Mahamaya and Radha: The Powers Behind Krishna
We speak of Krishna as the Supreme, but Krishna never acts alone. Behind him stand two Devis, and both are among the most misunderstood in our tradition.
Mahamaya: The Power That Hides Him to Reveal Him
Mahamaya is often reduced to illusion, a trap to be escaped. In Vaishnavism and Shakta Tantra, she is far more.
She is Yogamaya, Krishna’s own internal potency. Yogamaya is the personal energy who makes his lila possible. She makes Yashoda forget he is God so she can love him as her child. She makes the gopis forget his majesty so they can love him intimately.
The same power turned outward becomes Mahamaya. As Durga, Bhadrakali, Katyayani, she bewilders Kamsa and the asuras so they cannot touch the divine play. She is the curtain. Inwardly she reveals, outwardly she protects.
Krishna says it himself in the Gita: he is veiled by his own Yogamaya. The veiler is not his enemy. She is his own Shakti.
Radha: The Power That Makes Him Krishna
Radha is often reduced to a romantic figure, a mortal lover. In Gaudiya Vaishnavism she is Hladini Shakti, the bliss potency of the Divine.
Krishna is Shaktiman, the possessor of power. Radha is Shakti, the power itself. As radiance cannot be separated from the sun, Radha cannot be separated from Krishna.
Without Hladini, Krishna would be existence without sweetness, power without joy. Just as Shiva without Shakti is shava, a corpse, Krishna without Radha is incomplete. That is why we always say Radha-Krishna, never Krishna-Radha. Her name comes first because bliss comes before the possessor of bliss can be known.
In esoteric reading, Yogamaya herself is an expansion of Radha. Mahamaya then flows from Yogamaya. The two Devis are not rivals. They are one current, inward as love, outward as protection.
Krishna, the Worshipper of Devi
This is why the Shakta Puranas are bold: they show Krishna as Gopala Sundari, the most beautiful form of Devi herself, and as her devotee. He is also called the first to worship Durga in her full form.
In the Mahabharata, Krishna asks Arjuna to pray to Durga before the war. In Vrindavan, the gopis worship Katyayani, a form of Mahamaya, to attain Krishna, and Krishna honors their vow.
Vaishnavas will say Devi is his devotee. Shaktas will say he is hers. Tantra smiles and says: Shaktiman and Shakti worship each other to teach the world that power and the holder of power are one.
To fear Mahamaya as mere illusion, or to sentimentalize Radha as mere romance, is to miss the architecture of Krishna’s divinity. One is the veil that guards his play. The other is the bliss that gives his play meaning.
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