rāja-mārgaṁ gate kṛṣṇe dvārakāyāḥ kula-striyaḥ harmyāṇy āruruhur vipra tad-īkṣaṇa-mahotsavāḥ
Synonyms
rāja-mārgam—the public roads; gate—while passing over; kṛṣṇe—by Lord Krishna; dvārakāyāḥ—of the city of Dwarka; kula-striyaḥ—ladies of the respectable family; harmyāṇi—on the palaces; āruruhuḥ—got up; vipra—oh the Brahmins; tat-īkṣaṇa—just to have a look upon Him (Krishna); mahā-utsavāḥ—accepted as the great festival.
Translation
When Lord Krishna was passsing over the public roads, all the ladies of respectable families at Dwarka got up on the roof of their respective palaces just to have a look upon the Lord which they considered as the greatest festival.
Purport
To have a look upon the Lord is great festival undoubtedly as it was contemplated by the metropolitan ladies of Dwarka,—is still followed by the devout ladies of India. Specially during the days of Jhulan and Janmastami ceremonies the ladies of India still throng up in the greatest number at the temple of the Lord where His transcendetal eternal Form is worshipped. The transcendental Form of the Lord installed in a temple is not-diffierent from the Lord personally. Such Form of the Lord is called Archa-Vigraha or Archa incarnation which is expanded by the Lord by His internal potency just to facilitate the devotional service of His innumerable devotees who are in the material world. The material senses cannot perceive the spritual nature of the Lord and therefore the Lord aecepts such Archa Vigraha apprarently made of the material elements like earth, wood, stone etc. but actually there is no material contamination. The Lord being Kaivalya (one alone there is nothing like matter in Him.) He is one without a second and therefore the Almighty Lord can appear Himself in any Form without being contaminated by material conception. Therefore, festivities in the temple of the Lord as we have it generally, is the same festival as it was performed during the manifestive days of the Lord of Dwarka about five thousands of year before. The authorised Acharayas who know the science perfectly well therefore install such temples of the Lord under regulative principles just to offer facilities to the common man but persons who are less intelligent without being conversant with the particular science, mistake the great attempt as idol worship and unnecessarily poke their nose in the matter in which they have no access. Therefore, the ladies or the man who observe festivals in the temples of the Lord just to have a look en the transcendental Form, are thousand times glorious than those who are unbeliever in the transcendental Form of the Lord.
It appears from the verse that the inhabitants of Dwarka were all owners of big palaces which indicate the prosperity of the city. The ladies got up on the roof just to have a look not only of the procession but also of the Lord. The ladies did not mix-up with the crowd on the street and thus their specific respectability was perfectly observed without any artificial equality with the man. Gravity of the female respectability is preserved more elegantly by keeping her separate from the man than by mixing with them unrestricted.