Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Srimad Bhagavatam 11.12.13

mat-kama ramanam jaram

asvarupa-vido 'balah

brahma mam paramam prapuh

sangac chata-sahasrasah

SYNONYMS

mat -- Me; kamah -- those who desired; ramanam -- a charming lover; jaram -- the lover of another's wife; asvarupa-vidah -- not knowing My actual situation; abalah -- women; brahma -- the Absolute; mam -- Me; paramam -- supreme; prapuh -- they achieved; sangat -- by association; sata-sahasrasah -- by hundreds of thousands.

TRANSLATION

All those hundreds of thousands of gopis, understanding Me to be their most charming lover and ardently desiring Me in that way, were unaware of My actual position. Yet by intimately associating with Me, the gopis attained Me, the Supreme Absolute Truth.

PURPORT

The words asvarupa-vidah ("not understanding My actual position or form") indicate that the lovely gopis were so completely absorbed in conjugal love for Lord Krishna that they were not aware of the Lord's unlimited potencies as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura explains this and other meanings of the word asvarupa-vidah. In Sanskrit the word vid also means "to acquire." Thus, asvarupa-vidah indicates that the gopis, like other pure devotees of the Lord, were not interested in achieving sarupya-mukti, the liberation of acquiring a bodily form similar to the Lord's. Were the gopis to obtain a bodily form like the Lord's, how could the Lord execute His conjugal pastimes of dancing with the gopis and embracing them? Since the gopis had realized their eternal spiritual forms as servitors of the Lord, the word svarupa also may indicate their own spiritual bodies, and thus asvarupa-vidah means that the gopis never thought, as materialists do, of their own bodily beauty. Although the gopis 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 Krishna. Although we cannot imitate the gopi's exalted conjugal feelings, we can follow their superb example of practical Krishna consciousness. They naturally took shelter of Lord Krishna and achieved the highest perfection of life.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder Acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness
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Gopiparanadhana dasa Adhikari
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