In2-MeC

Auckland, New Zealand
2 December 2003

What is Yogamaya?

His wonderful creative power, yogamaya, cannot be easily understood even by the masters of yoga. (SB 3. 16. 37)

My dear Lord, You alone create the universes. O Personality of Godhead, desiring to create these universes, You create them, maintain them and again wind them up by Your own energies, which are under the control of Your second energy, called yogamaya, just as a spider creates a cobweb by its own energy and again winds it up. (SB 3. 21. 19)

Sri Devahuti said: My dear husband, O best of brahmanas, I know that you have achieved perfection and are the master of all the infallible mystic powers because you are under the protection of yogamaya, the transcendental nature. (SB 3. 23. 10)

In this verse the word mayaya means "by your causeless mercy. " The Mayavadi philosophers explain the word maya as meaning "illusion" or "falseness. " However, there is another meaning of maya--that is, "causeless mercy. " There are two kinds of maya--yogamaya and mahamaya. Mahamaya is an expansion of yogamaya, and both these mayas are different expressions of the Lord's internal potencies. As stated in Bhagavad-gita, the Lord appears through His internal potencies (atma-mayaya). (SB 4. 16. 2p)

The stage of self-realization is called yoga-nidra. All material activities appear to be a dream when one is spiritually awakened. Thus yoga-nidra may be explained to be Yogamaya. (SB 10. 2. 15p)

The potency of the Lord, known as visnu-maya, who is as good as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, will also appear with Lord Krishna. 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. (SB 10. 1. 25)

Yoga-nidra (divine sleep) is spoken of as ecstatic trance which is of the nature of the bliss of the true subjective personality. The above- mentioned Ramadevi is yoga-nidra in the form of Yogamaya. (BS 12p)

All these arts manifesting their own eternal forms are ever visible in the region of Goloka as the ingredients of rasa; and, in the mundane sphere, they have been unstintedly exhibited in the pastimes of Vraja by the spiritual (cit) potency. Yogamaya. So Sri Rupa says, sadanantaih. . . santi tah, ie. , Krishna is ever manifest in His beauty with His infinite pastimes in Goloka. Sometimes the variant manifestation of those pastimes becomes visible on the mundane plane. Sri Hari, the Supreme Lord, also manifests His pastimes of birth, etc. , accompanied by all His paraphernalia. The divine sportive potency fills the hearts of His paraphernalia with appropriate spiritual sentiments in conform&711;ity with the will of Krishna. Those pastimes that manifest themselveson the mundane plane, are His visible pastimes. All those very pastimes exist in their nonvisible form in Goloka beyond the ken of mundane knowledge. In His visible pastimes Krishna sojourns in Gokula, Mathura and Dvaraka. Those pastimes that are nonvisible in those three places, are visible in their spiritual sites of Vrindavana. From the conclusions just stated it is clear that there is no distinction between the visible and nonvisible pastimes. The apostle Jiva Gosvami in his commentary on this sloka as well as in the gloss of Ujjvala-nilamani and in Krsna-sandarbha remarks that "the visible pastimes of Krishna are the creation of His cit (spiritual) potency. (BS 37p)

Those sixty-four arts that have been enumerated above, do in reality exist unstintedly only in Goloka. Unwholesomeness, insignificance, grossness are found in those arts in accordance with the degree of self-realization on the part of aspirants after the knowledge of the Absolute. According to Srila Rupa and Srila Sanatana all those pastimes, that have been visible in Gokula, exist in all purity and free from all tinge of limitation in Goloka. So transcendental autocratic paramourship also exists in Goloka in inconceivable purity. Judged by the same standard and reasoning, all manifestations by the cit potency, Yogamaya, are pure. So, as the above paramourship is the creation of Yogamaya, it is necessarily free from all contamination, and appertains to the absolute reality. (BS 37p)

