Verse 3.2.399

Bengali text, Devanagari and Unicode transliteration of verse 3.2.399:

আপনে ভুবনেশ্বর গিযা গৌরচন্দ্র শিব-পূজা করিলেন লৈ ভক্ত-বৃন্দ ॥ ৩৯৯ ॥

आपने भुवनेश्वर गिया गौरचन्द्र शिव-पूजा करिलेन लै भक्त-वृन्द ॥ ३९९ ॥

āpane bhuvaneśvara giyā gauracandra śiva-pūjā karilena lai bhakta-vṛnda || 399 ||

apane bhuvanesvara giya gauracandra siva-puja karilena lai bhakta-vrnda (399)

English translation:

(399) Gauracandra personally visited Bhuvaneśvara with His devotees and worshiped Śiva.

Commentary: Gauḍīya-bhāṣya by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura:

In his book Saṅkalpa-kalpa-druma, Śrī Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura has written as follows:

vṛndāvanāvani-pate jaya soma-soma- maule sanandana-sanātana-nāradeḍya

gopīśvara vraja-vilāsi-yugāṅghri-padme prītiṃ prayaccha nitarāṃ nirupadhikāṃ me

“O protector of Vṛndāvana, all glories to you! O husband of Pārvatī, O you whose head is decorated with the moon and who is worshiped by sages like Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanātana, and Nārada! O Gopīśvara, I pray that you bestow upon me uninterrupted, unalloyed love for the lotus feet of the divine couple, who enjoy pastimes in Vraja.”

Ignorant people who do not understand either Mahādeva’s glorious service to Kṛṣṇa or the actual purport of some Purāṇic incidents think that

Śiva is worshiped as the supreme controller by viṣṇu-tattvas like Rāma and lakṣmīs like Sītā, and therefore Rudra is certainly the independent Supreme Lord and Lord Viṣṇu is subordinate to the Supreme Lord Rudra. Some people consider that Viṣṇu is equal to Rudra or that Viṣṇu is another name of Rudra, and they thus try to synthesize without authority. But all Vedic literatures have refuted their philosophy as follows:

yas tu nārāyaṇaṃ devaṃ brahma-rudrādi-daivataiḥ samatvenaiva vīkṣeta

sa pāṣaṇḍī bhaved dhruvam

“A person who considers demigods like Brahmā and Śiva to be on an equal level with Nārāyaṇa is to be considered an offender, or pāṣaṇḍī.” In the Mahābhārata narration regarding Upamanyu it is said that Śrī Kṛṣṇa performed austerities to please Rudra for the sake of Jāmbavatī’s

son and that all the demigods and Viṣṇu emanated from Rudra. But where is the justification for this conclusion?

The understanding of those who conclude in this way without realizing the actual purport of the scriptures is extremely crude. The reason for this is that the scriptures describe that when Rudra was fighting on behalf of King Bāṇa, he was defeated by Viṣṇu and he then glorified Viṣṇu as the original Personality of Godhead. He was also bewildered by Mohinī, saved from the hands of Vṛkāsura, and delivered from the sin of killing a brāhmaṇa. The reason why Lord Viṣṇu sometimes displays the pastime of worshiping Rudra is described in the scriptures as follows:

In the Siddhānta-ratna, Third Pāda, texts 22, 23, 26, 27 it is stated: “By displaying the pastime of worshiping His own form as Rudra, Lord Viṣṇu taught the worship of Rudra not to His own sincere devotees but to the insincere living entities who desire religiosity, economic development, sense gratification, and liberation. This fact has been confirmed by the Lord Himself when He spoke in the Nārāyaṇīya to Arjuna as follows: `O Arjuna, I am the soul of the universe. My worship of Rudra is worship of

My own Self. Whatever I do, common people follow. Examples set by Me should be followed. That is why I worship Rudra. Viṣṇu does not offer obeisances to any demigod. I worship Rudra, considering him to be My own Self. I am the indwelling Supersoul of the entire universe. I worship My own partial expansion, Rudra, who is nondifferent from Me as molten iron is nondifferent from fire. I have set the standard that the demigods headed by Rudra should be worshiped. If I did not set the example of worshiping Rudra, then people would not follow that standard. Therefore I teach the worship of My servants through My personal behavior. There is no one greater than or equal to Me. Therefore, since I am the greatest, I do not worship anyone. But since Rudra is My partial expansion I display the example of worshiping Rudra and other demigods to teach ordinary people.’ In this connection Brahmā told Rudra that Viṣṇu alone is the Supersoul of everyone including Brahmā and Rudra. He said, `Lord Viṣṇu is the Supersoul of you, me, and all other embodied living entities. No one can restrict Him within the confines of their mundane knowledge.’

“If simply because Śrī Rāmacandra displayed the pastime of worshiping Lord Śiva to teach the worship of that great Vaiṣṇava, Śiva should be considered the Supreme Lord and Rāmacandra should be considered subordinate, then since Śrī Rāmacandra worshiped the ocean, the ocean should also be considered the Supreme Lord. It should be understood that whenever the associates of the Supreme Lord have enacted the pastime of worshiping demigods, their purpose was to teach the worship of the demigods, who are subordinate to Viṣṇu. It is the pastime of the Lord’s associates to teach, `all demigods are subordinate to Viṣṇu,’ yet such worship should never be accepted as the ultimate conclusion. Lord Viṣṇu is certainly the controller of everyone. His activity of maintaining the universe, like Brahmā’s activity of creation and Rudra’s activity of annihilation, and His interaction with the demigods is just like a king’s interaction with thieves. Actually Brahmā and Rudra create and annihilate only after being empowered by Viṣṇu. Therefore Lord Viṣṇu is

certainly eternally worshipable to all the demigods headed by Brahmā and Rudra.”

It further stated in the Siddhānta-ratna, Third Pāda, texts 13-14: “In the Skanda Purāṇa it is stated that Lord Viṣṇu kept some names like Nārāyaṇa for Himself, and He gave some names like Brahmā and Rudra to the demigods. As a king gives villages other than his own capitol to his ministers and servants for their residence, the supremely independent Personality of Godhead Viṣṇu also gives names other than a few special ones to the demigods for their use.

“Rudra is known for deriding the desire for liberation and for having a fierce form. Therefore it is stated in the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam (1.2.26):

mumukṣavo ghora-rūpān hitvā bhūta-patīn atha nārāyaṇa-kalāḥśāntā bhajanti hy anasūyavaḥ

`Those who are serious about liberation are certainly nonenvious, and they respect all. Yet they reject the horrible and ghastly forms of the demigods and worship only the all-blissful forms of Lord Viṣṇu and His plenary portions.’”

It has already been shown by quoting Vyāsadeva’s words and it has been proved by quoting the Purāṇic incident mentioned in Śrī Caitanya- bhāgavata that Śrī Bhuvaneśvara should not be seen as a fierce form of Rudra or as an ordinary liṅga. In the consideration of pure Vaiṣṇavas, Śrī Bhuvaneśvara is most dear to Kṛṣṇa and is therefore nondifferent from Kṛṣṇa. The Śrī Rūpānuga Vaiṣṇavas consider Śrī Bhuvaneśvara in the form of Śrī Gopālinī-śakti and pray to him for the service of the divine young couple, Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Govinda.