Verse 3.2.307

Bengali text, Devanagari and Unicode transliteration of verse 3.2.307:

তবে প্রভু আইলেন শ্রী-ভুবনেশ্বর গুপ্ত-কাশী-বাস যথা করেন শঙ্কর ॥ ৩০৭ ॥

तबे प्रभु आइलेन श्री-भुवनेश्वर गुप्त-काशी-वास यथा करेन शङ्कर ॥ ३०७ ॥

tabe prabhu āilena śrī-bhuvaneśvara gupta-kāśī-vāsa yathā karena śaṅkara || 307 ||

tabe prabhu ailena sri-bhuvanesvara gupta-kasi-vasa yatha karena sankara (307)

English translation:

(307) Thereafter the Lord went to Śrī Bhuvaneśvara, known also as Gupta- kāśī, where Lord Śaṅkara resides.

Commentary: Gauḍīya-bhāṣya by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura:

A description of the holy place Śrī Bhuvaneśvara is found in various literatures like Svarṇādri-mahodaya, Ekāmra Purāṇa, Skanda Purāṇa, and other Sanskrit Purāṇas. In those literatures this place is addressed by various names like Bhuvaneśvara, Ekāmraka-kṣetra, Hemācala, Svarṇādri-kṣetra.

Being requested by some sages, Vyāsa Bhagavān revealed the glories of the rarely attained Ekāmraka-kṣetra. This place has been known as Ekāmraka-kṣetra because long ago there was a huge mango tree there.

There are ten million Śiva-liṅgas and eight tīrthas at this place. This place is superior to Vārāṇasī and is more dear to Śambhu, the best of the Vaiṣṇavas.

In Orissa, on the shore of the southern ocean, there is a river named

Gandhavatī that flows east. This river is nondifferent from the Ganges. The transcendental abode named Ekāmraka-tīrtha is situated on the bank of this most sacred river. This place is more pleasing than Kailāsa.

The length and breadth of this place are three yojanas (twenty-four miles). Eight miles of this place is worshipable to the demigods, and two miles of this place was covered by the shade of that mango tree. Since time immemorial at this place pious persons have taken bath, chanted mantras, performed sacrifices, offered oblations, performed abhiṣeka, offered worship, offered prayers, accepted prasāda garlands, heard the Purāṇas, served the lotus feet of the Lord’s devotees, and executed the nine forms of devotional service.

In the Svarṇādri-mahodaya it is stated that Lord Puruṣottama is the maintainer of this place. The eternal Supreme Brahman is eternally present at this place in the form of the liṅga “Tribhuvaneśvara.” According to the statement, liṅgyate jñāyate yasmāt, the Supreme Brahman resides in the state of Orissa in the form of a liṅga within a sacred gold mountain surrounded by the demigods. Since Nārāyaṇa personally protects this place with a cakra and club in His hands, He is the kṣetra-pāla, or protector of this place.

It is further stated in the Svarṇādri-mahodaya that Lord Śrī Ananta Vāsudeva personally protects this place with a cakra and a club in His hands. Pious activities performed without first taking darśana of Śrī Ananta Vāsudeva yield no results. Only those who have unflinching devotion for Lord Śrī Ananta Vāsudeva are able to attain the mercy of Śrī Bhuvaneśvara, who is very dear to Ananta Vāsudeva.

When Bhuvaneśvarī Bhagavatī heard from the mouth of Śambhu the glories of Ekāmraka-tīrtha, which is superior to Vārāṇasī, she expressed a desire to visit that place. Śambhu then told Bhuvaneśvarī, “You first go there alone, and I will meet you there later.” Having received her husband’s permission, she rode on her lion carrier and soon arrived at Svarṇādri. When she arrived there, she saw that it was indeed more pleasing than Kailāsa. She also saw a great liṅga emanating white and

black effulgence. Bhuvaneśvarī began to worship that great liṅga with all ingredients. One day after Bhuvaneśvarī had gone to another forest to pick flowers, she returned and saw one thousand cows as white as jasmine flowers come out of a lake and begin to lavishly bathe that great liṅga with milk. After circumambulating the liṅga, they returned to where they had come from. When she saw the same incident on another occasion, she took the form of a cowherd girl and began to follow those cows. She passed fifteen years in this way.

While wandering in that forest one day, two young demon brothers named Kṛtti and Vāsa became captivated by the unprecedented beauty of that cowherd girl and expressed to her their self-destructive, wicked intentions.

Satī immediately disappeared from the sight of the two demons and remembered the lotus feet of Śambhu. As soon as Bhagavatī remembered Mahādeva, he immediately took the form of a cowherd boy and appeared before the cowherd-girl form of Satī. Satī, in the form of a cowherd girl, offered obeisances to Śambhu, who had taken the form of a cowherd boy. Mahādeva said, “O Satī, I understand why you remembered me. There is no need to feel anxiety. By the will of the Supreme Lord these two demons have expressed wicked intentions to you to invite their own ruination. Let me explain their history to you in detail. There was once a king named Drumila who performed many sacrifices and thereby pleased the demigods. The demigods gave him the benediction that he would have two sons named Kṛtti and Vāsa, who would not be killed by any weapons. So now, by the will of the Supreme Lord, you will have to kill those two sinful demons.”

Being ordered by her husband, Satī began to wander about within the forest in her form as a cowherd girl and within a short time she met those two demons. To deceive them, Satī said to the two demon brothers, “I can fulfill your desires, but I have a condition. I will become the wife of he who can carry me on his shoulder.”

On hearing Satī’s statement, the two intoxicated brothers began to quarrel

between themselves. Then Satī in her form as a cowherd girl placed her two feet on the shoulders of the two brothers and assumed the form of Viśvambharī. Who has the power to carry the heavy burden of Viśvambharī? By the weight of Satī, the two demons were crushed and destroyed. This Purāṇic incident concludes by stating that since that time Satī and Śambhu, the husband of Satī, left their golden temple in Kāśī and have been living in this Ekāmraka forest.