nāyaḿ śriyo 'ńga u nitānta-rateḥ prasādaḥ
svar-yoṣitāḿ nalina-gandha-rucāḿ kuto 'nyāḥ
rāsotsave 'sya bhuja-daṇḍa-gṛhīta-kaṇṭha-
labdhāśiṣāḿ ya udagād vraja-vallabhīnām
na -- not; ayam -- this; sriyah -- of the goddess of fortune; ange -- on the chest; u -- alas; nitanta-rateh -- who is very intimately related; prasadah -- the favor; svah -- of the heavenly planets; yoshitam -- of women; nalina -- of the lotus flower; gandha -- having the aroma; rucam -- and bodily luster; kutah -- much less; anyah -- others; rasa-utsave -- in the festival of the rasa dance; asya -- of Lord Sri Krishna; bhuja-danda -- by the arms; grihita -- embraced; kantha -- their necks; labdha-asisham -- who achieved such a blessing; yah -- which; udagat -- became manifest; vraja-vallabhinam -- of the beautiful gopis, the transcendental girls of Vrajabhumi.
When Lord Sri Krishna was dancing with the gopis in the rasa-lila, the gopis were embraced by the arms of the Lord. This transcendental favor was never bestowed upon the goddess of fortune or other consorts in the spiritual world. Indeed, never was such a thing even imagined by the most beautiful girls in the heavenly planets, whose bodily luster and aroma resemble the lotus flower. And what to speak of worldly women who are very beautiful according to material estimation?
The word meanings and translation for this verse are taken from Srila Prabhupada's English rendering of Caitanya-caritamrita (Madhya 8.80).
Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti comments as follows: Lord Krishna, the best of all avataras, exists on the highest platform of purity and morality, and thus He always remained praiseworthy by all, even while accepting worldly criticism for His cow-tending, wandering in the forest, taking meals with young monkeys, stealing yogurt, seducing other men's wives, and so on. Similarly, the gopis, who are constituted of the Lord's pleasure potency, achieved the highest standard of purity and auspiciousness, even in comparison to the goddesses of fortune, and thus the gopis are supremely glorious, even though they were criticized by worldly people because they were mere cowherd women living in the forest and behaving in an apparently improper way.
