His movements and loving smiles, His playful glances and enchanting talks, and by the many other pastimes He had enjoyed with them. Thus absorbed in thoughts of Kṛṣṇa, the gopīs began acting out His various transcendental pastimes. Because the gopīs were absorbed in thoughts of their beloved Kṛṣṇa, their bodies imitated His way of moving and smiling, His way of beholding them, His speech, and His other distinctive features.
The gopīs asked the creatures in Vṛndāvana forest where they could find Kṛṣṇa. Then, distraught in separation from Him, they began to imitate His pastimes. One gopī imitated Pūtanā, while another acted like infant Kṛṣṇa and pretended to suck her breast. Another gopī, crying in imitation of infant Kṛṣṇa, kicked a gopī who was taking the role of the cart demon. One gopī assumed the role of Tṛṇāvarta and carried away another, who was acting like infant Kṛṣṇa, while yet another gopī crawled about, her ankle bells tinkling as she pulled her feet.
Two gopīs acted like Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma in the midst of several others, who took the role of cowherd boys. One gopī enacted Kṛṣṇa's killing of the demon Vatsāsura, represented by another gopī, and a pair of gopīs acted out the killing of Bakāsura.
When one gopī perfectly imitated how Kṛṣṇa would call the cows who had wandered far away, how He would play His flute, and how He would engage in various sports, the others congratulated her with exclamations of "Well done! Well done!"
Another gopī, her mind fixed on Kṛṣṇa, walked about with her arm resting on the shoulder of a friend and declared, "I am Kṛṣṇa! Just see how gracefully I move!"
"Don't be afraid of the wind and rain," said one gopī. "I will save you." And with that she lifted her shawl above her head, enacting Lord Kṛṣṇa's pastime of lifting Govardhana Hill.
One gopī climbed onto another'sshoulders, and putting her foot on the other's head, said, "Go away from here, O wicked snake! You should know that I have taken birth in this world just to punish the envious."
Then another gopī spoke up: "My dear cowherd boys, look at this raging forest fire! Quickly close your eyes and I will easily protect you."
One gopī bound her slender companion with a flower garland and said, "Now I will bind this boy who has broken the butter pots and stolen the butter." The second gopī then covered her face and beautiful eyes, pretending to be afraid.
When the gopīs were thus imitating Kṛṣṇa's pastimes and asking Vṛndāvana's creepers and trees where Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Soul, might be, they happened to see His footprints in a corner of the forest.