Text 18
bhagavān āhatā vīkṣya
śuddha-bhāva-prasāditaḥ
skandhe nidhāya vāsāṁsi
prītaḥ provāca sa-smitam
bhagavān — the Supreme Lord; āhatāḥ — struck; vīkṣya — seeing; śuddha — pure; bhāva — by their loving affection; prasāditaḥ — satisfied; skandhe — upon His shoulder; nidhāya — placing; vāsāṁsi — their garments; prītaḥ — lovingly; provāca — spoke; sa-smitam — while smiling.
When the Supreme Lord saw how the gopīs were struck with embarrassment, He was satisfied by their pure loving affection. Putting their clothes on His shoulder, the Lord smiled and spoke to them with affection.
Śrīla Prabhupāda comments: “[The gopīs’] simple presentation was so pure that Lord Kṛṣṇa immediately became pleased with them. All the unmarried gopīs who prayed to Kātyāyanī to have Kṛṣṇa as their husband were thus satisfied. A woman cannot be naked before any male except her husband. The unmarried gopīs desired Kṛṣṇa as their husband, and He fulfilled their desire in this way.”
For aristocratic girls like the gopīs, standing naked before a young boy was worse than death, and yet they decided to give up everything for the pleasure of Lord Kṛṣṇa. He wanted to see the power of their love for Him, and He was completely satisfied by their unalloyed devotion.