In the spiritual world, there is another energy, the superior spiritual energy, or internal energy, which acts under the direction of yogamaya. Yogamaya is the internal potency of the Supreme Lord; she also works under the Lord's direction, but she works in the spiritual world. When the living entity puts himself under the direction of yogamaya instead of mahamaya, he gradually becomes a devotee of Krishna. Yet those who are after material opulence and material happiness place themselves under the care of the material energy, mahamaya, or under the care of material demigods like Lord Siva and others. In Srimad Bha&317;gavatam it is found that when the gopis of Vrindavana desired Krishna as their husband, they prayed to the spiritual energy, yogamaya, for the fulfillment of their desire. In the Sapta-sati it is found that King Suratha and a merchant named Samadhi worshiped mahamaya for material opulence. Thus one should not mistakenly equalize yogamaya and mahamaya. (TLC, "The Transcendental Pastimes of Radha and Krsna")

The Lord sometimes took the part of goddess Durga, Lakshmi [the goddess of fortune] or the chief potency, Yogamaya. Sitting on a cot, He delivered love of Godhead to all the devotees present. (Cc Adi 17. 242)

Yogamaya is the spiritual or internal energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Those who are interested in being promoted to the spiritual world and engaging in the service of the Lord attain spiritual perfection under the control of yogamaya. (Cc Mad 8. 90p)

Subhadra is yogamaya. The spiritual energy is called yogamaya. And she has 16 different expansions. Out of these 16 expansions, Subhadra is one. The mahamaya of the material energy is also expansion of the energy of yogamaya; and both yogamaya and mahamaya are equally important to Krishna as much as any government department is equally important for functioning of the government. The police department may be horrible for the criminals, but to the government it is a department as good as university department. Similarly, mahamaya is horrible to the conditioned soul, but to the liberated soul, there is no fear of mahamaya, because he is protected by yogamaya. It is stated in the Bhagavad-gita when Krishna said the following: "I am not visible to everyone on account of being curtained by yogamaya. " So when a conditioned soul surrenders unto Krishna, the yogamaya winds up the curtain and Krishna is visible to the devotee. (Letter to Madhusudan, 29 July 1968)

Regarding your questions:

Your first question, "Are great sages put under yogamaya or maya? Also are all the eternally liberated souls under yogamaya?"

Yogamaya means the mercy of the Supreme Lord which connects a devotee in the transcendental loving service of the Lord, and mahamaya means the external potency of the Lord which puts a conditioned soul into illusion that he will be happy by material adjustment. So great sages who are impersonalists are also under the spell of mahamaya, because a conditioned soul in the material world wants to improve his material position as exalted as possible, and the concept of becoming one with the Supreme Lord is the greatest illusion for them. Because it is a fact that nobody can be equal or greater than the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and as such, anyone desiring to become one with the Supreme means that he is still in the trap of maya. On the other hand, a humble devotee who may not be a great sage, but simpy by his implicit acceptance of the Lotus Feet of the Lord as the goal of his life means that he is under the protection of yogamaya. I think this will clear the idea. (Letter to Aniruddha, 14 November 1968)

Yogamaya and Mahamaya are one and different

The energy of the Lord called avidya is the bewildering fact or of the conditioned souls. The material nature is called avidya, or ignorance, but to the devotees of the Lord engaged in pure devotional service, this energy becomes vidya, or pure knowledge. This is confirmed in Bhagavad-gita. The energy of the Lord transforms from mahamaya to yogamaya and appears to pure devotees in her real feature. (SB 3. 10. 17p)

The Supreme Lord has two energies, material and spiritual. The living entities are marginal energy. As marginal energy, a person may be under the control of the material energy or the spiritual energy (yogamaya). (SB 3. 23. 10p)

In the Vedas it is said that the potencies of the Supreme Personality of Godhead are called by different names, such as yogamaya and mahamaya. 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 yogamaya, and in the material world the same potency works as mahamaya, exactly as electricity works in both a heater and a cooler. In the material world, this potency, working as mahamaya, acts upon the conditioned souls to deprive them more and more of devotional service. (SB 10. 1. 25p)

