Reciprocation (CC)

Expressions researched:
"reciprocal" |"reciprocally" |"reciprocate" |"reciprocated" |"reciprocates" |"reciprocating" |"reciprocation" |"reciprocations" |"reciprocator" |"reciprocators" |"reciprocatory" |"reciprocity"

CC Preface and Introduction

CC Introduction:

The son demands, and the father and mother supply, and in supplying Kṛṣṇa the devotee becomes like a father or mother. Instead of taking from God, we give to God. It was in this relationship that Kṛṣṇa's mother, Yaśodā, told the Lord, “Here, eat this or You’ll die. Eat nicely.” In this way Kṛṣṇa, although the proprietor of everything, depends on the mercy of His devotee. This is a uniquely high level of friendship, in which the devotee actually believes himself to be the father or mother of Kṛṣṇa.

However, Lord Caitanya's greatest gift was His teaching that Kṛṣṇa can be treated as one's lover. In this relationship the Lord becomes so much attached to His devotee that He expresses His inability to reciprocate.

CC Adi-lila

CC Adi 1.19, Purport:

The Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavas who follow strictly in the line of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu worship the Divinity by chanting transcendental sounds meant to develop a sense of one's transcendental relationship with the Supreme Lord, a reciprocation of mellows (rasas) of mutual affection, and, ultimately, the achievement of the desired success in loving service.

CC Adi 1.56, Purport:

The reciprocation between friends is called sakhya, the affection of a parent for a child is known as vātsalya, and the affairs of conjugal love constitute mādhurya.

CC Adi 3 Summary:

The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, after displaying His pastimes as Lord Kṛṣṇa, thought it wise to make His advent in the form of a devotee to explain personally the transcendental mellows of reciprocal service and love exchanged between Himself and His servants, friends, parents and fiancīes.

CC Adi 3.11, Purport:

Śānta-rasa is not given much importance because as soon as there is a slight understanding between the knower and the known, active loving transcendental reciprocations and exchanges begin.

CC Adi 4 Summary:

In this chapter of the epic Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī has stressed that Lord Caitanya appeared for three principal purposes of His own. The first purpose was to relish the position of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī, who is the prime reciprocator of transcendental love of Śrī Kṛṣṇa.

CC Adi 4.15-16, Purport:

During the period of Lord Kṛṣṇa's appearance, the killing of asuras or nonbelievers such as Kaṁsa and Jarāsandha was done by Viṣṇu, who was within the person of Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Such apparent killing by Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa took place as a matter of course and was an incidental activity for Him. But the real purpose of Lord Kṛṣṇa's appearance was to stage a dramatic performance of His transcendental pastimes at Vrajabhūmi, thus exhibiting the highest limit of transcendental mellow in the exchanges of reciprocal love between the living entity and the Supreme Lord. These reciprocal exchanges of mellows are called rāga-bhakti, or devotional service to the Lord in transcendental rapture. Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa wants to make known to all the conditioned souls that He is more attracted by rāga-bhakti than vidhi-bhakti, or devotional service under scheduled regulations.

CC Adi 4.15-16, Purport:

It is said in the Vedas (Taittirīya Up. 2.7), raso vai saḥ: the Absolute Truth is the reservoir for all kinds of reciprocal exchanges of loving sentiments.

CC Adi 4.19, Translation:

“In whatever transcendental mellow My devotee worships Me, I reciprocate with him. That is My natural behavior.

CC Adi 4.26, Purport:

According to the Upaniṣads, all living entities are dependent on the supreme living entity, the Personality of Godhead. As it is said (Kaṭha Up. 2.2.13), nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām eko bahūnāṁ yo vidadhāti kāmān: one eternal living entity supports all the other eternal living entities. Because the Supreme Personality of Godhead maintains all the other living entities, they remain subordinate to the Lord, even when joined with Him in the reciprocation of loving affairs.

CC Adi 4.30, Purport:

Those under the spell of the material energy cannot at all appreciate the activities of yogamāyā, for a conditioned soul can hardly understand the pure reciprocation between the Lord and His devotee.

CC Adi 4.34, Purport:

The Lord appears in different incarnations—as a fish, tortoise and boar, as Paraśurāma, Lord Rāma, Buddha and so on—to reciprocate the different appreciations of living entities in different stages of evolution.

CC Adi 4.50, Purport:

Of the four kinds of reciprocation of loving service—dāsya, sakhya, vātsalya and mādhurya—mādhurya is considered the fullest.

