Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.1.25
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
-
viṣṇoḥ māyā
—
the potency of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Viṣṇu
Viṣṇu's māyā — His own internal potency, not the deluding material māyā that traps the jīva. The Gauḍīya distinction is fundamental: there is yoga-māyā (internal, attendant on the Lord) and mahā-māyā (external, governing matter). Both are His.
-
bhagavatī
—
as good as Bhagavān and therefore known as Bhagavatī
Feminine of bhagavān. Because the Lord's potency shares His nature non-differentially, she carries His name. Acintya-bhedābheda visible: she is His and yet a person — both, by the same logic that holds for Rādhā.
-
sammohitam
—
captivated
Past participle of sam-muh, 'completely deluded.' Yoga-māyā's function: she conceals Kṛṣṇa's full opulence so that intimate līlā is possible. The cowherds 'don't know' He is Bhagavān not because they lack information but because yoga-māyā lovingly hides it.
-
ādiṣṭā
—
being ordered
Past participle of ā-diś, 'to direct, command.' Yoga-māyā operates only on the Lord's command. She is never an autonomous goddess; her every act is a direct execution of His will. The verse establishes hierarchy: His command, her execution.
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.
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.
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.
- Notice each time today you say 'I am' followed by a bodily or social label (brāhmaṇa, professional, parent) and silently correct it to 'I am Kṛṣṇa's eternal servant'.
- Refuse the ahaṅkāra-vimūḍha thought 'I am the doer' when a task succeeds or fails — verbally offer the result to Kṛṣṇa so the same potency turns from covering to revealing.
- Speak to one āvaraṇikā-bound soul today — not to fix their body's discomfort, but to plant one word about Kṛṣṇa that invites yoga-māyā's mercy.
- In which areas of my life am I still acting as the ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā — convinced I am the doer — when in fact viṣṇu-māyā is arranging the outcome behind my efforts?
- Where am I currently being directed by māyā in her āvaraṇikā (covering) mode — keeping me identified with body, varṇa, or role — and what one act of devotional service today would invite the unmukha (revealing, yoga-māyā) face of the same potency to act on me instead?
- When you scroll Instagram tonight and feel that familiar pull — that you ARE your follower count, your grades, your friend group's approval — name it out loud as mahā-māyā's āvaraṇikā feature covering you. Don't fight it; just see it. The seeing itself is yoga-māyā beginning to turn you.
- Pick one identity you have been performing this semester — 'I'm the smart one,' 'I'm the chill one,' 'I'm the rebel,' 'I'm the spiritual one in my friend group' — and for one full day, refuse to perform it. Notice how strongly the false ego protests. That protest is your evidence the Gītā is describing you, not someone in 5000 BCE.
- Before your next exam or interview, formally request: 'Kṛṣṇa, let Your potency act on me as yoga-māyā today, not mahā-māyā. I am not the doer; I am Your part and parcel doing my work as offering.' Then study or prepare harder than ever — the prayer is not a substitute for effort, it is the orientation of the effort.
- In your next family financial decision — the school choice, the car, the renovation — explicitly ask before deciding: is this choice being made by ahaṅkāra (the 'I'm the provider, I decide' false ego) or as a servant of Kṛṣṇa caring for souls He has placed in your charge? Same action, two potencies. Choose the second.
- Your children are being shaped by mahā-māyā every hour through screens, schools, and peer culture that tell them they are their bodies, their grades, their identities. Your one non-negotiable household duty is to introduce yoga-māyā into the home — a daily ārati, a meal offered, a verse read at bedtime — so that the same potency can begin to turn them. Start this week, not next year.
- When your spouse irritates you tonight, catch the exact moment your mind labels them with their body-identity ('he always,' 'she never,' 'typical of her family'). That labeling is mahā-māyā at work in YOUR consciousness, not theirs. Drop the label, see the eternal soul Kṛṣṇa has given you to serve, and respond from that vision.
- You have spent decades accumulating identities — professional title, parental role, community standing, even devotee reputation. The body is now visibly returning these. Don't grieve the loss; recognize it as Kṛṣṇa's mercy stripping the āvaraṇikā covering so that yoga-māyā has clearer ground to work. Each thing taken is a veil lifted.
- Mentor at least one younger person this month not by transferring your professional expertise but by transmitting what you have learned about the difference between mahā-māyā and yoga-māyā in your own life. Specific failures, specific turnings. Your accumulated discrimination (viveka) is the legacy that matters; everything else is ash.
- Each night before sleep, rehearse leaving the body the way the verse describes the soul as Kṛṣṇa's part and parcel (mamaivāṁśaḥ). Withdraw consciously from the bodily identification — 'I am not this body, this name, this résumé' — and place yourself, by His grace, under yoga-māyā's care for the night. Practice the final departure now, in small nightly rehearsals, so it is not a stranger when it comes.