Thus the Lord's potency, visnu-maya, has two features--avaranika and unmukha. When the Lord appeared, His potency came with Him and acted in different ways. She acted as yogamaya with Yashoda, Devaki and other intimate relations of the Lord, and she acted in a different way with Kamsa, Shalva and other asuras. By the order of Lord Krishna, His potency yogamaya came with Him and exhibited different activities according to the time and circumstances. Karyarthe sambhavisyati. Yogamaya acted differently to execute different purposes desired by the Lord. As confirmed in Bhagavad-gita (9. 13), mahatmanas tu mam partha--daivim prakritim ashritah. The mahatmas, who fully surrender to the lotus feet of the Lord, are directed by yogamaya, whereas the duratmas, those who are devoid of devotional service, are directed by mahamaya. (SB 10. 1. 25p)

Yogamaya is the spiritual potency of the Lord. Out of affection for His devotees, the Lord always stays in spiritual touch with them, although otherwise His maya potency is so strong that she bewilders even exalted demigods like Brahma. Therefore the Lord's potency is called yogamaya. Since the Lord is Vishvatma, He immediately ordered Yogamaya to give protection to Devaki. (SB 10. 2. 6p)

Both Yogamaya and Mahamaya act in all material activities (prakriteh kriyamanani gunaih karmani sarvashah), but although the energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead acts under the Supreme Lord's direction (mayadhyakshena prakritih suyate sa-caracaram), doglike watchmen such as politicians and diplomats think that they are protecting their neighborhoods from the dangers of the outside world. These are the actions of maya. But one who surrenders to Krishna is relieved of the protection afforded by the dogs and doglike guardians of this material world. (SB 10. 4. 1p)

Kamsa addressed his sister and brother-in-law as maha-bhagau because although he killed their ordinary children, the goddess Durga took birth from them. Because Devaki bore Durgadevi in her womb, Kamsa praised both Devaki and her husband. (SB 10. 18p)

The Vedic scripture Candi describes maya, the energy of the Supreme Lord, as nidra: durga devi sarva-bhuteshu nidra-rupena samasthitah. The energy of Yogamaya and Mahamaya keeps the living entities sleeping in this material world in the great darkness of ignorance. Yogamaya, the goddess Durga, kept Kamsa in darkness about Krishna's birth and misled him to believe that his enemy Krishna had been born elsewhere. (SB 10. 4. 29p)

The commentary of Madhva on Shrimad-Bhagavatam mentions that the following sixteen spiritual energies are present in the spiritual world: (1) shri, (2) bhu, (3) ila, (4) kanti, (5) kirti, (6) tushti, (7) gih, (8) pushti, (9) satya (10) jnanainana, (11) jaya utkarshini, (12) vimala, (13) yogamaya, (14) prahvi (15) ishana and (16) anugraha. In his commentary on the Laghubhagavatamrta, Shri Baladeva Vidyabhushana has said that the above energies are also known by nine names: (1) vimala, (2) utkarshini (3) jnana, (4) kriya, (5) yoga, (6) prahvi (7) satya, (8) ishana and (9) anugraha. In the Bhagavat-sandarbha of Shrila Jiva Gosvami (verse 117) they are described as shri, pushti, gih, kanti, kirti, tushti, ila, jaya, vidyavidya, maya, samvit, sandhini, hladini, bhakti, murti, vimala, yoga, prahvi, ishana, anugraha, etc. All these energies act in different spheres of the Lord's supremacy. (Cc Adi 5. 84p)

Following the example of the gopis, the devotees sometimes worship the goddess Katyayani, but they understand that Katyayani is an incarnation of yogamaya. The gopis worshiped Katyayani, yogamaya, to attain Krishna for their husband. On the other hand, it is stated in the Sapta- sati scripture that a kshatriya king named Suratha and a rich vaishya named Samadhi worshiped material nature in the form of goddess Durga to attain material perfection. If one tries to mingle the worship of yogamaya with mahamaya, considering them one and the same, he does not really show very high intelligence. (Cc Mad 8. 90p)

