They were in their spiritual bodies.They passed all their sadhanas in previous lives. They also had their gopi face and form. They took birth from the wombs of gopis. It is all right up to this point. But something was lacking. What was lacking? They were sadhana siddha; not nitya siddha.They had husbands, and there was some love and affection between them. They had some children also. And after that, they heard of and saw Krishna. After their marriage, after they begot their children, they saw Krishna; and then they become so much attached to Him. But still they had some love and affection for their husbands and children.
Anyone who has affection for husband and children, and they have met together, although they may have love for Krishna, they cannot come to Rasa. They cannot serve Krishna. It is rasabhasa - a semblance of rasa and opposed to rasa, so Krishna cannot allow them to come.
They could see Krishna, they could hear His flute, but they could not meet Krishna in Rasa, as the nitya-siddhas easily do. They were running towards Krishna, following the direction from where the flute voice was coming. But when they began to go, their husbands stopped them. Why? Yogamaya did it. She said, "You have children, you will have to burn your motherly mood". We have to give up the conception that, 'I am wife'. We have not to forget it, but we have to burn it. So Yogamaya, by trick, stopped them, and they did as we have discussed. This is a very high class of siddhanta. You should chant, remember, and pray to Krishna, and then you can realize something.
- Bhaktivedanta Narayana Maharaja
