Devanagari
विष्णोर्माया भगवती यया सम्मोहितं जगत्
आदिष्टा प्रभुणांशेन कार्यार्थे सम्भविष्यति ॥ २५ ॥
Verse text
viṣṇor māyā bhagavatī
yayā sammohitaṁ jagat
ādiṣṭā prabhuṇāṁśena
kāryārthe sambhaviṣyati
Synonyms
viṣṇoḥ māyā
—
the potency of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Viṣṇu
;
bhagavatī
—
as good as Bhagavān and therefore known as Bhagavatī
;
yayā
—
by whom
;
sammohitam
—
captivated
;
jagat
—
all the worlds, both material and spiritual
;
ādiṣṭā
—
being ordered
;
prabhuṇā
—
by the master
;
aṁśena
—
with her different potential factors
;
kārya
—
arthe — for executing business
;
sambhaviṣyati
—
would also appear .
Translation
The potency of the Lord, known as viṣṇu-māyā, who is as good as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, will also appear with Lord Kṛṣṇa. This potency, acting in different capacities, captivates all the worlds, both material and spiritual. At the request of her master, she will appear with her different potencies in order to execute the work of the Lord.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
The potency of the Lord, known as viṣṇu-māyā, who is as good as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, will also appear with Lord Kṛṣṇa. This potency, acting in different capacities, captivates all the worlds, both material and spiritual. At the request of her master, she will appear with her different potencies in order to execute the work of the Lord.
KB 10.1.25
They were also informed that Viṣṇu's external potency, Māyā, with whom all the conditioned souls are enamored, would also appear by the order of the Supreme Lord, just to execute His purpose.
Purport
Parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate
(
Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad
6.8). In the
Vedas
it is said that the potencies of the Supreme Personality of Godhead are called by different names, such as
yoga-māyā
and
mahā-māyā.
Ultimately, however, the Lord’s potency is one, exactly as electric potency is one although it can act both to cool and to heat. The Lord’s potency acts in both the spiritual and material worlds. In the spiritual world the Lord’s potency works as
yoga-māyā,
and in the material world the same potency works as
mahā-māyā,
exactly as electricity works in both a heater and a cooler. In the material world, this potency, working as
mahā-māyā,
acts upon the conditioned souls to deprive them more and more of devotional service. It is said,
yayā sammohito jīva ātmānaṁ tri-guṇātmakam.
In the material world the conditioned soul thinks of himself as a product of
tri-guṇa,
the three modes of material nature. This is the bodily conception of life. Because of associating with the three
guṇas
of the material potency, everyone identifies himself with his body. Someone is thinking he is a
brāhmaṇa,
someone a
kṣatriya,
and someone a
vaiśya
or
śūdra.
Actually, however, one is neither a
brāhmaṇa,
a
kṣatriya,
a
vaiśya
nor a
śūdra;
one is part and parcel of the Supreme Lord (
mamaivāṁśaḥ
), but because of being covered by the material energy,
mahā-māyā,
one identifies himself in these different ways. When the conditioned soul becomes liberated, however, he thinks himself an eternal servant of Kṛṣṇa.
Jīvera ‘svarūpa’ haya-kṛṣṇera ‘nitya-dāsa
.
’
When he comes to that position, the same potency, acting as
yoga-māyā,
increasingly helps him become purified and devote his energy to the service of the Lord.
In either case, whether the soul is conditioned or liberated, the Lord is supreme. As stated in
Bhagavad-gītā
(9.10)
,
mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram:
it is by the order of the Supreme Personality of Godhead that the material energy,
mahā-māyā,
works upon the conditioned soul.
prakṛteḥ kriyamāṇāni
guṇaiḥ karmāṇi sarvaśaḥ
ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā
kartāham iti manyate
“The bewildered spirit soul, under the influence of the three modes of material nature, thinks himself to be the doer of activities which are in actuality carried out by nature.” (
Bg. 3.27
) Within conditioned life, no one has freedom, but because one is bewildered, being subject to the rule of
mahā-māyā,
one foolishly thinks himself independent (
ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā kartāham iti manyate
). But when the conditioned soul becomes liberated by executing devotional service, he is given a greater and greater chance to relish a relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead in different transcendental statuses, such as
dāsya-rasa, sakhya-rasa, vātsalya-rasa
and
mādhurya-rasa.
Thus the Lord’s potency,
viṣṇu-māyā,
has two features:
āvaraṇikā
and
unmukha.
When the Lord appeared, His potency came with Him and acted in different ways. She acted as Yoga-māyā with Yaśodā, Devakī and other intimate relations of the Lord, and she acted in a different way with Kaṁsa, Śālva and other
asuras.