It is a known fact that Maya is very strong, but one who associates with Krsna in the above mentioned ways, Maya can show no strength or Maya converts herself from Maha Maya to Yoga Maya. (Letter to Upendra, 18 August 1970)

Yogamaya Arranges the Pastimes of the Lord and His Devotees

The Lord exchanges transcendental relations in five ways, as proprietor, master, friend, son and lover , and in each of these pastimes He plays fully by the potency of yogamaya, the internal potency. (SB 1. 11. 39p)

When the Lord, however, appears in His person as Lord Sri Krishna, His other plenary portions also join in Him by His inconceivable potency called yogamaya, and thus the Lord Krishna of Vrindavana is different from the Lord Krishna of Mathura or the Lord Krishna of Dvaraka. (SB 1. 14. 8p)

Because of her deep affection for Krishna, she could never think that her very son was Narayana, the Personality of Godhead Himself. That is the action of yogamaya, the internal potency of the Supreme Lord, which acts to perfect all the pastimes of the Lord with His different types of devotees. Who could play such wonders without being God? (SB 2. 7. 30p)

O Narada, although the potencies of the Lord are unknowable and immeasurable, still, because we are all surrendered souls, we know how He acts through yogamaya potencies. (SB 2. 7. 43-45)

The Lord is unlimited and, by the grace of the yogamaya, helps the surrendered soul to know Him proportionately with the advance of one's surrender. (SB 2. 7. 43-45p)

The right conclusion of dovetailing everything in relationship with the Lord is called yoga-maya, or the energy of union, and the wrong conception of detaching a thing from its relationship with the Lord is called the Lord's daivi maya, or maha-maya. Both the mayas also have connections with the Lord because nothing can exist without being related to Him. As such, the wrong conception of detaching relationships from the Lord is not false but illusory. (SB 2. 9. 34p)

The Lord appeared in the mortal world by His internal potency, yoga- maya. He came in His eternal form, which is just suitable for His pastimes. (SB 3. 2. 12)

The six excellent opulences which He displayed in the mortal world by the agency of His internal potency, yoga-maya, are rare even in the Vaikunthalokas. All His pastimes were manifested not by the material energy but by His spiritual energy. The excellence of His rasa-lila at Vrindavana and His householder life with sixteen thousand wives is wonderful even for Narayana in Vaikuntha and is certainly so for other living entities within this mortal world. His pastimes are wonderful even for other incarnations of the Lord, such as Sri Rama, Nrisimha and Varaha. His opulence was so superexcellent that His pastimes were adored even by the Lord of Vaikuntha, who is not different from Lord Krishna Himself. (SB 3. 2. 12p)

By His internal potency the Lord can expand Himself into various personalities of svayam-prakasha and again into prabhava and vaibhava forms, and all of them are nondifferent from one another. The forms into which the Lord expanded to marry the princesses in different apartments were all slightly different just to match each and every one of them. They are called vaibhava-vilasa forms of the Lord and are effected by His internal potency, yoga-maya. (SB 3. 3. 8p)

The omnipotent Lord, by His different energies, can perform anything and everything He likes. The creation of the cosmic world is done by His yogamaya energy. (SB 3. 5. 22p)

The transcendental happiness exhibited in the spiritual world and all other spiritual manifestations there are made possible by the influence of yogamaya, the internal potency of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. (SB 3. 15. 26p)

The highest opulence in the material world is called parameshthya, the opulence of Brahma. But that material opulence of Brahma, who lives on the topmost planet within this material world, cannot compare to the opulence of the Supreme Lord because the transcendental opulence in the spiritual world is caused by yogamaya, whereas the opulence in the material world is caused by mahamaya. (SB 3. 16. 15p)

