Text 68
prabhu tāṅra pūjā pāñā hāsite lāgilā
śloka paḍi’ tāṅra bhāva aṅgīkāra kailā
prabhu — the Lord; tāṅra — her; pūjā — worship; pāñā — receiving; hāsite — to smile; lāgilā — began; śloka paḍi’ — reciting one verse; tāṅra — her; bhāva — emotion; aṅgīkāra kailā — accepted.
Being worshiped by Lakṣmī, the Lord began to smile. He recited a verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and thus accepted the emotion she expressed.
The verse quoted in this connection is the twenty-fifth verse of the twenty-second chapter, Tenth Canto, of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. The gopīs worshiped goddess Durgā, or Kātyāyanī, but their inner desire was to get Lord Kṛṣṇa as their husband. Kṛṣṇa, as Paramātmā, could realize the ardent desire of the gopīs, and therefore He enjoyed the pastime of vastra-haraṇa. When the gopīs went to bathe in the river Yamunā, they left their garments on the land and dipped into the water completely naked. Taking this opportunity, Kṛṣṇa stole all their garments and sat down in the top of a tree with them, desiring to see the girls naked just to become their husband. The gopīs desired to have Kṛṣṇa as their husband, and since it is only before her husband that a woman can be naked, to fulfill their desire Lord Kṛṣṇa accepted their prayers by this pastime of stealing their garments. When the gopīs received their garments back from Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa recited this verse.