Yogamāyā
Yogamāyā · yoga-māyā, “the māyā of divine yoga”
Yogamāyā, also called Yoganidrā and Nidrādevī, is the supreme Śakti (divine power) of Bhagavān Vishṇu. She is a form of the Divine Mother and carries out the will of Bhagavān Vishṇu at the level of the whole creation.
She has a key part in the Kṛshṇa avatāra. She moved the child of Devakī that became Balarāma, she was born as the daughter of Yaśodā, and she was exchanged for the infant Kṛshṇa. When Kaṃsa seized her, she showed her divine form and declared that Kṛshṇa had already been born. Two Purāṇas tell her story in detail, the Bhāgavata Purāṇa and the Hari Vāṃśa Purāṇa. The Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa also tells it. The Agni Purāṇa tells it briefly, and it gives the nine names with which Devendra praised her when she had slain Śumbha and the other rākshasas.
Who she is
The Bhāgavata Purāṇa understands Yogamāyā as the yogaśakti (power of yoga) of Bhagavān Vishṇu, working in the world in a form with a person’s shape. Bhagavān Vishṇu speaks to her directly and gives her clear instructions. She is not a separate or independent power. She is an instrument of his will and acts fully in line with his purpose.
She is also called Ekāṃśā, the one who appears as a single aṃśa (portion) of the first Śakti. She is also counted as a form of Vishṇu-māyā.
Her fourteen names in the Bhāgavata
In the second chapter of the tenth Skanda, Bhagavān Vishṇu gives Yogamāyā her task. He also lists the names by which people on earth will worship her:
- Durgā: she who helps one cross difficulties.
- Bhadrakālī: she who brings good fortune.
- Vijayā: she who gives victory.
- Vaishṇavī: she who belongs to Vishṇu.
- Kumudā: she who delights in the earth-world.
- Caṇḍikā: she who is fierce toward the wicked.
- Kṛshṇā: she who draws bhaktas (devotees) to her.
- Mādhavī: she who came down in the Madhu-vaṃśa.
- Kanyakā: she who gives ānanda (joy).
- Māyā: she who makes the impossible possible.
- Nārāyaṇī: she who lives as the life-breath in all living beings.
- Īśānī: she who governs all.
- Śāradā: she who destroys saṃsāra (the cycle of birth and death) and enemies.
- Ambikā: she to whom the suffering turn for refuge.
People build sacred tīrtha places for her and offer her incense, flowers and food. The text says she gives every wish as a vara (a boon).
Her task in the birth of Kṛshṇa (Bhāgavata)
Bhagavān Vishṇu gave Yogamāyā three instructions before he came down to earth.
- Go to Gokula. She was to go to Nanda‘s settlement, where Vasudeva‘s wife Rohiṇī was living in safety.
- Move Balarāma. She was to draw the child of Śesha out of Devakī‘s womb and place it in Rohiṇī’s womb, so that the divine child would be born safely in Gokula as Balarāma.
- Be born as Yaśodā’s daughter. Bhagavān Vishṇu said: “I shall be born as Devakī’s son. You shall be born as Yaśodā’s daughter. On the night I am born, Vasudeva will carry me to Gokula. You will be carried back to Mathurā. When Kaṃsa seizes you, you will show your divine form and announce my birth.”
Yogamāyā accepted all this and walked around Bhagavān Vishṇu in respect. Then she carried out the instructions. She moved the child to Rohiṇī, and to everyone it looked like a miscarriage. She was then born as Yaśodā’s daughter on the very night that Kṛshṇa was born in Mathurā.
The exchange and Kaṃsa’s failure (Bhāgavata)
On the night of Kṛshṇa‘s birth, Yogamāyā put all the prison guards and all the people of Gokula into deep sleep. Through her power they lost all awareness of their senses. This let Vasudeva carry the infant Kṛshṇa out of the prison and across the Yamunā to Gokula without being seen. She also made sure that Yaśodā, after her own delivery, fell into deep sleep and did not even know whether she had borne a boy or a girl.