The activities of the Lord's internal potency are inconceivable, but by a slight exhibition of this potency, the Lord, by His grace, can deliver one from nescience. Sucah means "miseries"; the miseries of material existence can be extinguished by the Lord by His potential energy of internal yogamaya. (SB 3. 18. 4p)

The Lord comes to this material world through the agency of His internal potency, and similarly, when a devotee or associate of the Lord descends to this material world, he does so through the action of the spiritual energy. Any pastime conducted by the Supreme Personality of Godhead is an arrangement by yogamaya, not mahamaya. Therefore it is to be understood that when Jaya and Vijaya descended to this material world, they came because there was something to be done for the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Otherwise it is a fact that no one falls from Vaikuntha. (SB 7. 1. 35p)

Krishna was always living with the Pandavas. Although the Pandavas, because of the influence of Krishna's yogamaya, could not think of their fortunate position, every saintly person, including the great sage Narada, could understand it, and therefore they constantly visited Maharaja Yudhishthira. (SB 7. 10. 48p)

Thus the Lord's potency, visnu-maya, has two features--avaranika and unmukha. When the Lord appeared, His potency came with Him and acted in different ways. She acted as yogamaya with Yashoda, Devaki and other intimate relations of the Lord, and she acted in a different way with Kamsa, Shalva and other asuras. . . . . . (SB 10. 1. 25p)

Therefore the Lord's potency is called yogamaya. Since the Lord is Vishvatma, He immediately ordered Yogamaya to give protection to Devaki. (SB 10. 2. 6p)

Both Yogamaya and Mahamaya act in all material activities (prakriteh kriyamanani gunaih karmani sarvashah), but although the energy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead acts under the Supreme Lord's direction (mayadhyakshena prakritih suyate sa-caracaram), doglike watchmen such as politicians and diplomats think that they are protecting their neighborhoods from the dangers of the outside world. These are the actions of maya. But one who surrenders to Krishna is relieved of the protection afforded by the dogs and doglike guardians of this material world. (SB 10. 4. 1p)

The Vedic scripture Candi describes maya, the energy of the Supreme Lord, as nidra: durga devi sarva-bhuteshu nidra-rupena samasthitah. The energy of Yogamaya and Mahamaya keeps the living entities sleeping in this material world in the great darkness of ignorance. Yogamaya, the goddess Durga, kept Kamsa in darkness about Krishna's birth and misled him to believe that his enemy Krishna had been born elsewhere. (SB 10. 4. 29p)

Sometimes a beautiful woman is dangerous because everyone, being captivated by external beauty (maya-mohita), is unable to understand what is in her mind. Those who are captivated by the beauty of the external energy are called maya-mohita. Mohitam nabhijanati mam ebhyah param avyayam (Bg 7. 13). Na te viduh svartha-gatim hi visnum durashaya ye bahir-artha-maninah (Bhag. 7. 5. 31). Here, of course, the two mothers Rohini and Yashoda were not maya-mohita, deluded by the external energy, but to develop the pastimes of the Lord, they were captivated by yogamaya. Such mayamoha is the action of yogamaya. (SB 10. 6. 9p)

Nanda Maharaja could not understand how the inhabitants of his house had allowed Putana to enter the house, nor could he imagine the gravity of the situation. He did not understand that Krishna had wanted to kill Putana and that His pastimes were performed by yogamaya. Nanda Maharaja simply thought that someone had entered his house and created havoc. This was Nanda Maharaja's simplicity. (SB 10. 6. 43p)

The nearby children saw that actually Krishna had kicked the wheel of the cart and this was how the accident happened. By the arrangement of yogamaya, all the gopis and gopas thought that the accident had taken place because of some bad planet or some ghost, but in fact everything was done by Krishna and enjoyed by Him. (SB 10. 7. 9p)

Just as Shri Krishna had His birth in the mundane Gokula through the agency of Yogamaya who is the primal energy of the Supreme Lord, so with her help He manifests the lila of His birth in the womb of Shaci-devi in Navadvipa on this mundane plane. (BS 5p)

