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Vyasa’s telling now turned toward the one world that rests at the summit of every other. He told King Janamejaya that he wished to show him the abode from which the whole of creation is set in motion. Above even Brahmaloka lies the Sarvaloka of which the sages speak, and that is Manidvipa, where the Devi dwells forever. At the dawn of creation the supreme Amba, whose very form is Mulaprakriti, the root of all nature, shaped this island by her own will to be her home. It stands greater and finer than Kailasa, than Vaikuntha, than Goloka; nowhere in the three worlds is there a place to match its beauty. It is the canopy raised over the three worlds, and the sheltering shade of all the countless brahmandas as well.
The nectar ocean and the first two ramparts
An unfathomable ocean of nectar heaves around Manidvipa, its shallows lined with clean, jewel-bright sand and alive with fish and conches. The wind strikes the water and lifts a hundred waves at a time, scattering cool droplets on every side, and along the shore stand trees grown of gems. Beyond that sea of nectar rises the first rampart, wrought of iron, seven yojanas broad and high enough to brush the sky. It has four gates and gatekeepers in their hundreds; here the retinues and the mounts of the gods who come for the Devi’s darshan halt and rest. The rumble of their sky-chariots and the neighing of their horses leave the very directions half-deafened.
Past it stands the second rampart, cast of bronze, circular in shape and a hundred times brighter than the first. Around it, trees of every kind hang always heavy with flowers and fruit, groves of tulsi and mallika breathe out their fragrance, and the whole enclosure hums with the call of the cuckoo and the drone of bees.
The gardens of the six seasons
Between the bronze rampart and the copper one lies the Kalpavatika, the garden of the wish-granting trees, and its lord is Vasanta, the spring; Madhushri and Madhavshri are his two beloved wives. The copper rampart itself is square, and seven yojanas high. Between copper and lead lies the Santanavatika, where Grishma, the summer, holds court with Shukrashri and Shuchishri. Between lead and brass stands the garden of harichandana, and its lord is the rainy season: he rides upon a cloud, with lightning for his eyes and the clouds themselves for his armor, thunder for his voice and the rainbow strung as his bow, and he pours down rain while twelve shaktis, Nabhahshri and the rest, keep to his side. Between brass and the five-metal wall lies the Mandaravatika, where Sharad, the autumn, dwells with Ishulakshmi and Urjalakshmi; between the five-metal wall and silver spreads the Parijata forest, where Hemanta stays with Sahashri and Sahasyashri; and between silver and gold sits the Kadambavati, where Shishira reigns with Tapahshri and Tapasyashri, and a thousand streams of kadamba-nectar run without pause.
The golden rampart is built of molten, glowing gold, and beyond it rises the rampart of pushparaga, the topaz-stone, ruddy as kumkum; there the very ground, the trees, and even the water are made of pushparaga. From here inward, each rampart that follows shines a hundred thousand times brighter than the one before it.
The guardians of the eight directions
Within this same ring dwell the sovereigns of the eight directions. In the east stands Amaravatipuri, where Indra, mounted on Airavata, shines beside Shachi. In the fire-corner, the southeast, lies Vahnipuri, where Agni presides with Svaha and Svadha. In the south is Yamapuri, where Yama the rod-bearer rules with Chitragupta and his fellows. In the southwestern corner stands the city of the rakshasas, where sword-bearing Nirriti holds command. In the west, Varuna rides a great fish with a noose in his hand, and at his side is Varuni. In the wind-corner, the northwest, Vayu rides a deer and carries his banner. In the north lies the realm of the yakshas, where Kubera reigns with the nine treasures and his yaksha-captains, Manibhadra and the rest. And in the northeastern corner is Rudraloka, where Bhagavan Rudra dwells, garlanded with skulls, wearing serpents for ornaments and a tiger’s hide, encircled by countless Rudras, by crores of Rudranis, and by matrikas such as Bhadrakali; because he is lord of this direction, he is called Ishana.
The inner ramparts of jewels
Beyond the pushparaga wall stands the rampart of padmaraga, the ruby, where the sixty-four arts reside. Each single art has a world of its own, an army of a hundred akshauhinis of its own, and the power in each to lay waste a hundred thousand brahmandas. Beyond it is the rampart of gomeda, where thirty-two great shaktis, each leading ten akshauhinis, their faces terrible as pishachas, keep vigilant watch on every side; let them once grow angry and a brahmanda is undone in an instant, and their defeat is possible nowhere. Then comes the rampart of diamond, where the attendants of Bhagavati Bhuvaneshwari stand holding mirror and chamara, betel and flowers, and messenger-women quick as creepers of lightning, canes in hand, come and go, gathering word of every brahmanda.
