The sages of Daṇḍakāraṇya were not alone in their desire to meet and serve the Lord of Sweetness. The personified śāstras prayed to Bhagavān Śrī Kṛṣṇa to be able to serve Him and have a relationship with Him in the forms and with the moods of the gopīs. Kṛṣṇa granted their boon and the śāstras became upaniśad-cārī- and śruti-cārī-gopīs in kṛṣṇa-līlā at the end of Dvāpara-yuga. These sādhana- siddha gopīs joined the gopīs who were previously the ṛṣis of Daṇḍakāraṇya.
All these gopīs were extremely eager to be accepted by Kṛṣṇa as His dearmost beloved. And they were also afraid. Why? They saw that there were millions of gopīs and yet Kṛṣṇa was alone. How could He satisfy the desire of them all? He would accept one, they thought, but could not accept them all. And also they were worried that when they matured, their parents would marry them to boys outside of Vraja. They thought, “We have done so many austerities to have this opportunity to be with Kṛṣṇa, but now, because of our beautiful bodies, everyone will want to enjoy us when we are grown and we will be kept apart from Kṛṣṇa.” Considering their future to be desolate, the gopīs wept bitterly.
From the young age of three, the gopīs’ desire to meet Kṛṣṇa and be solely dedicated to Him increased more and more. They thought, “How can we cross the māyā of family attachment? Our parents will not allow us to freely meet with Kṛṣṇa, so how will they become blind to us?” With these thoughts, the gopīs would come to the Yamunā. Knowing their hearts and wishing to fulfill their desire, Kṛṣṇa sent Bhagavatī Paurṇamāsī to initiate the sādhana-siddha gopīs into the performance of Kātyāyanī-vrata. When she came before the gopīs, she taught them this special process and gave them a mantra to chant:
kātyāyani mahā-māye mahā-yoginy adhīśvari nanda-gopa-sutaṁ devi patiṁ me kuru te namaḥ
This mantra has three parts. We first pray to Mahāmāyā, the external energy. She is the shadow of the internal energy, or Yogamāyā. Mahāmāyā bewilders everyone. She builds the relationships between the conditioned souls, but she can also cut these same relationships. If Mahāmāyā cuts off the relationship and attachment you have for someone, then all your attraction to that person will be finished. Thus, we pray to Mahāmāyā Kātyāyanī, to free us from our material relationships and attachment—to cut them off and free us to serve Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. She closes the eyes of our material friends and relatives, making them blind to us, so they will not disturb us and let us be. Therefore, we first pray to Mahāmāyā Kātyāyanī. Next, we pray to Mahā-yoginī, or Yogamāyā Bhagavatī Paurṇamāsī. She establishes our relationship with the nitya-siddha Vraja-devīs. She helps us achieve svarūpa-siddhī and connects us to the eternal pastimes of Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. When a new bhakta joins the temple, how can he develop good relationships with the advanced devotees? He doesn’t know the process. When he first comes to the temple, he is still bound by his mundane nature. He has left his worldly attachments and relationships behind, but still has no idea of how to approach and develop new relationships with the mahā-bhāgavata Vaiṣṇavas. It is Paurṇamāsī Yogamāyā who establishes these. We therefore pray to Mahā-yoginī Paurṇamāsī, “Please give us a strong relationship with Śrī Guru, the Vaiṣṇavas, and Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa.” Without this connection to the Vaiṣṇavas, you cannot develop your relationship with Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s eternal associates, and without that, it is impossible to enter into kṛṣṇa-līlā. We thus pray to Mahā-yoginī Bhagavatī Paurṇamāsī, but who does she herself follow? Who is her adhīśvarī (worshipful goddess)?makheśvari kriyeśvari svadheśvari sureśvari tri-veda-bhāratīśvari pramāṇa-śāsaneśvari rameśvari kṣameśvari pramoda-kānaneśvari vrajeśvari vrajādhipe śrī-rādhike namo ‘stu te
Ūrdhvāmnaya-tantra
Śrīmatī Rādhārānī is the supreme Īśvarī of all iśvarīs. The Guru-varga pray to Her with a mood of loving possesiveness (mamatā) saying, “Madeśvari, Prāṇeśvarī. She is not just the Īśvarī of the material and spiritual worlds, She is the Īśvarī of my very life, my praṇa.” As such, the adhīśvarī indicated in the verse - kātyāyani mahā-māye (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.22.4) is also Śrīmatī Rādhikā. Relationship with Śrīmatī Rādhārānī means to accept Her shelter, to always serve Her, and follow in Her footsteps. Adhīśvarī Śrīmatī Rādhārānī has the power to bestow relationship with Nandagopa-sūta, Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Only svarūpa-śakti can give this opportunity to serve Nanda-sūta. If She asks Him on our behalf, then He will readily accept us as His own. And if Nandagopa-sūta accepts us as His dear associates, then we will have no more problems in life. Therefore Bhagavatī Paurṇamāsī gives this mantra. Hari-katha spoken by Sripada Premananda Prabhu; rendition by Rasik Mohan Das This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.