Rajashekhara Dasa
From the book “Chaurasi-kosa Vraja Mandala Parikrama”:
Yashoda Bhavana was mother Yashoda’s private quarters and would have been one of the apartments in King Nanda’s palatial complex. This is also the place where Balarama was born from the womb of mother Rohini, one year and eight days before Krishna took birth. Actually, Balarama had originally appeared in the womb of Devaki as her seventh son, after the first six had been slain by Kamsa. By the will of providence, Balarama was transferred by yogamaya to the womb of Rohini, the second wife of Vasudeva, who lived in Nanda’s house at Gokula along with her friend Yashoda. King Kamsa believed that the seventh pregnancy of Devaki had ended in a miscarriage, however in the safe environs of Gokula, Balarama took birth from the womb of Rohini. There is a small temple within Yashoda Bhavan containing the Deities of Balarama’s mother and father, Vasudeva and Rohini, along with their baby Balarama.
Most authorities believe that Yogamaya Devi, also known by the name Ekanamsa devi, was also born here at Yasoda Bhavan from the womb of Yasoda Mayi, and this is the actual place where Vasudeva brought Krishna and exchanged Him for Yogamaya. The evidence being that a temple of Yogamaya was also established here to commemorate her birth. It is also said that Krishna’s umbilical cord was also cut here, thus giving further credence to it being the private rooms where the ladies of Nanda’s house, like Rohini and Yashoda, gave birth to their children. Mother Yashoda also performed shasti-puja here on the sixth day after delivery for the well-being of her new-born son.
Another secret revealed by Shrila Jiva Goswami and supported by other Vaishnava acharyas, is that Krishna actually appeared simultaneously as the son of Devaki in Kamsa’s jail in Mathura, and also from the womb of Yashoda Mayi in Gokula. It is said that Krishna appeared in His Narayana feature with four-arms in Mathura, but in Gokula He appeared in His original twoarmed form of Govinda, along with His twin sister Ekanamsa (Yogamaya Devi), but remained unseen being covered by the mystical yogamaya potency. When Vasudeva brought baby Krishna to Gokula, the four-armed Vishnu feature, by the arrangement of yogamaya merged with Krishna’s original two-armed form of Govinda. Vasudeva then removed Krishna’s twin sister Ekanamsa (Yogamaya Devi) and brought her back to the prison cell in Mathura. When Kamsa arrived to kill the new-born child, Ekanamsa (Yogamaya Devi) slipped from his grip and rising into the sky, assumed her eight-armed form of Durga Devi, and after chastising Kamsa with strong words, immediately disappeared from sight. The Vishnu form that merged into Krishna’s swayam-rupa form of Govinda is the form that protects Krishna and suddenly manifests when Krishna has to kill the demons. This is because Krishna, in His original swayam-rupa form of Govinda, the friend of the cows, does not engage in killing any demons nor does He carry any weapons, but instead carries only a flute and a buffalo horn.
