Narada Bhakti Sutras

The Lover Is Content, Wanting Nothing

Narada teaches that one who has attained divine love is utterly content, freed from the endless craving that drives the world.

Having attained supreme love, the devotee is fully satisfied and craves nothing further, for they have found the source of all that the heart was ever truly seeking (Narada Bhakti Sutra 5). The countless desires that drive ordinary life are revealed as fragmentary searches for the one beloved; once the beloved is found, the searching ends. This contentment is not apathy but fullness — the peace of a heart that has come home. Narada describes the lover as one who, possessing the All, is indifferent to the lesser gains over which the world strives. The teaching offers release from the tyranny of endless wanting. The one who has the ocean no longer thirsts after drops.

Having gained which, a person desires nothing more and is wholly content.

Narada, Narada Bhakti Sutras, Sutra 5

The resolution of all desires in the one beloved recalls Augustine's restless heart that finds no peace until it rests in God, a striking convergence between the bhakti and Christian contemplative traditions.

Narada Bhakti Sutras