In plain words
In man too there are sixteen kalās. There is demonic nature. There is beastly nature. There is humanness. All of them are in man himself. On this sahasrāra cakra there are 16 thousand petals. When the kuṇḍalinī śakti that began from the mūlādhāra reaches the sahasrāra, Śānti settles there. That is why He protected those sixteen thousand. In the worldly story, these sixteen thousand gopīs prayed to Kṛṣṇa. ‘Mothers! Go to your homes and live in safety and well-being,’ He said. Those sixteen thousand gopīs would not agree at all to go to their homes. ‘Swāmī! We have lived all this time in that demon's prison; if we go to our homes now, the people of the world, like crows, will talk of us in all kinds of ways. We cannot bear this blame of the world. You who saved us, You alone must protect us,’ they said. ‘You who saved us from bondage, You alone must care for us,’ they prayed. They are the very sixteen thousand gopīs. In this way Kṛṣṇa went on making known to the world the līlās of God in many ways: in the way of the guṇas, in the worldly way and in the way of knowledge. The spiritual principle, the spiritual meaning, the inner sense. The worldly meanings lie outside. What is outside is reflection of the inner being. They are nothing but their reflections! What happened outwardly is the slaying of the demon Narakāsura. What happened in the inner sense is the rooting out of bad qualities.
Of all bad qualities, Ahaṅkāra and envy are the very worst
Every human being must root out the bad qualities that are in him. Of all bad qualities, Ahaṅkāra and envy are the very worst. Ahaṅkāra pushes any man whatever down in a moment. Envy slips in very slowly and ruins life itself. So we must not let envy into us at all. The slaying of Narakāsura is the story of what takes place to drive out bad qualities such as Ahaṅkāra, envy and show that are in man.