Vasudeva laid Kṛshṇa beside the sleeping Yaśodā and took Yogamāyā, in the form of the baby girl, back to Mathurā. In the prison Kaṃsa seized the baby girl and dashed her against a stone. She rose into the air in her eight-armed divine form and said: “O fool! What use is throwing me? The one who will destroy you has already been born. He has already arrived elsewhere.” Then she disappeared.
Yogamāyā and the Kātyāyanī Vrata
Later in the tenth Skanda, the gopikās (cowherd women) of Vṛndāvana keep the Kātyāyanī vrata (vow) in the month of Mārgaśīrsha. They pray that Kṛshṇa become their husband. The Bhāgavata says plainly that the Devī they worship in this vrata is Kātyāyanī, another form of Yogamāyā. So Yogamāyā arranges Kṛshṇa’s birth, and she also receives the prayers of the gopikās and turns their bhakti (devotion) toward Kṛshṇa.
In the Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa
The Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa tells the same events in the Śrī Kṛshṇa Janana Khaṇḍa. There she is named more directly as Ekāṃśā, the one who appears as Yaśodā’s daughter. Her eight-armed words to Kaṃsa are described in a similar way. This Purāṇa speaks of her as the personal divine power (nija śakti) of Bhagavān Vishṇu. It does not give the fourteen names that the Bhāgavata gives.
In the Hari Vāṃśa Purāṇa
Her task
Bhagavān Vishṇu decided to be born as the eighth child of Devakī. He went down to Pātāla and brought back the life-forces of the six Shaḍgarbhas who lay sleeping there. These six were sons of Kālanemi. Hiraṇyakaśipu had laid a śāpa (curse) on them that they would be killed by their own father.
Bhagavān Vishṇu gave these six life-forces to Nidrādevī (Yoganidrā) with this task: “Go to Devakī’s house. Place these lives in her womb one by one. Kaṃsa will kill them, and his effort will come to nothing. Then move Devakī’s seventh pregnancy, the child of the Moon’s aṃśa, into Rohiṇī’s womb. He will be called Saṃkarshaṇa. Finally, you yourself will be born as the ninth child to Yaśodā, wife of Nandagopa, at the same midnight hour in which I am born to Devakī. After that we shall be exchanged. I shall go to Yaśodā and you to Devakī.”
Bhagavān Vishṇu also told her what would follow. Kaṃsa would seize her and hurl her against a stone. At that moment she was to leave the infant body, show her true divine form, and go up to her appointed place.
The two births
Bhagavān Vishṇu and Yogamāyā entered the wombs of Devakī and Yaśodā at the same moment. When the months were complete, Devakī gave birth to Kṛshṇa and Yaśodā gave birth to a daughter. Both births took place on the same night, under the Abhijit nakshatra (lunar star) at the auspicious Vijaya muhūrta (hour). Vasudeva took the newborn Kṛshṇa to Yaśodā’s house in secret and placed him with her. He brought Yaśodā’s daughter back and laid her beside Devakī.
The exchange and Kaṃsa’s attack
Vasudeva told Kaṃsa that a girl had been born. Kaṃsa believed that the prophecy spoke only of an eighth child who would be a boy. He came to the prison with guards and demanded the infant. Devakī protested that this was a girl, and seven sons had already been killed. Kaṃsa seized the baby anyway and dashed her against a stone.
Her true form
Struck against the stone, Yogamāyā flew into the sky. At once she left the infant body and appeared in her true form. She was beautiful and four-armed, with a face like the moon and loose hair. Her body was sweet with divine perfumes and she wore garlands. The hosts of devas praised her. She let out a great peal of laughter and fixed her fierce gaze on Kaṃsa, and she said:
“O Kaṃsa! You struck me against the stone only to bring about your own ruin. When your enemy drags you to your death, I shall tear open your chest and drink your warm blood.”
Then she left through the sky with her attendants.
Her nature as the Śakti of Bhagavān Vishṇu
Before she took up this task, Bhagavān Vishṇu taught Yoganidrā the Āryā Stotra (a stotra is a hymn of praise). It describes her many forms. She is Nārāyaṇī, never apart from Bhagavān Vishṇu. The stotra addresses her as:
- Siddhi, Kīrti, Śrī, Vidyā, Mati and Dhṛti, the powers and perfections of all beings.
