Text 19
āmāke ta’ ye ye bhakta bhaje yei bhāve
tāre se se bhāve bhaji, — e mora svabhāve
āmāke — Me; ta’ — certainly; ye ye — whatever; bhakta — devotee; bhaje — worships; yei — which; bhāve — in the mood; tāre — him; se se — that; bhāve — in the mood; bhaji — I reciprocate; e — this; mora — My; svabhāve — in the nature.
“In whatever transcendental mellow My devotee worships Me, I reciprocate with him. That is My natural behavior.
The Lord, by His inherent nature, reveals Himself before His devotees according to their inherent devotional service. The Vṛndāvana pastimes demonstrated that although generally people worship God with reverence, the Lord is more pleased when a devotee thinks of Him as his pet son, personal friend or most dear fiancé and renders service unto Him with such natural affection. The Lord becomes a subordinate object of love in such transcendental relationships. Such pure love of Godhead is unadulterated by any tinge of superfluous nondevotional desires and is not mixed with any sort of fruitive action or empiric philosophical speculation. It is pure and natural love of Godhead, spontaneously aroused in the absolute stage. This devotional service is executed in a favorable atmosphere freed from material affection.