Viśvanātha introduces the verse: having already given the example of the openly-known husband-status, Rūpa now states the hidden husband-status — and does so with the words 'yathā vā'.

Among just those girls, only some had the husband-mood toward Kṛṣṇa — not every one of the maidens.

The purport is: as will be shown ahead, of those others — Dhanyā and the rest — only the paramour-mood (upapati-bhāva) arose, not the husband-mood.

This two-foldness among them — some as wives, some as paramours — is understood precisely because the mantra 'kātyāyani mahāmāye…' itself admits two readings.

And that first meaning runs like this: 'O Kātyāyanī, make Nanda the cowherd's son my husband.'

An objection is raised, put in the goddess's own voice: 'By this word kuru (make him), why is the whole power handed to me alone? I, for my part, could only nudge his parents — I would urge the mother toward that end.'

The reply anticipates that doubt. One might say the word should have been 'therefore have it done' or 'give him to me' instead of kuru. Anticipating this, the girl — in distress — addresses 'O great yoginī'. Note that the wording 'tasmāt kāraya' or 'dehi' is left as a suspended alternative (vā), not settled.

Union with him must be brought about quickly, and by you alone — this unpacks why she calls the goddess 'great yoginī', mistress of joining.

Not by the roundabout trouble of working through the parents and others — she wants the goddess herself to do it directly.

The purport: she wants it direct and quick because she cannot bear any delay.

Now he takes up the word 'adhīśvarī' — supreme ruler.

The purport of 'adhīśvarī': in that matter there is nothing you cannot do — for you, supreme ruler, nothing is impossible.

Moreover, by the word 'great māyā' she means: with your illusory power so bewilder my parents that they never once even think of marrying me to any other cowherd.

Some tender-hearted ones among the already-married girls — Rādhā, Candrāvalī and the like — reasoned that the secret of union with Kṛṣṇa's body cannot be known by outsiders. Seeing, at the time of the tryst, the checks of husband, mother-in-law and sister-in-law, and not wanting to be married off to any other cowherd, they fixed the husband-mood on Kṛṣṇa alone at the tryst. So, at the time of worshipping the goddess, each set him up in her own mind as husband — and in them Kṛṣṇa's status is exactly that of husband.

And so, on that reading: 'O goddess, make Nanda the cowherd's son my husband.'

He derives the word 'devī': it means she who shines (dīvyati), or else she who makes (others) sport (devayati). Both derivations are offered; neither is discarded.

The grammatical note: because the root belongs to the graha-class, the affix 'nini' is used — that is how the feminine form 'devī' is derived.

Viśvanātha unpacks the word devī-pati. It splits into 'she is a goddess, and he is a husband.' So the request means: make him the husband whose whole purpose is play — a husband for sport, not for anything else.

He fixes the point: the request is for a husband for play, but not a husband by dharma — that is, not a lawfully, religiously married husband. That is the meaning.

This answers why a play-husband, not a lawful one, is asked for. First: Kṛṣṇa has not yet had his sacred-thread ceremony, so right now he is not fit to be married. Second: we, burning with the highest longing, cannot bear the delay a proper marriage would take. That is the underlying sense.

This unfolds the address 'O Mahāmāyā! O Mahāyoginī!' The prayer is: even if my parents later marry me off to some other gopa, delude that husband and his people, keep me safe from his touch, and unite me — by your power alone — with Kṛṣṇa alone. The two names are invoked exactly for this power: to delude (māyā) and to bring about the union (yoga).

The conclusion follows. Because of Mahāmāyā's help, the man who actually marries me will only imagine himself to be my husband — he will merely think himself the husband, and be nothing more.

Now the second, suspended reading. This one is NOT resolved into the first — it stands alongside it. The meaning 'Kṛṣṇa alone is the husband, and this never falls away' was entertained, each in her own mind, by a different set of girls: the bolder ones, companions of the already-married group led by Śrī Rādhā, whose one aim is union with Kṛṣṇa's body. For THESE girls — because they are already married to others — Kṛṣṇa's relation is precisely that of upapati, a paramour. Viśvanātha says this is to be carefully discerned: the earlier reading (the unmarried girls, Kṛṣṇa as play-husband, s18–s22) and this reading (Rādhā's married group, Kṛṣṇa as paramour) are two distinct meanings, both carried, not collapsed.

One more point. This very meaning — that Kṛṣṇa is husband in play, not by dharma — is what the Lord himself intends too. We can gather this, as the next citation shows.

Here is the proof. At the end of the girls' vow, Kṛṣṇa spoke. Right after 'Go to Vraja, O girls, your wish fulfilled,' he did NOT say 'for I shall become your husband.' Instead he said only: 'with me you will sport these coming nights — the worship of Āryā for which you chaste girls kept this vow.' The pointed choice of words — sporting, not marriage — is why we understand the Lord himself intends the play-husband meaning.