Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 10.2.15

garbhe praṇīte devakyā

rohiṇīḿ yoga-nidrayā

aho visraḿsito garbha

iti paurā vicukruśuḥ

SYNONYMS

garbhe — when the embryo; praṇīte — was carried from the womb; devakyāḥ — of Devakī; rohiṇīm — to the womb of Rohiṇī; yoga-nidrayā — by the spiritual energy called Yogamāyā; aho — alas; visraḿsitaḥ — is lost; garbhaḥ — the embryo; iti — thus; paurāḥ — all the inhabitants of the house; vicukruśuḥ — lamented.

TRANSLATION

When the child of Devakī was attracted and transferred into the womb of Rohiṇī by Yogamāyā, Devakī seemed to have a miscarriage. Thus all the inhabitants of the palace loudly lamented, "Alas, Devakī has lost her child!"

PURPORT

"All the inhabitants of the palace" includes Kaḿsa. When everyone lamented, Kaḿsa joined in compassion, thinking that perhaps because of drugs or some other external means, Devakī had undergone this abortion. The real story of what happened after Yogamāyā attracted the child of Devakī into the womb of Rohiṇī in the seventh month of Rohiṇī's pregnancy is described as follows in the Hari-vaḿśa. At midnight, while Rohiṇī was deeply sleeping, she experienced, as if in a dream, that she had undergone a miscarriage. After some time, when she awoke, she saw that this had indeed happened, and she was in great anxiety. But Yogamāyā then informed her, "O auspicious lady, your child is now being replaced. I am attracting a child from the womb of Devakī, and therefore your child will be known as Sańkarṣaṇa."

The word yoga-nidrā is significant. When one is spiritually reconnected through self-realization, one regards his material life as having been like a dream. As stated in Bhagavad-gītā (2.69):

yā niśā sarva-bhūtānāḿ

tasyāḿ jāgarti saḿyamī

yasyāḿ jāgrati bhūtāni

sā niśā paśyato muneḥ

"What is night for all beings is the time of awakening for the self-controlled; and the time of awakening for all beings is night for the introspective sage." The stage of self-realization is called yoga-nidrā. All material activities appear to be a dream when one is spiritually awakened. Thus yoga-nidrā may be explained to be Yogamāyā.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness
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