- Saṃdhyā, Rātri, Prabhā, Nidrā and Kālarātri, the divisions of time.
- Āryā, Kātyāyanī, Kauśikī and Brahmacāriṇī, by her sacred names.
- Nandagopa-sutā, the daughter of Nandagopa, which names her birth in Gokula.
- Vindhyavāsinī, she who lives on the Vindhyaparvata, her home after the avatāra.
- The Antarvedī of the yajñas (fire rituals), the Dakshiṇā of the ṛtvijas (priests), the Sītā of farmers, and the Dharaṇī of all beings.
- Pārvatī among women, Sarasvatī in the work of Vālmīki, Smṛti in the work of Dvaipāyana, Arundhatī among virtuous women, and the famous Indrāṇī.
She fills the whole universe, moving and unmoving. She protects her devotees in battles, fires, dangers in the forest, captivity, exile and every time of crisis.
Her names and pūjā
Bhagavān Vishṇu told her she would be known as Kauśikī, because of her link with the Kuśika gotra (family line). Indra would consecrate her and take her as his sister. The Vindhyaparvata would be her eternal home. There she would roam with bhūtas, pretas and piśācas (spirits) and accept offerings of meat. People would give her pūjā on the Navamī of the dark fortnight (Kṛshṇa Navamī) and the Ekādaśī of the bright fortnight. Those who give her pūjā are freed from all difficulties, sickness, imprisonment, loss of children and the fear of death.
The Āryā Stotra, the hymn Bhagavān Vishṇu himself taught her, is the way her grace reaches people. A person who recites it in purity at dawn gets the wished-for fruits within three months. A supreme vara (boon) comes within six months. Divine sight comes after three months of pūjā, and full siddhi (spiritual power) comes within a year.
After she showed herself to Kaṃsa, the Hari Vāṃśa says the Yādavas honoured her. She became respected as if she were Vasudeva‘s own daughter, born from the aṃśa of Prajāpati. She is honoured as the guardian devī of Kṛshṇa.
In the Agni Purāṇa
Agni Deva tells the account briefly in the Agni Purāṇa, in his description of the Harivaṃśa. To remove the burden of the earth, Bhagavān Vishṇu sent Yogamāyā, and through her power the six sons of Hiraṇyakaśipu in their former birth were born to Devakī by Vasudeva. Balarāma became Devakī’s seventh garbha (child in the womb). He was moved into Rohiṇī and was called Rauhiṇeya. Then Hari was born, four-armed, at midnight on the ashṭamī of the dark fortnight of Śrāvaṇa, and became a two-armed child. Vasudeva, afraid of Kaṃsa, took the child and laid him beside Yaśodā. He took Yaśodā’s daughter and laid her beside Devakī.
Kaṃsa heard the infant’s cry. Devakī tried to stop him, but he dashed the infant on a stone, saying, “Your eighth garbha is the cause of my death.” The girl, thrown down, flew up into the sky and said to Kaṃsa: “Kaṃsa, what use is throwing me down? One who is everything to the devas has been born to remove the burden of the earth. He will kill you.” Saying this, she vanished.
Devendra’s nine names
The Agni Purāṇa says that she is the Devī who long ago slew Śumbha and the other rākshasas, and that Devendra then praised her: “Āryā! Durgā, Vedagarbhā, Ambikā, Bhadrakālī, Bhadrā, Kshemyā, Kshemakarī, Naikabāhu: I bow to you who bear these names.”
- Āryā: the noble one.
- Durgā.
- Vedagarbhā: she who holds the Vedas within.
- Ambikā: the Mother.
- Bhadrakālī.
- Bhadrā: the auspicious one.
- Kshemyā: the giver of welfare.
- Kshemakarī: she who brings well-being.
- Naikabāhu: the many-armed.
Phalaśruti: one who recites these names at the three sandhyās (the junctions of the day) obtains all desires.
Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 12
Sources
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa, 10th Skanda, Chapters 2–4 and 22
- Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇa, Śrī Kṛshṇa Janana Khaṇḍa, Chapter 7
- Hari Vāṃśa Purāṇa, Vishṇu Parva, Chapters 2–4
- Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 12