Mahabharat Episode Discussion Thread # 9 - Page 58

Originally posted by minaxi

Found an interesting part here.
https://www.indiadivine.org/content/topic/982745-yoga-maya-maha-maya-subhadra-durga/

The Yogamaya is the principal potency of the Personality of Godhead. In the Vedas it is stated that the Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, has multipotencies. Parasya saktir vividhaiva sruyate. All the different potencies are acting externally and internally, and Yogamaya is the chief of all potencies. He ordered the appearance of Yogamaya in the land of Vrajabhumi, in Vrndavana, which is always decorated and full with beautiful cows.
__ Krishna Book Chp2 {Prayers by the Demigods for Lord Krsna in the Womb}

Same Chapter:

"Since you will appear as My contemporary sister, people within the world will worship you with all kinds of valuable presentations: incense, candles, flowers and offerings of sacrifice. You shall quickly satisfy their desires for sense gratificiation. People who are after materialistic affection will worship you under the different forms of your expansions, which will be named Durga, Bhadrakali, Vijaya, Vaisnavi, Kumuda, Candika, Krsna, Madhavi, Kanyaka, Maya, Narayani, Isani, Sarada and Ambika."

Krsna and Yogamaya appeared as brother and sister--the Supreme Powerful and the supreme power. Although there is no clear distinction between the Powerful and the power, power is always subordinate to the Powerful. Those who are materialistic are worshipers of the power, but those who are transcendentalists are worshipers of the Powerful. Krsna is the Supreme Powerful, and Durga is the supreme power within the material world. Actually people in the Vedic culture worship both the Powerful and the power. There are many hundreds of thousands of temples of Visnu and Devi, and sometimes they are worshiped simultaneously. The worshiper of the power, Durga, or the external energy of Krsna, may achieve all kinds of material success very easily, but anyone who wants to be elevated transcendentally must engage in worshiping the Powerful in Krsna consciousness



Else where:

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.


Regarding your question about Subhadra and Durga, they are not at all the same. Durga's other name is Bhadra, not Subhadra, and Durga's activities are within the material world. Subhadra does not work as Durga. Subhadra is internal energy, and Durga is external energy. As energy, they have a relationship as much as we are energies of Krishna, but the energies are working in different capacities. Although originally the energy is one, by their expansion, the accents of the energies are different, and as we are not impersonalists, this variegatedness of actions are essential for the Supreme Personality of Godhead, as much as the government is one but there are multi-departments for management of the government. The education department and the criminal department are all departments of the government. The government is connected with all parts and departments, but the education activities are different from the criminal activities. This is the philosophy of inconceivably simultaneously one and different manifestations of the Absolute Truth.

check this link

shakti, Vishnu, Shiva are just various forms of one eternal God.

The male form and the female form.

So we cannot necessarily make terms like his brother, her sister, someone's great grand uncle for them.

And different Spiritual texts have different versions of same people.

Draupadi is considered Indrani and pandavas who served as Indras as various times and Draupadi was their Indrani. Indrani is a form of laxmi, since she brings success and fame to her Indra as well as luck.

Then how can laxmi marry someone not Vishnu?

We are essentially all some forms or expansions of Gods.

It is better if we think of it as divine expansion of God, come down to do his duty rather than hair splitting on which deity is which deitys which cousin 6th removed.

@Bold:

It is described in the Brahma Samhita how Krishna expands into Balarama and from Balarama comes all the Vishnus.

But anyway - I posted this in the Krishna Leela Discussion how there is this sweet leela where Yashoda actually gave birth to twins - a baby boy and a baby girl. Vasudev picked up the baby girl since he was in too much of a hurry to notice the baby boy. Vasudev's baby boy merged into Yashoda's baby boy.

Thus, the Krishna we see in Vrindavan was Yashoda Dulala - the Goloka Krishna, and the Krishna who goes to Mathura is of course the Vishnu Krishna, because he is going there to fulfill his task of wiping out the burden of Mother Earth.

Of course this isn't mentioned in the SB, but it's found in texts of those in that disciplic succession of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu

Also, Krishna is NOT being subtle at all while directing his rhetorics towards Draupadi,"Uchit keh rahaa hoon na mein, sakhi?"

to the shaktas she is the primordial

to the vaishnav's its vishnu

to the shiava's its shiva

to the advaita vadi, brahman is bliss to be realised

to the atheists, its ether