In plain words
The Bhāgavatam is nothing other than the seeking of the oneness of jīva and Brahman. The Gopīs were not people of worldly feelings. They taught that the state in which two things become one is the divine presence, the treasure, sāyujya.
In some further subtle words Kṛṣṇa went on showing His divinity. The Gopīs all came to Yaśodā, to complain:
As we cowherd women went together to sell buttermilk, He made holes in our pots, demanding a toll: ask Him, mother, ask Him!
Then Yaśodā, catching hold of Kṛṣṇa:
As the cowherd women went together to sell buttermilk, you made holes in their pots, demanding a toll, they say! Kṛṣṇa! Give up your mischief, Kṛṣṇa!
To this, Kṛṣṇa answered:
Some god or other struck them and went; not knowing, they put it on Me. What fault of Mine is there in this? Tell Me, mother! Tell Me!
That is, so subtly did He say that He Himself was God. All is He Himself! God, too, is He Himself!
In everything, in even the smallest matters, the Bhāgavatam has shown so much divinity. Neither the Gopīs nor the cowherd boys were people who came together with merely worldly feelings. They were people full of divine feeling. That divinity had been arising in them from generation to generation. That is true Prema. Prema that seeks no fruit, that alone is Prema. To love for the sake of some fruit is not true Prema. The whole Bhāgavatam is full of Prema, not anurāga.