By the order of Lord Kṛṣṇa, His potency Yoga-māyā came with Him and exhibited different activities according to the time and circumstances (
kāryārthe sambhaviṣyati
). Yoga-māyā acted differently to execute different purposes desired by the Lord. As confirmed in
Bhagavad-gītā
(9.13)
,
mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ.
The
mahātmās,
who fully surrender to the lotus feet of the Lord, are directed by Yoga-māyā, whereas the
durātmās,
those who are devoid of devotional service, are directed by Mahā-māyā.
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
In order to charm the eternal devotees and bewilder the enemies like Kamsa, he gave orders to Yogamaya and Mayadevi. Here the word visnor maya refers to both energies of the Lord but elsewhere in Bhagavatam it is stated that he gave orders to yoga maya. Being ordered by the Lord, yogamaya, along with her expansion, the external energy (amsena), which bewilders the world, will appear. Or the meaning youga maya will appear with mahamaya, by which the spiritual and material worlds are bewildered. That maya is an expansion of yogamaya is stated in the sruti vidya conversation in Narada Pancaratra. "Yogamaya, who is the svarupa sakti of Visnu, knowledge of whom bestows instant attainment of the Lord, who is unswerving in devotion to the Lord, surrendered completely to the Lord, whose nature is prema, rules over Gokula like a queen. By her mercy very easily one can attain the Lord. Her avarika sakti is Mahamaya, the controller of the material realm. By her influence all the jivas identify with their bodies and become bewildered." Another name of this Durga is eka, or ekanamsa.
They will appear for the purpose of activities. (karyarthe) There are two types of activities: those of yoga maya and those of maya. It was Yogamaya who took the seventh child from Devaki’s womb, came to the prison where Krsna was born and put Yasoda into deep sleep to exchange the children. These are activities of Yogamaya, not Mahamaya. Mahamaya does not have the power to transfer her master Balarama to another womb. Yasoda’s sleep is not the work of mahamaya because the scriptures say: beyond the fourth state of consciousness is the fifth state of prema. This is the state of dreaming of the associates of Hari. Their sleep and dreaming do not arise through the modes of nature. Maha maya cannot extend her power to the eternal devotees of the Lord.
The form of Devaki’s daughter to be killed by Kamsa was mahamaya, not yogamaya. Yoga maya does not involve herself with such sinful people. Mahamaya slipped from Kamsa’s hands and rose up in the sky, settled in many places with many names. She herself said: I will be born from the womb of Yasoda in Nanda’s house in the twenty eighth yuga cycle at the end of vaivasvata manvantara. As the dweller of the vindya mountains, I will kill your evil companions. "
The bewilderment of the husbands and mothers-in-law of the married gopis in performing the rasa lila is an action of yogamaya , not maya, because the husbands are not unfavorable towards the Lord or atheistic. If they were under the influence of maya, then one would certainly observe in them hostility towards the Lord. In the first verse at the beginning of the description of the rasa lila, the words " yogamayam upasrita" are used. On the other hand, demons like Duryodhana and Salva, though they see the Lord’s visvarupa and Garuda, they never give respect to the Lord. They think he is one of the wicked Yadavas. This is the action of maya, not yogamaya, because one can see in their actions hostility to the Lord. Bewilderment of those hostile to the Lord is the action of maya and bewilderment of the devotee is the action of yogamaya. When Yasoda saw Krsna’s visvarupa in his mouth, , and when Nanda saw Krsna in Varunaloka, because of their extreme affection as parents, though they saw reverential aspects of the Lord, they were completely unaffected by it. This is neither the action of yogamaya, nor maya. It is the nature of prema itself.
This prema covers up knowledge of the Lord’s powers, and with the ropes of spiritual possessiveness, binds up Krsna in their hearts more and more. With this increase in affection for the Lord, prema drowns the devotees completely in the great ocean of relishing the sweetness of Krsna. To convey this unique quality of prema, the tantra says: "Krsna spread his vaisnavi maya in the form of parental affection." Extreme affection for a son is the unique quality of vatsalya prema.
In this verse yoga maya is referred to as "maya" since it shares the quality of spreading illusion with mahamaya.
Purport (Jiva Goswami)
Māyā is the śakti of Bhagavān who pervades the universe (viṣṇoḥ). She is called bhagavatī because she is endowed with all powers. She is then shown as bhagavatī by describing her specific actions. She bewilders the world. This function is completely different from the cic-cakti. She will appear completely by the will of the Lord. Without the Lord’s will, she is unable to bewilder Yaśodā and others. Because bewildering Yaśodā is most confidential, that is not stated directly here: she appears for certain activities (kāryārthe). “We devatās are your unlimited order-carriers and will appear to please the Lord. Yaśodā is completely independent. How can māyā bewilder her?” She has been directly ordered by Kṛṣṇa, her master. “You have said she bewilders the world. When she takes birth she will bewilder us also.” She will act as an aṁśa, following Kṛṣṇa’s will. She will bewilder according to his desire alone.