothing, and rejoices over nothing.
The insistence that love is its own end parallels the contemplative Christian distinction between loving God for His gifts and loving God for Himself, a theme central to Bernard of Clairvaux's treatise On Loving God.
Narada Bhakti Sutras