Devotion has to be realized in your own experience, though great souls can illumine the path a little for you by their examples. With their help, you can grasp something of the path, but remember that words fail when they approach the Beyond. Maitreyi compared a devotee’s mind to a still lake, that is to say, where all agitation has stopped and the mind becomes inactive, ineffective, and worn out into nothing. Kapilamaharshi, speaking of the same devotion, compares it to a flowing stream. Streams and rivers flow uninterruptedly, without rest toward the sea; so too, from the very moment of birth, the devotee yearns to reach the sea of the grace of the Lord. In the Devi Bhagavatam, it is said that devotion is like the flow of oil from one vessel to another. Sankara characterizes devotion differently in the Sivanandalahari. Like the piece of iron that is drawn toward the magnet, the Jivi is drawn toward and attaches itself firmly to the Lord. Though each interprets it differently, all interpretations are correct, for they are all based on actual experience, which cannot be negated.

-Sri Sathya Sai Baba