“If the gopīs were performing Kātyāyanī-pūjā [worship of mahāmāyā], then why did Śrī Kṛṣṇa have to come personally to give the benediction?
The reason is that Kṛṣṇa and His svarūpa-śakti Yogamāyā (Kātyāyanī) are non-different: śakti-śaktimator-abedhaḥ. Therefore, in this case, Kātyāyanī pūjā is the same as the pūjā of Śrī Kṛṣṇa.” (Śrīla Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī - His Life and Precepts)
Param-pūjyapāda Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Svāmī Mahārāja explains this siddhānta in his purport to Caitanya Caritāmrṭa, Madhya-līlā (8.90):
“Following the example of the gopīs, the devotees sometimes worship the goddess Kātyāyanī, but they understand that Kātyāyanī is an incarnation of Yogamāyā.”
Moreover, Jagad-guru Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Prabhupāda reveals that:
“By respecting Kṛṣṇa’s energies that are present within the fourteen worlds and His transcendental energies that are described in the Vedas, one’s devotion to Kṛṣṇa becomes fixed. Rather than considering the universal energies of Kṛṣṇa as mundane, one should consider them transcendental and pray to them for devotional service to Kṛṣṇa. Rather than seeing the energies of Kṛṣṇa mentioned in the Vedas as mundane, if one respects them as maidservants of the gopīs, then one’s devotion to Kṛṣṇa becomes strengthened.” (Caitanya Bhāgavata, Gauḍīya Bhaṣya, Madhya-khaṇḍa, 18.149)
Excerpted from the up and coming Bhakta Bandhav Publication "Śrī Kātyāyanī-vrata"
[CC-by-NDNC Bhakta Bandhav]