Verse 1.17.9-10

Bengali text, Devanagari and Unicode transliteration of verse 1.17.9-10:

চিত্তে ইচ্ছা হৈল আত্ম-প্রকাশ করিতে ভাবিলেন—“আগে আসি’ গিযা গযা হৈতে” ইচ্ছা-ময শ্রী-গৌরসুন্দর ভগবান্ গযা-ভূমি দেখিতে হৈল ইচ্ছা তা’ন ॥ ৯-১০ ॥

चित्ते इच्छा हैल आत्म-प्रकाश करिते भाविलेन—“आगे आसि’ गिया गया हैते” इच्छा-मय श्री-गौरसुन्दर भगवान् गया-भूमि देखिते हैल इच्छा ता’न ॥ ९-१० ॥

citte icchā haila ātma-prakāśa karite bhāvilena—“āge āsi’ giyā gayā haite” icchā-maya śrī-gaurasundara bhagavān gayā-bhūmi dekhite haila icchā tā’na || 9-10 ||

citte iccha haila atma-prakasa karite bhavilena—“age asi’ giya gaya haite” iccha-maya sri-gaurasundara bhagavan gaya-bhumi dekhite haila iccha ta’na (9-10)

English translation:

(9-10) The Lord thus desired to manifest Himself, but He thought He should first visit Gayā. The supremely independent Lord Gaurasundara desired to see the holy place of Gayā.

Commentary: Gauḍīya-bhāṣya by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura:

The purport of the Lord’s visit to Gayā is as follows: Śrī Gaurasundara desired to visit Gayā in order to personally enact the pastime of accepting the dress of a devotee prior to exhibiting His opulence of being the only shelter of His devotees. One time the city of Gayā was greatly disturbed by the Buddhists. The Buddhists started a powerful movement there for the purpose of destroying karma-kāṇḍa. In order to deliver those who follow Vedic principles from the attack of the Buddhist revolutionaries, Gadādhara Viṣṇu placed His lotus feet on the head of Gayāsura. The fruitive workers were engaged in torturing Yajñeśvara Viṣṇu in various ways; that is why the Lord manifested His incarnation of Buddha and exhibited the misuse of karma-kāṇḍa before the eyes of the public, thus refuting its false misconceptions. Later on, the so-called followers of Buddha forgot their constitutional duties of devotional service to Viṣṇu

and accepted Buddha as separate from Viṣṇu, thereby increasing the darkness of godless philosophy that is opposed to the Vedas. Although the lotus feet of Viṣṇu were placed on the head of the Buddhist ācārya, who was polluted with misconceptions, aversion to pure devotional service was found in the consideration process of those who rejected fruitive activities. Various desires for enjoying the imaginary fruits of material enjoyment replaced unalloyed devotional service to Viṣṇu in various smṛtis. Gaurasundara enacted the pastime of visiting Gayā in order to cheat and bewilder ordinary mundane people who are attached to fruitive activities and ignorant of the purport of the Vedas. Since the philosophy of Cārvāka was very prominent at that time, faith in the concept of reincarnation was totally lost. Although the concept of reincarnation was accepted by the Buddhists, the transcendental variegated pastimes of the Supreme Lord, who is full in six opulences, did not find a place in their understanding. Subduing such Buddhist philosophy, which is opposed to the Vedas, Lord Gadādhara Viṣṇu established at Gayā His supreme lotus feet, which are full of transcendental variegatedness. According to the mantra from Ṛg Veda: tredhā nidadhe padam—“I placed three steps,” Śrī Vāmanadeva is the predominating Deity of Gayā-dhāma. By worshiping these lotus feet, which are the source of transcendental pastimes, the impersonal conception of the Lord is defeated.