Hare Kṛṣṇa,
In his purport to the bhajan Hari Hari Biphale, Srila Prabhupada writes, “Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura says, golokera prema-dhana, hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana. This Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, saṅkīrtana movement, is nothing material. It is directly imported from the spiritual kingdom known as Goloka Vṛndāvana. So golokera prema-dhana. And it is not ordinary song. It is just the treasure of love of Godhead.”
I am unable to find exact reference, but I have heard that the Hare Krsna maha mantra appeared in the rāsa dance of Kṛṣṇa and the gopīs. This can also be derived from the below commentary by Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakur, “When Kṛṣṇa sang the word sunda, a gopi would reply singing the word sundara instead of sunda. When Kṛṣṇa sang the word kānte some gopi would sing kānta. In this way Kṛṣṇa’s girlfriends sang along with Him. Kṛṣṇa’s Vaijayanti garland is made from five different colored flowers, since the word vaijayantīṁ means “five colors.” (Sārārtha-darśini, SB 10.29.44)
If we replace the word kānte with Hare and kānta with Krsna, we get the couplet ‘Hare Krsna’. When this couplet is exchanged between Krsna and the gopīs eight times, it forms 16 words of the Hare Krsna maha-mantra.
This is just my realization. I could be wrong but it’s possible.
Now coming to the realization about pride. I do not think the pride of the gopīs is any material pride. This is because, as we have studied in the previous verses of this chapter, whatever little material impurity was left in some of the gopīs have been cleansed by the separation caused by Yogamāyā. Therefore, there is no possibility for the gopis to have any material pride.
This pride is also another play of Yogamāyā.
Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura explains, “The following situation was manifested by Kṛṣṇa’s līlā-śakti for the purpose of enhancing the sacred rapture in accordance with the logic presented in Bharata Muni’s Nāṭyaśāstra: “Just as one cannot redden cloth or some other object without the use of red dye, in the same way the happiness of conjugal love (sambhogaḥ) cannot reach its fullness without the experience of separation (vipralambhena).” (Sārārtha-darśini, SB 10.29.47)
Yogamāyā instilled some transcendental pride in the gopis. Each felt proud because no one else in the world had attained a hero like Krsna, and no gopīon the bank of the Yamuna had attained such great fortune as themselves.
“After having obtained the respect of Kṛṣṇa, the original form of the Personality of Godhead, who is the best among all men, and because of being able to enjoy intimately with Him, each gopi became proud thinking, “I am the most fortunate woman on the surface of the earth.” (Sārārtha-darśini, SB 10.29.47)
Srila Jiva Gosvami also explains in his Laghu Vaisnava Tosani commentary, “Pride is the sancari-bhava of the sthayi-bhava, their special prema (madhura-rasa). It sustains and gives excellence to rasa.”
This is the special lila enacted by Yogamāyā to produce some separation and to give the gopis the highest rasa. Separation produces the highest prema. It will be explained later in Chapter 32
nāhaṁ tu sakhyo bhajato ’pi jantūn
bhajāmy amīṣām anuvṛtti-vṛttaye
yathādhano labdha-dhane vinaṣṭe
tac-cintayānyan nibhṛto na veda
“But the reason I do not immediately reciprocate the affection of living beings even when they worship Me, O gopīs, is that I want to intensify their loving devotion. They then become like a poor man who has gained some wealth and then lost it, and who thus becomes so anxious about it that he can think of nothing else.”
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Krsna Katha 