Mayadhyakshena prakritih suyate sa-caracaram: "The mundane energy prakriti gives birth to this universe of animate and inanimate beings by My direction. " The purport of this shloka of the Gita is that Maya, the perverted reflection of spiritual (cit) potency was at first inactive and her extension of matter constituting the material cause was also in the separately dislocated state. In accordance with the will of Krishna this world is manifested as the resultant of the union of the efficient and the material causal principles of Maya. In spite of that, the Supreme Lord Himself remains united with His cit potency, yoganidra. The word yoganidra or yogamaya indicates as follows: The nature of cit potency is manifestive of the Absolute Truth, while the nature of her perverted reflection, Maya, is envelopment in the gloom of ignorance. When Krishna desires to manifest something in the mundane ignorance-wrapt affairs, He does this by the conjunction of His spiri&317;tual potency with His inactive nonspiritual potency. This is known as Yogamaya. It carries a twofold notion, namely. transcen&711;dental notion and mundane inert notion. Krishna Himself, His subjec&711;tive portions and those jivas who are His unalloyed separated par&711;ticles, realize the transcendental notion in that conjunction, while conditioned souls feel the mundane inert notion. The external coating of transcendental knowledge in the conscious activities of conditioned souls, bears the name of Yoganidra. This is also an influence of the cit potency of the Divinity. This principle will be more elaborately considered hereafter. (BS 19p)

There yogamaya acts as His maidservant in the rasa-lila dance. (TLC, "The Opulences of Krsna")

In the spiritual world, there is another energy, the superior spiritual energy, or internal energy, which acts under the direction of yogamaya. Yogamaya is the internal potency of the Supreme Lord; she also works under the Lord's direction, but she works in the spiritual world. When the living entity puts himself under the direction of yogamaya instead of mahamaya, he gradually becomes a devotee of Krishna. Yet those who are after material opulence and material happiness place themselves under the care of the material energy, mahamaya, or under the care of material demigods like Lord Siva and others. In Srimad-Bhagavatam it is found that when the gopis of Vrindavana desired Krishna as their husband, they prayed to the spiritual energy, yogamaya, for the fulfillment of their desire. In the Sapta-sati it is found that King Suratha and a merchant named Samadhi worshiped mahamaya for material opulence. Thus one should not mistakenly equalize yogamaya and mahamaya. (TLC, "The Transcendental Pastimes of Radha and Krsna")

Yogamaya is the name of the internal potency that makes the Lord forget Himself and become an object of love for His pure devotee in different transcendental mellows. This yogamaya potency creates a spiritual sentiment in the minds of the damsels of Vraja by which they think of Lord Krishna as their paramour. This sentiment is never to be compared to mundane illicit sexual love. It has nothing to do with sexual psychology, although the pure love of such devotees seems to be sexual. One should know for certain that nothing can exist in this cosmic manifestation that has no real counterpart in the spiritual field. All material manifestations are emanations of the transcendence. The erotic principles of amorous love reflected in mixed material values are perverted reflections of the reality of spirit, but one cannot understand the reality unless one is sufficiently educated in the spiritual science. (Cc Adi 4. 29p)