- Treating yoga-māyā and mahā-māyā as two separate goddesses or warring forces, instead of one potency of Kṛṣṇa acting in two directions — and so falling into a quasi-dualistic, demigod-style worship rather than recognizing every movement of energy as His arrangement.
- Using 'it's all māyā' as a fatalistic shrug — excusing passivity, neglect of sva-dharma, or refusal to act — when the verse's whole point is that the same potency comes to execute the Lord's work (kāryārthe sambhaviṣyati), which means the devotee is meant to engage, not withdraw.
- Drifting into impersonalist language — 'merge with the energy,' 'awaken the Self,' 'feel the divine within' — and forgetting that viṣṇu-māyā is ādiṣṭā prabhuṇā, dispatched by a Person, and that liberation here means becoming Kṛṣṇa's nitya-dāsa, not dissolving into an abstract Absolute.
- Prabhupāda says the same potency acts as yoga-māyā for devotees and mahā-māyā for asuras — like one electricity heating or cooling. Where in your own life have you seen the SAME circumstance (a job loss, a relationship rupture, an illness) push one person deeper into Kṛṣṇa and another deeper into bewilderment? What made the difference, and which way is it pulling you right now? Disagree honestly with your partner if you think the difference is just temperament, not the Lord's arrangement.
- The verse says māyā 'captivates all the worlds.' Pick the one identity you cling to most — brāhmaṇa-by-temperament, professional, parent, intellectual, spiritual seeker — and argue why it is NOT māyā. Then let your partner argue why it is. Don't settle for a polite synthesis.
- Prabhupāda contrasts āvaraṇikā (covering) and unmukha (turning toward) features of viṣṇu-māyā. Name one specific area of your life where māyā is currently covering you (you are bewildered and don't see it as bewilderment) and one where she is turning you toward Kṛṣṇa. How do you tell the two apart in real time, not in retrospect?
Two students are assigned roles. Student A is a successful 35-year-old software engineer who has just been promoted and is celebrating. Student B is a fellow devotee who knows that Student A has been skipping morning sādhana for three months because of work pressure, and has started saying things like 'I'm just wired this way — I'm a builder, a kṣatriya at heart.' B's task: in a five-minute conversation over chai, gently challenge A to see that the 'I am a builder' identity is exactly the ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā kartāham iti manyate the Gītā warns about — without being preachy, without quoting verses A hasn't asked for, and without dismissing A's actual professional duty. A's task: defend the identity honestly, push back on B, and notice in real time when māyā's covering feature is speaking through you. After five minutes, swap and debrief: where did you feel the pull of mahā-māyā vs. yoga-māyā in the conversation itself?
- This is just a cosmic excuse for fatalism. If māyā is doing everything by Kṛṣṇa's arrangement, then I'm not responsible for my choices — I'm a puppet. Why bother with sādhana?
Read the verse carefully — Prabhupāda quotes BG 3.27 precisely to name this trap: ahaṅkāra-vimūḍhātmā kartāham iti manyate. The bewildered soul thinks itself the doer; that is the disease, not the diagnosis. The verse does NOT say you have no agency. It says your agency is being mis-assigned. Mahā-māyā operates on the conditioned soul; yoga-māyā operates on the surrendered soul. The single act of choice you actually have is which side of that potency you put yourself under — and you make that choice every morning when you either chant or don't, every evening when you either offer the day's work to Kṛṣṇa or pocket it for the false ego. Fatalism is the false conclusion of the half-read verse. The full verse demands more responsibility, not less. - Calling other religious paths 'mahā-māyā' and only the bhakti path 'yoga-māyā' sounds sectarian and arrogant. Aren't all paths valid expressions of the same Absolute?
Notice what the verse actually says: parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate — the Lord's potency is variously described. Prabhupāda's analogy is precise: one electricity, two functions. Heating and cooling are not equally valid for someone who needs to cool down. The distinction between yoga-māyā and mahā-māyā is not between religions or sects — it is the description of what happens to a soul under two different orientations: turning toward Kṛṣṇa (unmukha) or covered from Him (āvaraṇikā). A Christian who genuinely surrenders in love to God is being moved by yoga-māyā. A so-called Vaiṣṇava who chants mechanically while clinging to false ego is under mahā-māyā. The Gauḍīya line is personalist and specific — surrender is to the supreme Person, Kṛṣṇa, not to an impersonal Absolute that flattens distinctions. That is not arrogance; it is the honesty of saying that 'all rivers reach the same ocean' is itself an impersonalist slogan that the verse does not support. Mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ — those who take shelter of His divine nature are directed by yoga-māyā. The shelter is specific. The Person is specific.
Viṣṇu-māyā — Bhagavān's own potency — will also appear with Kṛṣṇa, not as a separate goddess but as the very śakti by whom He works. She is to Him what the heat is to the fire — non-different in tattva, distinct in function. The verse stages the principle: where the Person appears, the Person's energy appears as His attendant, never as a rival.
My note
Source: vedabase.io