Sri Ramakrishna

 “Devotion to God may be said to be ‘green’ so long as it doesn’t grow into love of God; but it becomes ‘ripe’ when it has grown into such love. A man with ‘green bhakti cannot assimilate spiritual talk and instruction; but one with ‘ripe’ bhakti can. The image that falls on a photographic plate covered with black film is retained. On the other hand, thousands of images may be refelected on a piece of bare glass, but not one of them is retained. As the object moves away, the glass becomes the same as it was before.”