CC Adi 4.60, Purport:

Devotional service is reciprocation between two, and therefore it cannot be located simply within one's self.

CC Adi 4.60, Purport:

When the pleasure potency of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is exhibited by His grace in the person of a devotee, that manifestation is called love of God. "Love of God" is an epithet for the pleasure potency of the Lord. Therefore devotional service reciprocated between the Lord and His devotee is an exhibition of the transcendental pleasure potency of the Lord.

CC Adi 4.62, Purport:

The pastimes and manifestations of the Lord in the material world are therefore not at all material; they belong to the pure transcendental state. The Bhagavad-gītā confirms that anyone who understands the transcendental nature of the Lord's appearance, activities and disappearance becomes eligible for freedom from material bondage upon quitting the present material tabernacle. He can enter the spiritual kingdom to associate with the Supreme Personality of Godhead and reciprocate the hlādinī potency in transactions between him and the Lord.

CC Adi 4.81, Purport:

The personal associates of Rādhārāṇī, the damsels of Vraja, are direct expansions of Her body. As expansions of Her personal form and transcendental disposition, they are agents of different reciprocations of love in the pastimes of Lord Kṛṣṇa, under the supreme direction of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī.

CC Adi 4.135, Translation and Purport:

"If sometime I can be the abode of that love, only then may I taste its joy."

Viṣaya and āśraya are two very significant words relating to the reciprocation between Kṛṣṇa and His devotee.

CC Adi 4.177, Translation:

Lord Kṛṣṇa has a promise from before to reciprocate with His devotees according to the way they worship Him.

CC Adi 4.178, Translation and Purport:

"In whatever way My devotees surrender unto Me, I reward them accordingly. Everyone follows My path in all respects, O son of Pṛthā."

Kṛṣṇa was never ungrateful to the gopīs, for as He declares to Arjuna in this verse from the Bhagavad-gītā (4.11), He reciprocates with His devotees in proportion to the transcendental loving service they render unto Him.

CC Adi 5.35, Purport:

Even if one is attracted by Godhead in the mode of material lust, such attraction is converted into spiritual love of Godhead by His grace. Similarly, if one is related to the Lord in fear and animosity, he also becomes purified by the spiritual attraction of the Lord. Although God is great and the living entity small, they are spiritual individuals, and therefore as soon as there is a reciprocal exchange by the living entity's free will, at once the great spiritual being attracts the small living entity, thus freeing him from all material bondage.

CC Adi 5.58, Purport:

The body is generated from activity, and activity is generated from the body, just as a tree is generated from a seed that is generated from a tree. This reciprocal cause and effect is called māyā. My dear Lord, You can save me from this cycle of cause and effect. I worship Your lotus feet.”

CC Adi 7.145, Translation:

“The Supreme Lord, who is greater than the greatest, becomes submissive to even a very insignificant devotee because of his devotional service. It is the beautiful and exalted nature of devotional service that the infinite Lord becomes submissive to the infinitesimal living entity because of it. In reciprocal devotional activities with the Lord, the devotee actually enjoys the transcendental mellow of devotional service.

CC Madhya-lila

CC Madhya 4.95, Purport:

The more a devotee sincerely loves Kṛṣṇa, the more Kṛṣṇa reciprocates, so much so that a highly advanced devotee can talk with Kṛṣṇa face to face.

CC Madhya 8.92, Translation:

“In Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.32.22) it is said that Lord Kṛṣṇa cannot proportionately reciprocate devotional service in the mādhurya-rasa; therefore He always remains a debtor to such devotees.

CC Madhya 11.187, Purport:

The servant pleasingly renders service unto the Lord, and the Lord also very pleasingly reciprocates, rendering even more service unto the servant.

CC Madhya 11.189, Translation and Purport:

The Lord said, "I wish to touch you just to be purified, for your purified activities do not exist in Me."

This is an example of the reciprocation of feelings between master and servant.

CC Madhya 23.99, Translation:

“The exchange between Kṛṣṇa and different devotees situated in different transcendental mellows is not to be experienced by nondevotees. Advanced devotees can understand and appreciate the different varieties of devotional service reciprocated with the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

CC Antya-lila

CC Antya 1.197, Purport:

"To those who are constantly devoted to serving Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me." Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu bestowed His special favor upon Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī because Rūpa Gosvāmī wanted to serve the Lord to the best of his ability. Such is the reciprocation between the devotee and the Lord in the discharge of devotional duties.