In the rampart of vaidurya, the cat’s-eye gem, sit the eight matrikas, each ringed by her own armies: Brahmi, Maheshwari, Kaumari, Vaishnavi, Varahi, Indrani, Chamunda, and the eighth, Mahalakshmi. In the rampart of indranila, the sapphire, blooms a second lotus of sixteen petals, like a Sudarshana, and upon it sit sixteen commander-shaktis, Karali, Vikarali, Uma, and Sarasvati among them, dark as rain-clouds, bearing shield and sword. In the rampart of pearl stands a lotus of eight petals, where eight minister-goddesses, Anangakusuma and the rest, reside, and by their power of knowledge they learn the news of every brahmanda. In the rampart of mahamarakata, the great emerald, stands a yantra of six corners: in the eastern corner, Brahma with Gayatri and all the Vedas and shastras made flesh; in the southwestern corner, Mahavishnu with Savitri; in the wind-corner, Maharudra with Sarasvati; in the fire-corner, Kubera with Mahalakshmi; in Varuna’s corner, Kamadeva with Rati; and in the northeastern corner, Vighnesha Ganesha with Pushti. In the rampart of coral dwell the five mistresses of the five elements: Hallekha, Gagana, Rakta, Karalika, and Mahochchhushma. And in the last rampart, made of the nine jewels, every avatar of Shridevi, every one of the mahavidyas, and the deities of seven crore mahamantras stand embodied.
The Chintamani mansion and the Devi’s throne
Within all these ramparts stands the great mansion of chintamani, where every last object is fashioned of that wish-granting stone; the thousands of pillars burn with the light of sun and moon and lightning, and their radiance is such that nothing within can be taken in by the eye at all. Inside it are four halls, each of a thousand pillars. In the Shringara-mandapa, amid the assembly of the gods, the goddesses delight Bhagavati Jagadamba with song in a hundred voices; in the Mukti-mandapa she grants her devotees release; in the Jnana-mandapa she gives the teaching of knowledge; and in the Ekanta-mandapa, with her ministers, she takes counsel for the guarding of the world. Around the halls, gardens of saffron, mallika, and kunda are full of musk-deer, and a vast forest of the great lotus, brimming with nectar, stands in beauty.
At the center of the mansion rises a dais of ten steps, formed of the very principle of shakti. Brahma, Vishnu, Rudra, and Ishwara are its four legs, and Sadashiva is the plank laid across them. Upon it sits Bhuvanesha Mahadeva, five-faced and three-eyed, forever seeming a youth of sixteen, radiant as crores of suns and cool as crores of moons, holding in his hands a deer, an axe, the gift of boons, and the sign of fearlessness. He is the half-body of that same Bhagavati who, at the first dawn of creation, parted into two forms for the sake of her play.
On his left sits Shri Bhuvaneshwari, a girdle of the nine jewels at her waist, an earring shaped like the Shrichakra at her ear, her lips like the bimba fruit and her face flawless as the autumn moon. In her four arms shine the boon, the noose, the goad, and the sign of fearlessness; she is the ground of all beauty and is filled through and through with an artless compassion. Lajja, Tushti, Pushti, Kirti, Kanti, Kshama, Daya, Buddhi, Medha, Smriti, and Lakshmi are her handmaidens made flesh, and nine seat-shaktis, Jaya, Vijaya, Ajita, Aparajita, and the rest, serve her without ceasing. On either side of her wait the treasures named Shankha and Padma, and from them run rivers pouring out the nine gems, gold, and the seven metals, rivers that come at last to merge in the ocean of nectar. It is from the nearness of this Bhagavati that Maheshwara holds his lordship over all.
That supreme abode
This Manidvipa hangs in the open sky with nothing to hold it up; at the time of dissolution it draws in upon itself, and at the time of creation it spreads wide, yet it is never truly destroyed. Here run rivers of ghee and milk, of curd and honey; here stand trees that grant whatever the heart desires, and step-wells that give whatever water one asks for. Here there is no disease, no old age, no worry, no spite, no lust or anger. All who dwell here are young, radiant as a thousand suns, and forever absorbed in the worship of Shri Bhuvaneshwari; one has won salokya, another samipya, another sarupya, another sarshti, the four kinds of release. Whoever in any world worships Bhagavati comes at the last to this abode; and whoever gives up his breath in a shrine of the Devi while worshiping her comes here directly. From the contentment of a king to every joy that reaches up to Brahmaloka, all of it is held within the single joy of this one abode. This, said Vyasa, is the highest station of the Mahadevi, set above all the worlds; the mere remembrance of it carries away every sin, and whoever calls it to mind at the hour of death attains this very city beyond all others.
Source: Shrimad Devibhagavata Mahapurana (Gita Press, Gorakhpur)