Texts 27-28
atha tatra kuru-śreṣṭha
devakī sarva-devatā
śrutvānītaṁ guroḥ putram
ātmajābhyāṁ su-vismitā
kṛṣṇa-rāmau samāśrāvya
putrān kaṁsa-vihiṁsitān
smarantī kṛpaṇaṁ prāha
vaiklavyād aśru-locanā
atha — then; tatra — at that place; kuru-śreṣṭha — O best of the Kurus; devakī — Mother Devakī; sarva — of everyone; devatā — the supremely worshipable goddess; śrutvā — having heard; nītam — brought back; guroḥ — of Their spiritual master; putram — the son; ātmajābhyām — by her two sons; su — very much; vismitā — amazed; kṛṣṇa-rāmau — Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma; samāśrāvya — clearly addressing; putrān — her sons; kaṁsa-vihiṁsitān — murdered by Kaṁsa; smarantī — remembering; kṛpaṇam — pitifully; prāha — she spoke; vaiklavyāt — due to her distraught condition; aśru — (filled with) tears; locanā — her eyes.
At that time, O best of the Kurus, the universally worshiped Devakī took the opportunity to address her two sons, Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma. Previously she had heard with astonishment that They had brought Their spiritual master’s son back from death. Now, thinking of her own sons who had been murdered by Kaṁsa, she felt great sorrow, and thus with tear-filled eyes she beseeched Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma.
Vasudeva’s love for Kṛṣṇa had been disturbed because his awareness of Kṛṣṇa’s opulences conflicted with seeing Him as his son. In a different way, Devakī’s love was somewhat distracted by her lamentation for her dead sons. So Kṛṣṇa arranged to relieve her of the mistaken idea that anyone else but Him was actually her son. Since Devakī is known to be worshiped by all great souls, her show of maternal affection must actually have been an effect of the Lord’s Yoga-māyā, who increases the pleasure of His pastimes. Thus in text 54 Devakī will be described as mohitā māyayā viṣṇoḥ, “bewildered by the internal energy of Lord Viṣṇu.”