In Goloka Vrindavana there is an exchange of love known as parakiya- rasa. It is something like the attraction of a married woman for a man other than her husband. In the material world this sort of relationship is most abominable because it is a perverted reflection of the parakiya- rasa in the spiritual world, where it is the highest kind of loving affair. Such feelings between the devotee and the Lord are presented by the influence of yogamaya. Bhagavad-gita states that devotees of the highest grade are under the care of daiva-maya, or yogamaya. Mahatmanas tu mam partha daivim prakritim ashritah (Bg 9. 13). Those who are actually great souls (mahatmas) are fully absorbed in Krishna consciousness, always engaged in the service of the Lord. They are under the care of daivi prakriti, or yogamaya. Yogamaya creates a situation in which the devotee is prepared to transgress all regulative principles simply to love Krsna. A devotee naturally does not like to transgress the laws of reverence for the Supreme Personal&711;ity of Godhead, but by the influence of yogamaya he is prepared to do anything to love the Supreme Lord better. Those under the spell of the material energy cannot at all appreciate the activities of yogamaya, for a conditioned soul can hardly understand the pure reciprocation between the Lord and His devotee. But by executing devotional service under the regulative principles, one can become very highly elevated and then begin to appreciate the dealings of pure love under the management of yogamaya. In the spiritual loving sentiment induced by the yogamaya potency, both Lord Shri Krishna and the damsels of Vraja forget themselves in spiritual rapture. By the influence of such forgetfulness, the attractive beauty of the gopis plays a prominent part in the transcendental satisfaction of the Lord, who has nothing to do with mundane sexology. Because spiritual love of Godhead is above everything mundane, the gopis supeficially seem to transgress the codes of mundane morality. This perpetually puzzles mundane moralists. Therefore yogamaya acts to cover the Lord and His pastimes from the eyes of mundaners, as confirmed in Bhagavad-gita, where the Lord says that He reserves the right of not being exposed to everyone. The acts of yogamaya make it possible for the Lord and the gopis, in loving ecstasy, to sometimes meet and sometimes separate. These transcenden&711;tal loving affairs of the Lord are unimaginable to empiricists involved in the impersonal feature of the Absolute Truth. Therefore the Lord Himself appears before the mundaners to bestow upon them the highest form of spiritual realization and also personally relish its essence. (Cc Adi 4. 30p)

Actually the activities of yogamaya are absent in the spiritual sky and the Vaikuntha planets. She simply works in the supreme planet, Goloka Vrindavana, and she works to manifest the activities of Krishna when He descends to the material universe to please His innumerable devotees within the material world. (Cc Mad 21. 104p)

. . . when the Lord appears it is mentioned in the Bhagavad-gita that He does so in His Own Internal Potency. This Internal Potency is called Yogamaya. All pastimes and activities of the Lord are administered by the Yogamaya. Therefore, He is not under the influence of material energy, as the conditioned souls are. By the arrangement of Yogamaya, the devotees sometimes forget the presence of the Omnipotent Lord. Just like Yasoda Mayi treats Krishna as her begotten Son, and forgets Krishna's inconceivable power. Therefore, she asks Krishna to open His mouth to see whether He actually ate some earth. He showed her that He swallowed not only a bit of earth, but the whole cosmic manifestation. Yasoda Mata was astonished to see this miracle, but still she forgot that Krishna is God, that Krishna is the Supreme Lord Himself, and not her ordinary Son. In this way, reciprocation between the Lord and His devotees takes place. The Lord doesn't forget but in order to enthuse the pastimes of the Lord, the action of Yogamaya is prominent. (Letter to Upendra, 1 March 1968)

It is a known fact that Maya is very strong, but one who associates with Krsna in the above mentioned ways, Maya can show no strength or Maya converts herself from Maha Maya to Yoga Maya. (Letter to Upendra, 18 August 1970)

Yogamaya Curtains the Lord

The Lord is not approachable by everyone because He is curtained by His yogamaya potency. But one should not wrongly conclude that the Lord was formerly unmanifested and has now manifested Himself in the human form. This misconception of the formlessness of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is due to the yogamaya curtain of the Lord and can be removed only by the supreme will, as soon as the conditioned soul surrenders unto Him. (SB 2. 5. 20p)

The reason is that the Lord reserves the right of not exposing Himself to the nondevotee who, even after a thorough study of literature like the Bhagavad-gita, remains an impersonalist simply by obstinacy. This obstinacy is due to the action of yogamaya, a personal energy of the Lord that acts like an aide-de-camp by covering the vision of the obstinate impersonalist. (SB 2. 5. 24p)

