mat-kÄmÄ ramaṇaá¹ jÄram
asvarÅ«pa-vido 'balÄḥ
brahma mÄá¹ paramaá¹ prÄpuḥ
saá¹…gÄc chata-sahasraÅ›aḥ
mat - Me; kÄmÄḥ - those who desired; ramaṇam - a charming lover; jÄram - the lover of another's wife; asvarÅ«pa-vidaḥ - not knowing My actual situation; abalÄḥ - women; brahma - the Absolute; mÄm - Me; paramam - supreme; prÄpuḥ - they achieved; saá¹…gÄt - by association; Å›ata-sahasraÅ›aḥ - by hundreds of thousands.
The words asvarÅ«pa-vidaḥ (“not understanding My actual position or formâ€) indicate that the lovely gopÄ«s were so completely absorbed in conjugal love for Lord Kṛṣṇa that they were not aware of the Lord’s unlimited potencies as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. ÅšrÄ«la ViÅ›vanÄtha CakravartÄ« ṬhÄkura explains this and other meanings of the word asvarÅ«pa-vidaḥ. In Sanskrit the word vid also means “to acquire.†Thus, asvarÅ«pa-vidaḥ indicates that the gopÄ«s, like other pure devotees of the Lord, were not interested in achieving sÄrÅ«pya-mukti, the liberation of acquiring a bodily form similar to the Lord’s. Were the gopÄ«s to obtain a bodily form like the Lord’s, how could the Lord execute His conjugal pastimes of dancing with the gopÄ«s and embracing them? Since the gopÄ«s had realized their eternal spiritual forms as servitors of the Lord, the word svarÅ«pa also may indicate their own spiritual bodies, and thus asvarÅ«pa-vidaḥ means that the gopÄ«s never thought, as materialists do, of their own bodily beauty. Although the gopÄ«s are the most beautiful girls in the Lord’s creation, they never thought of their own bodies but rather were always meditating on the transcendental body of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Although we cannot imitate the gopī’s exalted conjugal feelings, we can follow their superb example of practical Kṛṣṇa consciousness. They naturally took shelter of Lord Kṛṣṇa and achieved the highest perfection of life.