In plain words
God alone is the Lord of the eight petals in the heart-lotus of every man
They say that besides His aṣṭa mahiṣīs (the eight chief queens), Śrī Kṛṣṇa had sixteen thousand gopīs as wives. What is the inner meaning of this? These are not worldly wives. In the human body there are six cakras. Among these six cakras, the sahasrāra cakra and the heart cakra are the most important. They compare the human heart to an eight-petalled lotus. That is, these eight petals are the eight queens! Another name for these eight petals is the eight earths. The Lord of this earth is God. Prakṛti and Paramātma. The Master of Prakṛti is the Paramātma. The Lord of these eight petals is God. So, since the heart-lotus has eight petals, eight earths, its Lord is God. The heart is the most important and most vital part of the body. God alone is the Lord of the eight petals in the heart-lotus of every man. They called Him alone ‘Mādhava’. ‘Mā’ has the meanings Lakṣmī, Māyā and Prakṛti. ‘Dhava’ means Lord. ‘Mādhava’ means the Lord of the heart. The Lord of the earth. The Lord of Māyā. The Lord of Lakṣmī: these are its meanings. That is why the Lord of the heart with its eight petals is Śrī Kṛṣṇa, who is God.
Then there is the sahasrāra, the last cakra. It has a thousand petals. This itself they called “sahasra śīrṣā puruṣaḥ, sahasrākṣaḥ sahasrapāt”. In each petal, too, God is full with the sixteen kalās. Since each petal has sixteen kalās, they come to sixteen thousand. These are the 16,000 gopīs. What are the gopīs? The petals themselves! ‘Go’ has the meanings sound, speech and life-breath. He Himself is the Lord of these thousand life-breaths too. That is why they said Kṛṣṇa had sixteen thousand gopīs. Today no one tries to recognise the sacred, subtle meaning in the Bhāgavata. ‘If even Kṛṣṇa had sixteen thousand, why shouldn't I have at least sixteen?’ This kind of thinking is starting even in children. This is not the important thing. The sixteen kalās must blossom in us. Only when we obey God's command will those sixteen kalās shine out in us in full radiance.