In the Bhagavad-gita also, it is said that the Lord reserves the right of not being exposed to everyone, and He keeps Himself concealed from the faithless by His yoga-maya potency. (SB 2. 9. 32p)

The Lord, however, does not disclose Himself to a casual or inauthentic worshiper to be exploited. This is confirmed in Bhagavad-gita (7. 25): naham prakashah sarvasya yoga-maya-samavritah. Rather, by yoga-maya, the Lord remains concealed to the nondevotees or casual devotees who are serving their sense gratification. The Lord is never visible to the pseudodevotees who worship the demigods in charge of universal affairs. The conclusion is that the Lord cannot become the order supplier of a pseudo devotee, but He is always prepared to respond to the desires of a pure, unconditional devotee, who is free from all tinges of material infection. (SB 3. 9. 11p)

For the impersonalists and the so-called yogis, the Lord is always hidden by the curtain of yogamaya. Bhagavad-gita says that even when Lord Krishna was seen by everyone while He was present on the surface of the earth, the impersonalists and the so-called yogis could not see Him because they were devoid of devotional eyesight. (SB 3. 15. 50p)

The real purpose of the yoga system is to achieve the favor and shelter of the lotus feet of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but this purpose is covered by the illusory energy of yogamaya. (SB 5. 6. 15p)

Yogamaya is a Person

The Lord ordered Yogamaya: O My potency, who are worshipable for the entire world and whose nature is to bestow good fortune upon all living entities, go to Vraja, where there live many cowherd men and their wives. In that very beautiful land, where many cows reside, Rohini, the wife of Vasudeva, is living at the home of Nanda Maharaja. Other wives of Vasudeva are also living there incognito because of fear of Kamsa. Please go there. (SB10. 2. 7)

O all-auspicious Yogamaya, I shall then appear with My full six opule&711;nces as the son of Devaki, and you will appear as the daughter of mother Yashoda, the queen of Maharaja Nanda. (SB 10. 2. 9)

Thus instructed by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Yogamaya immediately agreed. With the Vedic mantra om, she confirmed that she would do what He asked. Thus having accepted the order of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, she circumambulated Him and started for the place on earth known as Nandagokula. There she did everything just as she had been told. (SB10. 2. 14)

The activities of Yogamaya are distinctly visible in this chapter, in which Devaki and Vasudeva excuse Kamsa for his many devious, atrocious activities and Kamsa becomes repentant and falls at their feet. Before the awakening of the watchmen and the others in the prison house, many other things happened. Krishna was born and transferred to the home of Yashoda in Gokula, the strong doors opened and again closed, and Vasudeva resumed his former condition of being shackled. The watchmen, however, could not understand all this. They awakened only when they heard the crying of the newborn child, Yogamaya. (SB 10. 4. 1p)

The child, Yogamaya-devi, the younger sister of Lord Vishnu, slipped upward from Kamsa's hands and appeared in the sky as Devi, the goddess Durga, with eight arms, completely equipped with weapons. (SB 10. 4. 9)

O Kamsa, you fool, what will be the use of killing me? The Supreme Personality of Godhead, who has been your enemy from the very begin&711;ning and who will certainly kill you, has already taken His birth somewhere else. Therefore, do not unnecessarily kill other children. (SB 10. 4. 12)

After speaking to Kamsa in this way, the goddess Durga, Yogamaya, appeared in different places, such as Varanasi, and became celebrated by different names, such as Annapurna, Durga, Kali and Bhadra. (SB 10. 4. 13)

After that night passed, Kamsa summoned his ministers and informed them of all that had been spoken by Yogamaya [who had revealed that He who was to slay Kamsa had already been born somewhere else]. (SB 10. 4. 29)

Yogamaya is the Cause of Creation

Learned men say that the five elements, eternal time, fruitive activity, the three modes of material nature, and the varieties produced by these modes are all creations of yogamaya. This material world is therefore extremely difficult to understand, but those who are highly learned have rejected it. May the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is the controller of everything, be pleased with us. (SB 8. 5. 43)

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