In the first three chapters of the Srimad Bhagavatam, the cause of the Lord's incarnation, the arrangements for His incarnation, and the Lord's acceptance of a human form were explained. The First chapter explains that the Lord's reason for coming to this world was His devotee's suffering. In the second chapter, the Lord agrees to accept the human form. In the third chapter, the Lord's appearance is explained, Now, in this fourth chapter, the function and activities of Maya are explained. Maya, who acts as a servant of the Lord by creating the required atmosphere for the Lord's appearance, represents the external potency of the Lord. Unless Maya had arranged the anxious situation that Devaki and Vasudeva were in, the Lord would not have appeared to release them from their shackles, nor would He have remained on earth to reestablish the proper principles of religion. This chapter exlains how Maya forces Kamsa to act villainously and torture saintly people.
The baby which Vasudeva brings back to Mathura is Yogamaya, who appears on earth to assist the Lord in His pastimes. The crying of baby Maya serves two purposes, i.e., one, to let everyone know that she has taken birth, and the other, to alert Kamsa to come kill her. These two acts by Maya bring happiness to Kamsa and unhappiness to Vasudeva. The crying gladdens Kamsa since it lets him know that the eighth child of Devaki, prophesied to kill him, has been born. He can now kill it, thereby freeing himself from great anxiety. On the other hand, Yogamaya brings great unhappiness to Vasudeva, since he knows that the crying will alert Kamsa to come and kill yet another of his children. Typically, devotees of the Lord give pleasure to other devotees, serve the Lord, and avoid people of demoniac nature. Although it may not seem that way here, Mayadevi's nature as a devotee holds true in this case as well. Vasudeva and Devaki had prayed for the great honor of having the Lord as their son, and these are the stepping stones Mayadevi lays down for the Lord to make His appearance. She knows that unless irreligious practices increase, the Lord will not take an interest in reestablishing true religion.
The main function of the Lord's appearance in the world is to remove ignorance and allow devotees the freedom to worship openly. As a sign of the Lord's appearance in the jailhouse, the Lord's brilliant radiance dissipated all darkness and the prison gates opened automatically. But the function of the same Maya in this world is quite the opposite. Her function is to keep everyone in ignorance and to force them to act materially. Therefore, when Vasudeva brought Maya to the jailhouse, her influence closed the gates and re-shackled Vasudeva as before.
Maya's act of closing the gates and re-shackling Vasudeva are a service of hers to assist in the Lord's mission. If the gates were not closed as before, the guards might have suspected an attempted escape by Vasudeva while they slept. To avoid any possible doubt in anyone's mind, Maya put everything as it had previously been. The natural action of a child is to cry just after birth, therefore Maya cried after everything was in order, which alerted the guards. This seemingly deceitful act of Maya was to let the Lord's mission go smoothly. She always helps the Lord as His instrument. One may wonder why, when Maya's functions were mentioned in the previous chapter, so much emphasis is placed on her function now. In the previous chapter, Maya's work was to arrange things for the Lord's appearance, and, in this chapter, she arranges everything so the Lord can perform His transcendental pastimes completely.
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